Hello again!
We're off to Southeast Asia again, returning to Singapore and Malaysia. This year, Ramona is assisting with the WMU Study Abroad trip. Over the next few weeks, we will visit several universities throughout these two countries. I'll keep a lot of commentary light and the pictures heavy!
Our trip got off to an interesting start. We packed up to leave Wednesday May 2nd and had an Uber take us to the airport. Unfortunately, Mona left her phone in the car, which we discovered during airport check-in. After repeated calls, we gave up getting it in time for our flight. Bummer! Mona had her important contact information and trip details there. Ah well - she'll be using my phone for much of the trip!
Once our flight from Kalamazoo to Chicago landed, I finally reached the Uber driver, who dropped off her phone at the house. Our neighbors put it in the house, so at least we don't have to cancel it! From Chicago, we fly to Tokyo, Japan then it's off to Singapore! Japan Airlines is a nice way to get to Southeast Asia, so I was content to see how that would turn out.
Our Chicago flight was a healthy 13 hours. We filled the time with a mix of in-flight movies and TV. JAL did well to feed us two full meals on the flight. On our last trip, Mona was able to get plenty of water, but this time it was harder to come by. Keep that in mind if you find yourself heading this way.
Sadly, we didn't have long to lay over in Tokyo. I like Narita airport, but only the domestic terminal has outside seating. For us, it would be nearly 30 hours of breathing recycled air on planes and such, before we were outside again. Narita is a nice airport, with lots of trendy, upscale shopping (think: Prada, Chanel, Bulgari, etc.) which is great to look at, but painful for your wallet!
The leg from Tokyo to Singapore was a mere six hours, but certainly tolerable. Both of our JAL flights were almost completely full, but it was still a pleasant trip. Arriving at Singapore in the wee hours of morning, I came to realize that we left on Wednesday and had arrived on Friday, will it was still the middle of the day on Thursday. It's times like this I truly feel like a time traveller!
We met up with the last of the students and our special guests for the trip, David and Diane Anderson! Diane is the Vice President for Student Affairs at WMU, while her husband is a former admissions Director for K College, now an entrepreneur. It was nice to know we'd have a few more people in our age category on the trip, as the last time I found it impossible to keep the hours the students keep. :-)
We arrived at the hotel (the same one we stayed at in 2016!) shortly before 2AM, and after a brief checkin and review, we headed off to bed. Our rooms seem to have been renovated since our last visit, which was a nice touch. It didn't take long to grab a quick shower and quickly fall asleep. The next day would see us making our first collegiate visit, so I'll be sure to post more in the morning.
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