Traveling to Singapore...Sienna

July 31 - August 2

Traveling to Singapore took us 36 hours, so needless to say by the end of our trip here I was extremely exhausted.  We started out in Boston where we got on our first flight to LAX at 7:00.  This plane ride was only 6 hours and I thought it felt super long (until our next 20 hour flight, then 6 hours was nothing) but Virgin Airlines has personal TV's for everyone flying so I got to watch the Olympics! :D

Our next stop was LAX. Now the LAX airport isn't very impressive (in my opinion), there aren't good signs for getting to terminals and once you go through security that have no shops, no restaurants, not really anything to do while you wait for your flight.  Anyways....when we hopped off the plane at LAX we had to get to Terminal B, only there were no signs on how to...it turned out that we had to completely leave the terminal we were in so that we could walk to the separate terminal that LAX has for international flights.  Once we were there we checked to see if our flight and it had been delayed an hour, so started looking through the rows of airline ticket booths so that we could find ours, of course out of all the rows we found the one we needed last and our booths were closed till 12:15 so we had sushi and chinese food for lunch and played lots of cards while we waited.  When we got back to the Singapore Airlines booth there was a huge line even though we were 15 minutes early.  Luckily there was a separate line with no people in it that we got to use since we had checked our suitcases in Boston.  So we gave the guy our passports and boarding passes from our old flight so that we could take the luggage numbers and everything so that we could get our new boarding passes that would take us to Singapore; only they hadn't printed my luggage number on my ticket in Boston.  This number I guess is important because the guy was asking me tons of questions and saying how I would need to get it.  Now this really worried me since my only fear when I travel is that if I check a bag the airlines will lose it.  Eventually the guy told me that when we got to our terminal if we talked to the people there they should be able to find my luggage number.  So we went through security again and found our terminal, which was boarding for a flight to Korea, and then started our around 6 hour wait.  I was still worrying about my luggage, so the second the Korean flight had boarded and the terminal was empty Gen and I moved to sit right next to it so that the second somebody came we could sort out my luggage number issues.  The first people to get to the terminal couldn't do anything, they were just there to set up for the flight (because when you board one of the huge international airplanes it's much different and way more organized).  Then we got kicked out of sitting near the terminal because of "security reasons" and were moved to a huge sitting area in the next room.  So we sat on the floor and decided to play cards to pass time.  We played mao and gin and that egyptian rat game until we got too tired.  Gen was lying on the floor talking to her dad and I was sitting all crunched up zoning out since we had been up since 2AM ET.  We still had about 3 hours until our plane boarded and so her dad recommended that we had some coffee or something to help us stay awake until we at least boarded the flight.  So we road those awesome walking runways thingies trying to find somewhere to get some food and caffeine at, but since LAX doesn't have much of anything once you pass through security there was only a small convenience store to go to, so we got some Mt. Dew; it was probably the most yummy Mt. Dew I've  ever had.  When we went back to the waiting area we checked again to see if there was anyone who could help with the luggage thing; there wasn't.  So we sat and waited some more and talked to this very nice Japanese lady.  Then we went again to check if there was anyone who could help us at the terminal and there finally was!  All the lady had to do was write my luggage number on my ticket and she told me that my bags were already on the plane.  Overall it took like 2 minutes to resolve the luggage number issue, it was way simpler than I was expecting since the first guy we saw to get our boarding passes seemed very worried and sorta freaked when I didn't have a number.  Then we waited some more.  And had a snack.  And had to move where we were sitting again.  And waited.  And then they finally started boarding the plane.  We were flying Singapore Airlines the the plane is a two level plane.  So the way the have you board is suits, families with children, handicapped, upper deck and then main deck.  When you go through line to board they check your passport and boarding pass and then walking to the plane they have people standing to randomly choose and questing people about their flight.  Luckily neither Gen or I fell victim to the questioners.

