Well, the title says it all. Back on the ground waiting for my family to return from a dog walk and thought I’d make a quick entry. The view to the right is from the 51st floor of the Island Shangri-La Hotel in Central Hong Kong. My brief stay there only reinforced my view of the city as being my favorite in the Orient. Clean, modern, nice people, and efficient. But boy is it crowded!

Here’s the trip by the numbers:

• 19,434 – Miles Flown (32,276 km)
• 122 – Total Elapsed Hours Door-to-Door
• 52 – In-Transit Hours
• 39 – Actual In-Flight Hours
• 38 – Meeting and Business Event Hours
• 32 – Sleep, Eat, Relax, & Other Hours

The sequence of travel went SFO->Dulles, Dulles->Amsterdam, Amsterdam->Frankfurt (this took 4 travel hours!) Amsterdam->Hong Kong, Hong Kong->SFO. Whew, no wonder I’m tired…..

This is posted as a public service announcement for anyone that thinks business travel is “fun” – as sometimes comes up in social conversation. It does have moments, but mostly it’s a grind and as I get older, it takes longer and longer to recover from each trip. Particularly trips like this one.

The good news is, the objectives I had for the trip were fully met and while it is taxing, the investment will have a good return over time. Regardless of the outcome, it’s nice to be home again. Enjoy the weekend everyone!