I’m no stranger to long travel days or long flights. I’ve been on flights so long they have to stop and refuel halfway through the journey. I grew up on the 17-hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg to visit family in Zimbabwe. I know long travel days. But this was another beast entirely.
To make a long story short: I left Thailand at 11am, and then two days, eight hours, and a twelve-hour time difference later, I found myself on the other side of the world in the British Virgin Islands.
If you’re interested in what happened during those 68 hours, feel free to continue on.
Jordan and I left our homestay in Krabi probably way too early. We left at 11am for an 8:30pm flight, but in our defense, the airport in Phuket was a three-hour bus ride away, not including the taxi to the bus station and then another taxi from the drop-off point on the side of the highway into the actual airport. Plus, Jordan and I usually subscribe to the idea that it’s much better to sit and wait at the airport (or anywhere else), than to rush around or miss your flight.
Eventually we checked in and made it on our first flight to Doha. Jordan had a brilliant idea which was to immediately switch to New York time, so we wouldn’t be too jetlagged by the time we made it to the other side of the world. So, on our overnight flight, we watched the X-Files for five hours. By the time we landed, it was about 3am in Thailand time, and we had… you guessed it, an eight and a half hour layover.
After being awake for almost 24 hours, Jordan’s plan went into the wind, and we decided we needed to get some rest on this layover, otherwise we were going to go insane. We managed to get some vertical sleep because of our new sleep masks and our level of exhaustion.
After our eight-hour layover, we boarded the long flight: 14 hours to New York City.
On this flight Jordan and I finished the X-Files, which we have literally been watching since the beginning of our relationship. It took us just about 3.5 years to finish the series, and it felt monumental. Like closing a chapter. We’d started watching it in junior year of college, continued through moves and travels and various countries, and now we were finishing it somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. We didn’t linger on this thought for too long our of fear that we’d just immediately fall asleep, so we quickly switched gears and started watching Season 4 of Stranger Things so we’d be ready for the fifth season, which we’re already late on.
It didn’t take too long though for the cabin air and the exhaustion to dry out our eves, so we had to stop that too and get some rest before we landed in New York. Somehow, after dozing in and out for a few hours, we eventually made it to New York.
Eventually, somehow, we made it to New York. And we booked a 17 hour layover here! With our bags checked all the way to the Virgin Islands, we were free to go out and explore the city.
This was actually my first time in New York City, that I can remember anyways. And I hate to say it, but New York is an amazing city. I see why people want to visit and I see why people want to live there. I get it now.
We very briefly hit a short list of highlights for the city. Times Square, which I thought was underwhelming, but we could have been at the wrong street corner. Then walked to the Radio City Music Hall and saw the Rockefeller Christmas tree. We finished off our very brief walking tour at the St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
What made our time in New York even more special was getting to see a friend. Jordan’s old roommate from university, Yates, very kindly let us crash on his couch for the night. Not only that, but he and his girlfriend showed us around East Village where he lives. We went to a Russian mafia-themed bar, visited a shop with vintage photo booths, and ate pizza at a place the Beastie Boys used to go to.
I think one of Jordan and I’s main goal is if we were going to do an obscenely long travel day, it better be like a movie. And if that night wasn’t a movie I don’t know what was.
After a surprisingly good sleep on a futon, Jordan and I were up at 6am for our final stretch of travel. The last thing (and arguably most important?) was to get a bagel to go from a deli before getting on the subway back to JFK. We made it on our flight with barely a minute to spare. We were actually seated across the isle from each other on this flight, so we took a break from Stranger Things and I read like 75% of a YA mystery novel in one sitting and Jordan watched the new Fantastic Four.
Eventually we landed in St Thomas, hopped on a ferry to British Virgin Islands, had cheese and stale baguette for dinner, showered and collapsed into bed.
Life is a movie, and it’s more than worth a few sleepless nights.
Thanks for reading!
xx abby
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VERY happy you made the epic journey Abs.
Loving having to get to enjoy your blogs and beautiful self in person!
I love how you write! It was like all movie scenes in my mind as well! I send my love, Zey 💌