We Have Begun

I am writing you this post aboard a DC8 from Japan to Singapore. It is hard to believe we left home five days ago. It has been a whirlwind trip and we have found such favor in our travels. Our son Vince and daughter Cherie drove us up to Sacramento last Wednesday (September 12th )where we spent the night with our children Amy, Brian and grandchildren Jacob and Haley. Our daughter then drove us to Travis AFB and after a day of catching up on last minutes purchases we were selected for a flight to Hickam AFB, Hawaii. A lot of people were signed up as this is a popuar destination. We has a sign up date of July 23 (submitted while we were in Fiji)  so we were the first Cat VI to be selected. Cat VI  are the retirees and are the last category to be selected from.

We arrived in Hawaii aboard a C17 that was loaded with cargo. I had made a reservation for a room when we got there for three days hoping it would be a few days before we caught the flight to Japan. The rule of travel is always take the first outgoing plane heading in the direction that you are going as there is always changes in the schedules. Sure enough, a C5 was scheduled to leave Hawaii for Japan in seven hours. We waited at the terminal and we were selected for travel. Hickman AFB is on Oahu and we were hoping for a few days to explore. I have never been to Hawai and Tom had many things he wanted to show me. There is always the flight home...

We arrived in Japan where we were escorted to customs and immigrations. The military has a special office for this and the passengers  on the airplane are the only ones going through these lines. A nice perk really. We were unable to get lodging on the base so we opted for one in town so we could see a little bit of this suburb of Toyoko. Since the weather was nice and our hotel a mile or two away we opted to walls and get a feel for the city. Funny thing began to happen as we left the base…it began to rain! No worries, we were equipped with our umbrellas so off we went to find our place. We travel light and at the end of our walk, we are glad we do!

We noticed that everything in Japan is so small…the cars, the houses, the people,  the sinks and even the garbage cans! You can get anything you need from a vending machine and it too is very small. We had no coffee in our room so Tom went out to get us some for the next day and came back with four small cups with instant coffee, a bowl of soup, and chocolate. We were set. We met some lovely people, learned a little about the Japanese customs, and meandered through town before calling it a night.

The next flight out to Singapore was the next day at 0415 and we needed to be there and travel ready by 0400. We made it but suffice to say we were glad that it was a seven hour flight so we could catch up on our sleep!

We will arrive at Paya Lebar ARB in Singapore where we will stay for a few days. We are considering taking the train through Malaysia and flying from Kulala Lumpur to Bangkok and if we can make all the necessary connections we might just do so! Will let you know when we do.