Friday, April 4, 2003 - Singapore

I called the Cathay Pacific office in Singapore in the morning and they asked us to come into the office to have the tickets reissued. We all met for breakfast, and caught a cab downtown. The Cathay Pacific rep said that since Gary and Mark's tickets were mileage redemption, they couldn't confirm their seats on the Hong Kong - Los Angeles flight until we got to Hong Kong. I told her that we wouldn't agree to that since it could mean we could be stranded overnight in Hong Kong. I suggested they could reroute us on other Cathay Pacific flights, or even rebook us on another OneWorld airline like Qantas or British Airways and send us via Australia or London, but we had to confirm the seats. She called their home office and was able to confirm all three of us on the Hong Kong - Los Angeles leg.

That done, we walked over to Boat Quay to see if any of the restaurants there looked good for lunch - and we quickly decided that they didn't. We found a cab and went to Orchard Road to do some shopping, then found our "usual" Chinese restaurant for lunch - black pepper crab, sambal shrimp, peking duck, and a couple of dim sum dishes.

We made it back to the hotel just as a big thunderstorm began. Lots of thunder, lightning and rain. I took a bath and began packing up for our return trip.

I had made reservations at one of the top restaurants in the city for dinner, Les Amis. At least I thought I did - I actually made them at their sister restaurant, Au Jardin, so we went to the wrong place. Given the depressed tourism situation in Singapore, however, Les Amis was happy to accomodate us.

We all had the prix fixe menu - a huge piece of foie gras, grilled ribeye steak, and I chose the cheese course while the boys had Grand Marnier souffles. Mark selected some nice Australian wines from their impressive list. Definitely a yummy evening.

Saturday, April 5, 2003 - Singapore - Hong Kong - Los Angeles - New York - Philadelphia
I woke, showered, and finished packing before we met for breakfast. We had arranged for Mr. Ong, our cab driver from earlier in the week to pick us up for the return to the airport. We barely managed to get all our stuff in the cab, but got to the airport without any problems. We checked in and went up to the Cathay Pacific lounge, with a couple of stops to shop and change money.

The flight to Hong Kong was nice - only about 1/3 full. They served us a terrific lunch - smoked duck and duck pate, salad, steak, cheese course, Mississippi mud cake, and after meal chocolates. I dozed for a little while and we landed in Hong Kong a little early.

They had passed out surgical masks on the plane, and I would say that over half of the people in the ghost town of an airport were wearing them. A little disconcerting. We went to the Cathay Pacific lounge that was right above our gate and had enough time to freshen up and have a little dim sum before our flight to Los Angeles.

The flight was again nearly empty. They served us dinner - antipasto, steak, cheese course, dessert. I watched "Catch Me If You Can" with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks - pretty good. They had the nice new business class seats that recline nearly flat, so I got quite a bit of sleep on the eleven hour flight. It was a pretty bumpy flight though.

We arrived an hour early, on a beautiful smogless morning - we could see all across the Los Angeles basin, including Catalina Island. When we landed all the median strips on the airfield were covered with masses of golden poppies.

We reached our gate, cleared immigration, and then waited a long time for our bags. We went through customs, rechecked our luggage and walked next door to Terminal Four, to check in for our American Airlines flight to JFK. It was a good thing that our flight was early because we were all subject to extensive security searches, probably as a result of connecting from an international flight on tickets that were only ticketed a day in advance.

Once through security, we went to the American Airlines lounge to wait for our flight. What a disappointment after the lounges of British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas - they only offered mini pretzels, tea and coffee complimentary. Everything else, even soft drinks, were charged, including some lame looking sandwiches for $7.50. Welcome home.

I called Dad to let him know where we were. Mom was out shopping so I missed her. We boarded our American flight around 2:30 p.m. - it is a 767 with both Business and First Class sections. As we boarded, there was a retired American captain standing there thanking passengers for flying with them.

This was the first full flight we've had the whole trip, but we had great service from the crew. We had dinner - I had pot roast which was not bad - and watched "Emperor's Club" starring Kevin Kline. We had a great tailwind and arrived 45 minutes early. Since we'd already cleared customs and immigration in Los Angeles, we quickly got our bags, found our driver, and made great time getting home. Suki was/is thrilled to see me.

Epilogue
Upon my return, my office called me and asked me to work from home for the next week due to fears of SARS. It actually wasn't a bad thing - I could log into the e-mail system when I woke up at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m., work for a few hours and then take a nap when the jet lag hit. I'll have to keep this in mind for future trip planning!

We're already giving some thought about where to go next year. We've done PNG three years in a row, so it may be time to try someplace different. So many dive sites, so little vacation!