The long journey home.

All good things come to an end... don't they. My journey home began at 10:00am Sunday 1/18 (11:00pm Saturday night 1/17, Durham time). Kate and I took a cab to the airport, got me checked in and through passport control. One last wave goodbye through the glass, and I was off to explore the airport. Explore is the proper word here, as Changi airport has lots of things to keep you busy while waiting for your flight. There are the usual duty free stores and shopping, but the also have outdoor terraces, a free movie theater, lots of lounge areas with TV's, a Koi pond, and a butterfly garden. Yep, in the middle of a huge airport, there is butterfly garden.





The Singapore Airlines has a pretty nice lounge as well, with a full buffet (try the curry chicken) drinks, magazines, newspapers, tv, and internet access (with iMacs!).

I boarded the plane at 12:00, ready for a long flight. On the flight, I ate 2 full meals, plus a snack, watched 3 movies, and slept for about 6 hours or so. Not much else to do on a flight that long. This flight went east from Singapore over Taiwan, Japan, Alaska, Canada into Newark. Because my original flight from Newark also went east to get to Singapore, I can now say I have flown around the world.



Uneventful journey so far. Then we land in Newark. Newark would rank pretty high on my list of unpleasant places to be welcomed back to the US. The airport is ugly, loud, and dirty. After spending two weeks in clean, friendly Singapore this was a sad reminder that I was back "home". Nothing more than a 3 hour layover to look forward to... wait, now 4 hours... no 6 hours... no, sorry, that will be 7.5 hours before getting on a flight to Raleigh. For anyone that has been to the Newark airport, you know what I mean when I say a 30 minute layover is about all that is really tolerable there.

So, I finally get back to my humble abode at 3:15am Monday 1/19, east cost time. Total elapsed time from leaving for the airport to arriving home... 28 hours. Now it is time to recover from jet lag and get back to the grind of everyday life not on vacation.

There will probably be a few more posts here as I get my black and white and slide film back, so keep checking from time to time.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Mike M. for staying up late and saving me the hassle of a cab ride from the airport at 3:00 am!!!!

Cheers!