My days in the US are coming to an end. I went over the pictures from the trip and it felt like someone else was on that trip, not me. Did I drive all that distance? Was I in all those places? Flights are a long forgotten hassle. After a relaxed week in San Francisco I was sitting in the cafe, planning a lazy day here. The day started too cold and rainy to do anything and I was sleepy after a not-so-good night’s sleep. The weather forecast continued to promise that the sun would come out, but it continued to be cloudy.
I used the time to continue investigating about Hong Kong. My 14+ hours (!) flight from LAX to HKG goes through the International Date Line so even though my flight leaves March 1st 00:20, it arrives March 2nd 07:30. This leaves me only three days in Hong Kong (the next flight, to Thailand, is on March 5th 14:25.) During these three days I will only get a very short taste of the place, and there’s so much to do and see. Add to that the jet lag I’ll be experiencing and the extreme change in climate – I better have good knowledge of where I want to go and not waste time. It will be a return to the crazy pace of doing things after a very laid back week in San Francisco.
At 1pm the sun suddenly came out. I decided to snap out of my laziness and go jogging. I’m used to working out in the morning before eating but at 1pm and after brunch I got dressed for jogging and immediately felt refreshed and ready. I think Scott Adams’ Footwear Theory of Motivation is correct. I ran 10km in less than an hour at around 170 bpm. The same workout won’t be as hard for me in the gym, so I guess what they say is true: running outdoors is tougher than running indoors. Either that or I completely lost my aerobic fitness in the 4 weeks I didn’t work out. One minute after the workout my heart rate got back to 120 bpm (walking pace) so that’s an indication I’m not back to couch potato yet (short recovery time is one indication of aerobic fitness.)
After that I ate again at the Vietnamese restaurant Golden Flower and following that I completely crashed on my hotel bed for a few hours – I was tired and my leg muscles hurt (I walked a lot yesterday, too.) And suddenly the day was over. I’m currently having my dinner and after that I think I’ll go to sleep. So that’s how it feels like to rest :)
I have a ticket to see an Iranian stand up comedian, Maz Jobrani, for tomorrow. I saw the crowd lining up for today’s show and heard people speak Arabic for the first time since I started this trip, I believe. So it should be interesting tomorrow. Other than that – no special plans. I’ll do some laundry and probably be busy packing for warm weather. I won’t be needing a coat or long sleeve shirts or sweaters until I get to the UK. This is great :)