A matter of perspective

We've been doing a lot of traveling lately. Recent trips have included Bali, New Zealand and Bangkok. This really should come as no surprise to anyone who knows us. In fact, one of the main reasons we joined the foreign service is because we love to travel and have a crazy desire to see as much of the world as possible.
The thing is, when you live in Jakarta Indonesia the U.S. is very far away. In order to get back to our home base it takes 24 hours of travel. The problem is that this becomes your basis for measuring the reasonableness for travel time. You know that 24 hours is awful but then suddenly 7 hours doesn't sound too bad.

Want to go to New Zealand for a week? It's 12 hours. Hmm that seems doable.
Thinking about a weekend in Melbourne? That's 6.5 hours. Ok. Make it a 4 day weekend and it's not too bad.
Bangkok, that's only 3 hours!
There was a time when a 3 hour flight sounded really long and a trip to Europe from Ohio really should be a week long to justify the flight time.

Of course I am now staring down the flight back to the States soon. 24 hours still sounds pretty gross.
I think I'll stop in Hong Kong just to stretch my legs...