The Singapore Airlines plane is the biggest, best plane I have ever been on.  There are many more seats and it's much more spacious and everyone had a TV to watch movies and play games on.  The flight attendants (who are really pretty) also hamd out hot towels, the menu for the flight, blankets pillows, headphones, and airport socks.  Oh and we also had a footrest.  It was very fancy. :P  

We got our first meal soon after the plane was in the air.  I was nervous to try airplane food because I've heard horror stories of how nasty plane food is.  Ours was very good though, we both chose the Japanese version (there is Japanese and International, the international is more American style food).  Then we just had to pass time until the flight was over.  I watched the Avengers and the Lucky One and we talked to the other person in our row, who happened to be a teenager from Singapore.  On huge international flights they also have all the windows get shut and turn off overhead lights so that people will sleep and begin to get used to the time changes and stuff, sadly I couldn't fall asleep.  The time changes were so weird though.  While flying to Japan it felt like it should be dark out and it was late in our time (ET) but it was light out outside for the majority of our 20 hour flight.  It was just so weird since we had been traveling already for over/close to 24 hours and the whole time we had been traveling it was light out outside.  

We got a second meal close to the end of the flight, Gen and I ate the Japanese version again, and then we began our descent into Japan.  It was around 7:00 in Japan at the time and so finally it was beginning to get dark.  The Japanese airport is very nice; it's simple but not boring.  We had to first go through security again before we could go to the gate to re-board the plane.  When my bag went through a security guard at the end asked if she could look through it, I was like 'ya sure' and wondering what it was that would make her want to since it had already gone through 2 other security checks without any issues.  It turned out that they thought the pens that I had in the bag were knives or scissors or something, so she just pulled them out and few of my electronics chords, scanned the bag again, apologized for having to do that and then I was through.  The way the security guards acted, especially when the apologized for looking through my bad and such, really surprised me since whenever I've traveled in the states the guards usually don't seem to really care if they do have to go through something or invade someones privacy at all.  We then had an hour wait before we could re-board our plane, so we looked at the Japanese store that was in our area of the airport and watched some of the Olympics since they had it playing on one of the huge TV's they have set up everywhere.  On another one of the TVs they were playing music clips from different Asian bands and stuff (it was all in Japanese so I had no idea what it was) but then all of a sudden Justin Bieber was playing and I found that kind of funny/sad how he was the only American artist that I saw them like advertise on that channel.

When we boarded the plane again we went through the same process of before and were handed all of the airline goodies and then ate soon once we were in the air.  I was so excited for this flight since it was our last one and we would finally be in Singapore and it was all just so surreal since for month now we had been counting down to our trip.  And even though we had already had a very long day on airplanes and at airports we were both pumped for the flight because it was only 6 hours (super short once you've sat through a 20 hour flight).  I was reall tired on this flight since I hadn't been able to sleep on any of our other planes and had even started dozing off in the Japanese airport, so luckily I was able to sleep for at least half of our 6 hour plane ride to Singapore - which made the ride go by faster.  When we touched down in Singapore it was around 2:30 in the morning, we had landed early.  We went through immigration - which was waywayway easier than I thought it would be, they just compared your passport to the immigration card that you had filled out and then stamped them and you were good.  We proceed to just grab our bags and go through customs.  Well we didn't really go through customs actually since we just had cloths and stuff in our luggage so we just walked out to find Gen's grandpa.  He was already there when we were out and so I met him and we talked a little and then went out to find a taxi to take us home.  For the taxi ride I was just staring outside because it is just so beautiful in Singapore.  They have so many plants and just beautiful landscaping and architecture and such, its just amazing.  We got to his house in like 30ish minutes.  Here people mainly live in apartments and so for where he lives on the ground level there is just a beautiful like lobbyish area I guess you could say.  It's not really a lobby though cause there no desk and person like at hotels but its just a really nice area where the elevators are.  So you then just take an elevator up to your floor and there are two homes on each floor.  Gens grandpa has an amazing house.  He likes art and so there is a lot of paintings and sculptors and such everywhere, its a really beautiful and spacious house.  Gen grandma was awake when we got to the house and so I got to meet her and then he showed us to the room we would be staying in.  Our room is amazing and it has tons of art and china and glass and such and we have our own little sitting area in the room, our own bathroom, and a beautiful view of Singapore and the pool.  Her grandparents were very nice and talked to us while we ate some yummy bread and they made sure that we made and felt at home here.  I really do feel at home here already which is very nice since I wasn't sure how it would be living at a different place with a different culture and such, but it really is homey here. 

When we went to our room for the night we unpacked all of our stuff and finally got to shower and freshen up and then at like 6 we went to sleep for the first time in around 38 hours.