January 17 – February 5 Part 2 CPT to JNB to AMS to SEA to PDX to NRT to SIN to BKK – 4 Continents, 2 weeks

This is where our travels get a little goofy and kind of cool if you are into somewhat odd things that can happen. Because we are using miles for all our flights we had to take what we could get, so we started out our Asian leg of the journey separately. Duncan left the evening of February 1 and flew to Portland for the night. From Portland he left at 12:20 PM on February 2 on the Northwest flight to Tokyo. 40 minutes later at 1PM, Andrea flew out on the Northwest flight to Tokyo from SeaTac. So we were both flying across the Pacific at the same time actually both sitting in 29A. We’re not sure how often that happens but we don’t think it is every day that spouses fly across the ocean together but in different planes. Somehow Duncan got to Narita a little early and Andrea’s flight was a little late so Duncan was already getting settled on the next plane to Singapore when Andrea came running through the concourse to catch it as well. All was well. The Wilson’s were reunited in 29 A and B. And then Duncan had to go throw up as he wasn’t feeling well. Then the flight got better and both slept most of the way (another 8 hours) to Singapore arriving just before midnight on Feb 3.

Not sure why I’m writing in third person but hey...

So we woke up on Wednesday February 4th in Singapore at the Fragrance Pearl Hotel which for $30US was a great deal but was also located right in the middle of Singapore’s red light district. If you know anything about Singapore, and it’s fierceness in going after littering and gum chewing, you might be surprised that it has a red light district but it does. Andrea might write more on this later.

Many people find Singapore pretty bland and not so fun to visit, but I think it is one of my favorite cities in the world. For starters it is so clean you can almost eat off the sidewalk – ok, not quite, but you can eat pretty much anywhere and rest assured that you won’t get sick. It’s efficient and organized, beautiful, lush and green, and is so incredibly multicultural, you often don’t know where you are. And for shoppers it is truly one of the shopping capitals of the world. That’s not us, so we spent the day walking, oh and we had roti for breakfast and lunch both days we were there – if you don’t know what roti is, you are missing out on a great treat!

OMF, (the mission organization my parents were with in Asia) has its international headquarters in Singapore on a nice piece of real estate right next to the unbelievable Botanical Gardens (perhaps the oldest in the world?? 150 years) so first we stopped in there to see if there was anyone we knew. It was a bit chaotic as the offices are being remodeled so all the offices are located in the mission home for this year. (Those who know what I am talking about, know what I am talking about! – Too many audiences here!) Then we went and spent the afternoon wandering through the gardens. Again, stunningly beautiful.

The next day we checked out of our hotel and headed back to Changi Airport (consistently rated the best airport in the world – with movie theaters and anything else you might possibly want, including roti!) to catch our flight up to Bangkok. Thanks to my sister giving us a heads up we had been able to snag a couple free flights on Air Asia as they were giving away 100,000 free tickets to Bangkok to help encourage people to visit Thailand after the airport was shut down for ten days in December. So for a two and a half hour flight, we paid the princely sum of $25US each which covered taxes. Thanks Esther!

Approaching Thailand we flew right over Koh Samet (an island) where I have been a couple times so that was pretty cool. We landed in the peak of rush hour and caught a taxi to the lavish pad we have fallen into for our first three weeks here in Thailand. More on this and our first week in the next post!

Duncan