Something to Declare

Preview

Okay, fellow travelers, wanderlust has kicked in again. I turns out that Stef’s high school classmate, Ellen, organizes tours to lots of places in Asia. She posted on Facebook about a tour (Trails of Indonesia/Asian Odysseys) planned for this month to Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, and we signed on. Till now, we’ve never been to Asia farther east than Israel or Turkey.

All kinds of new and fun things to think about. Climate (heat, humidity, monsoon rains); interesting microbiological issues (malaria, yellow fever, bottled water and Imodium), etc. As the Brits would say, “An adventure holiday!”

We’re flying on a Taiwan-based carrier (EVA Airlines), with one stop in Taipei. Really hoping mainland China can hold off invading Taiwan until this trip is over 🙏.

There’s also the 18-hour (!) flight. And jet lag: We leave from JFK on Tuesday at midnight and arrive in Singapore at noon on Thursday. That’s noon LOCAL time; for our bodies it will be 11 pm. 🥱

But the goal is to push through as well as possible, trying to accommodate to local Singapore time a.s.a.p. To facilitate this, we’re planning to arrive a couple of days before the official tour begins.

Update: Well, I should have known things were going too smoothly. The plan: To arrive very , very early, get through Security, and luxuriate in the Business Class lounge for hours. The reality: The EVA Air counter was not staffed, and would not be staffed, until 4 hours before take-off. This meant killing 4 hours with only a fast-food court to sustain us. Dumplings and soup at a Korean “bistro.”

They opened the check-in exactly four hours before the midnight flight.

This gives us about two hours to enjoy the lounge.

All in all, not shabby. The goal is to stay awake as long as possible, so as to maximize adjustment to Singapore time.

The adventure begins!