Travel days on the race have quickly become one of my favorite parts. There’s something incredibly fun about the chaos of traveling with 50 people. Plus, my first plane ride was from Atlanta to Guatemala, so wearing giant backpacks on both my back and front and waiting with my giant group of friends is all I’ve ever known.
Traveling from Guatemala to Vietnam was an undertaking to say the least. We spent the morning deep cleaning the base and finishing packing, and even got a surprise visit from the Guatemalan tourism department who gave us gifts (mousepads, a tote bag and some tiny idols). The cooks prepared a special meal for our last night, then we enjoyed cookies and ice cream as a reward for winning a world race social media challenge. At 8:30PM, we loaded the buses and drove the hour drive to the airport. Once we got there, we put our bags in a giant pile while we waited to check in. At this point, it was 11PM and seeing as we ate breakfast at 7, most people were exhausted and took naps against their bags, while a few explored the airport. In typical Kailey fashion, I was extremely energized. I got into some antics that included constructing a fort of people’s big packs, racing through the obstacle course of everyone’s luggage, dancing full out to Christmas music and playing rook. We finally got checked in and went through security. It was only my second time doing it, but thankfully I remembered to take out my airpods out of my pocket right before I walked through the scanner. I did not however, remember to take my phone out of my pocket, which the TSA worker loved, especially since it was 1AM. After grabbing some subway and chilling out near the gate, it was time for our first flight.
We landed in Houston at 5AM for a 12 hour layover. After going through customs, we were allowed to leave the airport, as long as we were back four hours before check in. I found a somewhat random group of my squad mates to venture out with and got ready for our day in Houston. We admired the stunning sunrise as we waited for our uber, only to realize that it had arrived and we were in the wrong spot. We then ran across the airport, down an escalator and through a parking lot to eventually find our ride. We then arrived at IHOP, and had a bit of culture shock to say the least. The place was decked out for Christmas, everyone spoke english, we could understand the menus, and you could flush the toilet paper. After chowing down on some delicious American food, we made the 20 minute trek through the sidewalkless streets of Houston and even jaywalked across eight lanes of traffic to get to Walmart. We picked up some essentials and then made our way to Half Price Books to get new bibles. After that we made a quick stop at the post office, then Ubered back to the airport for check in.
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Once we got back, I grabbed Chick-fil-A, played rook and hung out the Swan kids before we checked in. My daypack was taken by security and I had to wait ten minutes for them to check it. When they finally did, they took a candle I had bought for my friend Sam out. The TSA agent opened the candle, smelled it, then closed the box, put it back in my bag and handed my bag to me. We then had our flight from Houston to LAX, and landed at 7PM. LAX is a massive airport, with some of the fanciest stores I’ve ever seen and some crazy architecture. Two of my friends ran through the airport toward dinner while my friend Nick and I skipped after them (because Nick knew I wouldn’t want to run). I sipped on a peppermint milkshake, explored the airport and got my hair braided while we waited for our flight at 11PM.
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This was our big 13 hour flight from LAX to South Korea, AKA the longest flight of my life. Every flight with AIM I sit next to one of my teammates Skylar, which is always a blast. She’s always willing to answer my plane questions, chat with me and get into shenanigans when needed. The plane gave us headphones, a blanket and pillow, water, and some slippers. I had taken melatonin right before I got on the plane and had only slept maybe three hours between our two shorter flights, so I was out immediately after take off. I slept straight through dinner and the first seven hours of our flight, then woke up in time to wander around the plane with skylar and visit our friends. We ate breakfast, read our bibles, then were ready for another nap. Skylar was bored and wanted to sleep on the floor, so she decided to sleep on the floor in front of our seats, giving me two seats to stretch out on.
We woke up from our 3 hour naps right as we were landing in South Korea at about 5:30AM on December 9th. Because of the time zones, we never existed in December 8th. This airport was crazy big as well and had a variety of stores and a creepy robot that was a giant, extremely realistic human face. I spent this layover exploring the airport, playing on the airport playground and playing cards.
Finally, it was time for our final flight. This time, I was seated alone, but next to a very kind Vietnamese couple who told me all about Vietnam and things to do and places to try. After watching the Notebook and enjoying an airplane meal, we finally landed in Vietnam. The customs lines were crazy, and trying to book an international uber (called grab here) was even crazier. But eventually, after 52 hours of travel, we all made it to our hotel for debrief in one piece.
We spent the next 5 days in Ho Chi Min, reflecting on what the Lord had done in Guatemala. We had time to worship as a squad and incredible teachings, plus time to reflect personally and spend some quality time with the squad and our coaches. It was a really sweet time to have with our squad before we all split for ministry, and was so refreshing to have a moment of reflection before we stepped into the new season of Asia. I was able to visit a zoo, explore a market, celebrate Skylar’s birthday, and have one on ones with some of our coaches and other team leaders. I even got to be part of an amazing adventure day where we visited Vietnam war tunnels, rode in a horse-drawn carriage, went to a fruit tasting, visited a bee farm and rode on boats down the Mekong river!
After an amazing week, it was time to split up into our ministry locations. We had five minutes to put all of our luggage and people onto a bus, which we took for 14 kilometers to the location of our other bus. There were 46 seats and 49 people, so I ended up sitting on the floor with my friends Clayton and Katie for the 15 hour bus ride. After multiple bus breakdown and a night of stuff falling on top of us groundlings the whole night, we arrived in DaNang, a home for the next three weeks. We said goodbye to our squad, then got settled in our hotel for our new chapter.
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I am so in love with Vietnam! I had no idea what to expect from Asia, but I love loved every second of my time so far. I can’t wait to share more stories of what God has done!
