Day 1 - Traveling

Well, it took 42 hours of traveling, but I finally made it to Singapore!  

Along the way, I had a 7 hour layover at JFK, so shot into Brooklyn to grab a beverage with Victor (my roommate when I lived in Luxembourg and a fellow adventurer and Miami University alum).  Meeting up with him was actually my first trip into NYC!  Looking forward to spending more time with him on the return to Cleveland.

After a 14 hour flight, I arrived in Seoul, Korea.  We landed at 4am, and my next flight was scheduled for 4:10pm, so I waited until the buses started running, grabbed some breakfast and took a 1 hour ride into the city center.  The flowers are gorgeous in Seoul!  Plants were flowering everywhere, adding color accents in reds, pinks and white to the green foliage.  Got off the bus at the Ankung station and spent some time looking at the trinkets on display at one of the old, narrow, stone paved market streets in town.  Funny, lots of the trinkets there were labelled "Made in China," which actually seemed wholly appropriate since they were chopstick, asian art, buddhas and whatnot.  After the market I wandered to one of the old palaces, where they were performing a traditional changing of the guard ceremony.  Then I jumped back on the bus and caught my flight out.

I leave for Kathmandu on Saturday, so I have a few days here in Singapore to iron out details with Grant, ensure our gear list is covered, get in some extra training, and let the body adjust to the different time zone.