The long day begins…..at 4AM in Asheville when we get up and prepare for our flights to Singapore. We had pre-arranged a driver because we wanted to leave for the airport at 5am and didn’t want any surprises that early in the morning. The taxi company said they’d call to reconfirm on Wednesday – but they didn’t. So I called to confirm and spoke to someone there who said, “yeah, we got you on the schedule.” He didn’t sound convincing, so I asked “you promise you’ll be here?” “yeah, promise,” was the response. Ok – so…we have back up cab company phone numbers on the counter waiting to be called, but, South Asheville Transportation did indeed show up – 10 minutes early even – and we were off in no time.
Had to stand in line to check in, because we’re so early. The didn’t even open the check in until 90 minutes before the flight. Then on the plane in a jiffy, where we ended up sitting for an extra half an hour due to a ground stop from Chicago. We’ve got plenty of time, so we’re not concerned.
Chicago was cold and rainy – really cold. We could see our breath in the jetway waiting for the carry on bag. We’re not exactly dressed for it since when we arrive in Singapore it is supposed to be in the 80’s – in the middle of the night. Welcome to SE Asia!
The Chicago to Tokyo flight is seamless, decent food, watched La La Land. I slept a bit, Ed did not. Somehow we passed the 12 hours easily – even without the sleep. Tokyo was seamless as well – quick transfer then beer and wine (it is really cheap to drink in this airport!) to while away our 2 1/2 hour layover.
We tried to upgrade on the Singapore flight, but the gate agent says it’s too expensive – we believe her. She said we could move to the bulkhead seat, but we decide not too – because we like having the storage space in front of us. As it turns out, when we get on the plane, bulkhead was the ticket. The seats are way smaller and closer together than on the first flight and it’s a little cramped in our row. Fortunately, there is no one in those seats, and when the doors close we jump on them. We got more room and relatively less hassle – except for the scrum to get our carry on bags which are now 2 rows behind us. No biggie – I’m small and I’m fast, I can get them!
This flight was easy too – I snoozed a bit, Ed did not (sound familiar?). We did watch The Lion which was awesome. Food was decent, again, and well, it was 7 hours. What else can I say?
We arrived as scheduled a little after 11 PM, got our bags fairly quickly and hopped in a cab. The driver was great, giving us water (“it’s free”) and candy (“it’s local”) and hints and tips on where to go and where to eat. We pulled up to our cute hotel in Chinatown a little after 12 midnight. Phew. Long day!
We have a nice large room on the 3rd floor, away from most of the street noise, and while the bed looks enticing, we want to have a drink before hitting the hay. So, we go upstairs to the rooftop bar which is crazy busy with lots of loud, partying 20 and 30-somethings. We can’t even get served it’s so nuts. So, we decide to bag it, blow the wad and just raid the mini bar in the room where it is blissfully cool and quiet and we can decompress and pass out in the comfort of the soft king size bed. Nice end to our 34 hour day!
