Your First Odyssey

Dear Baobao,

At the time of this letter, we can count down on one hand how many days are left before your first odyssey (we will be making our way through Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau). If I thought going out to a museum for a day with you was a production, I’m not really sure what I would call preparations for a 19-day trip. Perhaps the appropriate analogy is a day-trip would be a one-scene play while a long-haul trip is a multi-staged musical with many more elements to consider and coordinate.

The long-haul flight would be considered the first set and my god are we worried about this one. I guarantee you all parents worry about this one – no one wants to be the parents with the loud crying baby on a plane, particularly a red eye. We’ve probably done as much research about flying with a toddler than we have with any of the locations we’re going to. Your mom’s been buying you snacks and putting together a goodie bag; figuring out what activities we can do with you on the plane…but of course we’re just going to cross our fingers and hope you just sleep through most of it. Neither of us are holding our breath though.

Random notes and observations when it comes to flying with babies on Cathay Pacific:

• We can only use forward-facing car seats and they must be situated next to a window
• You have to call to buy a seat for an infant <2 y/o and they’ll try to charge you the typical fee for booking over the phone. Get it waived.
• Lot of seating issues go through the reservations department and not the loyalty club. And any seating changes only sorted out day of the flight.
• You get some extras in terms of check-in and carry-on baggage, but who has that many hands to take advantage of it?

Just as our lives revolve around your schedule and finding appropriate places to bring you to while we’re in London, the same applies to all these other places we’re going. I worried initially about whether the trip would be more stressful than fun, but as we’ve gotten closer to takeoff, the more excited I am for all of us. You love novelty and new scenes, which you’re going to get plenty of over there. I know you won’t remember any of it, but we’ll do our best to document the trip along the way with pictures and entries.

Love,
Baba