Mike Jutan's World: Singapore/Malaysia Day 18: Heading home

Monday, January 24, 2011

Singapore/Malaysia Day 18: Heading home

December 8, 2010
Singapore Day 18: Heading home

And after a glorious 18 days in Singapore and Malaysia, it was time to wave goodbye to "Singapura" and head back to San Francisco. We got up at 4:45am - crazy!! I had no extra alarm since my iPod Touch packed in while we were in Singapore so I was relying on the call from the front desk (and Matt's iPhone, and Matt's call from the front desk), hehe. So we had enough backups I think. Anyhoo I guess I was nervous about waking up on time, but I woke up at exactly 4:43am. Awesome. I got the wake up call a few min late at 4:50 but was already mostly ready to roll by then. Good stuff.

I got dressed, went downstairs and gave in my key and checked out. Matt and the Cab were both already there. We said goodbye to the great staff at the hotel and then jumped in the cab! It was so fast to the airport. We got there so early that the checkin desk was still opening! We checked in, got lounge directions, and headed to the lounge. Wow, it was SO amazing. I was half-asleep after only 4 hours of sleep the night before, but was pretty giddy from the amazingness of the lounge. Wow! Seriously, what an experience.

We got some sandwiches, an omelette, peach yoghurt, papaya and coffee. We even tried some Cognac (at 5:30am?! Why not I suppose?!) Fun. There was a whole business center there with iMacs that already had Skype pre-installed. So useful. So I logged into Skype and called home. Then Matt and I wandered around and spent the rest of our money. There was a big chocolate store, but we wanted to spend it on something else. We found a Billabong store and I got an extra wallet and Matt got a passport holder. We found a Singapore souvenir store and I got a cool Batik shirt. Then Matt found a HILARIOUS Merlion Plush!!!! It was SO perfect. It was so cute that we both bought it. Matt also got pineapple buns and chocolate for his team.

We headed back to the lounge and tried a Campari and Soda and it was super gross. We left it on a spare table :) It was fun to try the machine but we didn't really want it because it was, well gross, and also still only like 7am :) Then we went off to the gate and it was already boarding!! It is a very different experience flying this way, you don't have to line up super early, jockeying to get on the plane early to make sure you get enough overhead compartment space for your luggage. It was just chill and lots of room there, and easy to take your time. Fun. The flight was amazing. The food was great and we had a little taste of sake and plum wine. The Ice Cream was fantastic. The flight was only 6 or 7 hours which got us to Narita with just a very short stopover. I was tired from the early morning wake up so I caught up on my journal and got some sleep.

We got to Narita and we RAN through the airport! We had to pass another security check and were just racing past people and down the hallways. We had to cross to the other side of the terminal and it was pretty tight. The plane was already boarding once we got to the gate, but we got on the plane in good time. I watched the movie "A Single Man" on the plane - very different than what I expected, but it was some excellent acting. Again we had some excellent food on the plane, and the flight attendants loved our animal-faced neck pillows from SFO. Haha.

After a long but super awesome flight, we got back to SFO and it was quick through the airport. It was cold!! 12 C and raining!! I couldn't be happier to be cool :) It was such an amazing trip and plenty of fantastic experiences to remember.

Thank you SO much to everyone who helped make this trip possible. I had such a great time and we really enjoyed doing our part to help out at work, and we enjoyed the people, the food, the culture... everything. What a great trip!!

Matt getting some cheese in the Singapore lounge!

This papaya was amazing

Cool stacked glasses

Ohhh, so fancy!!

Lots of tasty juice options

Some awesome coffee and the best tea, ever. This tea was from the TWG tea company, and looked outstanding. (http://www.twgtea.com). I had coffee, but I can say without shame that I happily snagged 4 different amazing flavoured teas to enjoy later. :)

What an amazing breakfast!!! At like 5:30am!! This was really good, the cheese was awesome and the omelet was fantastic. So good.

What!!! Not sure where we were at this point, some point over Fiji or somewhere awesome. Beautiful.

Matt on the plane ride back to Tokyo

Me, VERY excited about lunch :)

Amazing fish and potatoes

Ice Cream (SO GOOD), a cheese plate as a snack, and some tea and a biscuit.

Clouds

On plane #2, from Tokyo back to San Francisco

haha, a great view of the "bed mode" on the seats!! This was so funny, you could extend it down like this, but it was angled very steeply at the floor, so it basically slowly dumps you onto the floor. So funny.

Back in San Francisco, I unpacked quickly and surveyed the loot I'd bought for myself and gifts for others. This is the sweet hoodie I got at Uni Qlo.

Two plaid shirts from Uni Qlo

A cool paisley shirt I got at the Singapore airport

Plush Merlion!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited to find him, and Matt bought one too. Hilarious.

Merlion, happy to be in San Francisco

Sweet Billabong Australia wallet I bought to use up the rest of my Singapore dollars :)

The Quiksilver Malaysia shirt I bought in KL (Kuala Lumpur)

3-in-1 Old Town coffee, shortbreads, rose lychee tea, Soy Bean Kit Kats, Wasabi Kit Kats, Sakura-Matcha (Green Tea-Cherry Blossom) Kit Kats, and the interesting shirt I bought in Little India

Crazy Kit Kats from Japan

Awesome Yoda shirt I got from work!

Pashmina scarves for Mom and Norm, and a Marks and Spencer Christmas Pudding for Dad!

Amazing mug from work, a bracelet, and a gift for Matt and Kim's new house

Sweet mug from work

Cool Merlion keychain that a guy from work bought for Matt and Me! Also Malay Tea from that tea house where we almost got stuck for life. And a cool happy cat figure for my shelf here.