Sunset In The Sky – 30,000 Feet Above The East Sea – Hue, Vietnam

We’ve been doing quite a bit of flying on this journey – 13 flights so far, with many more to go. You would think that it might become routine after so many times, but each flight is an experience. The nervousness of taking off…thinking, is this one going to crash in the first 30 seconds (everyone thinks that, right)? The excitement of reaching cruising altitude and seeing how tiny the world is below. The anticipation of what lies ahead at the next destination. Then the nervousness of landing…thinking, is this one going to hit the runway and blow a tire (everyone thinks that too, right)?

On our most recent flight from Hue to Hanoi, we witnessed something new. Hue is notorious for cool, cloudy, rainy weather, and it had been delivering on that reputation for most of our time there. Needless to say, we were ready to move on. So ready, we even opted to sit in the airport for 5 hours instead of wander the town in the rain. It was getting dark by the time our flight was scheduled to leave, but fortunately it was just 1 hour of airtime up to Hanoi.

We settled in for takeoff, Kevin dozing off in the window seat, Christine deep in a podcast in the middle seat, trying to avoid conversation with the chatty man in the red hat in the aisle seat. The plane took off without crashing in the first 30 seconds…so far so good. A few minutes in, Christine tapped Kevin on the shoulder and pointed out the window. We had broken through the rain clouds just in time to see the sun setting off in the horizon. In just a split second, the sky changed from dark and cloudy to clear, lit up with the red, orange, and yellow shades on the horizon. The layer of clouds below was perfectly flat and stretched out as far as we could see.

Always pick a window seat – you never know what you’ll see!

…and since you’re reading this, it’s obvious that the landing was a success as well. No tires were blown.