Southeast Asia Travel -11/16 – Day Eighteen & a Half: “Today was the longest day ever!” People always say that when a day seems extremely slow or stressful– it’s the longest– but 24 hours is still just 24 hours. Unless, of course, you are flying back through time zones from the other side of the world and 24 hours becomes 36 unbearable, long hours.

Michael and I got up at 4:30 AM Monday morning to get ready to leave for the airport at 6 AM. Plenty of time. Michael had prearranged transportation online before we even started our crazy adventure. All we had to do was call and confirm a day in advance.  Only…. No answer.

We’d allowed plenty of time, being an international flight, customs, etc. and we still hoped the car would show up as scheduled. We made repeat phone calls and no answer, no recording… nothing.

At 6:20 AM we gave up and had the hotel call us a taxi. Which, by the way, was cheaper than the original arrangement we’d made in advance. (We did get a full refund through Viator later.)

The simple story is that we flew from Singapore to Seoul, Seoul to San Francisco; and after a five-hour layover, home to Chicago. We flew business class to boot. Easy huh?

Except- it really wasn’t easy. It was like torture. Mainly because with the extremely dry air on the plane, I got a bad sinus infection early on that had me in pain and irritable most of the trip. I couldn’t breath, my throat was sore and I was starting to develop a cough. I started calling it ‘the airplane flu’. This made sleeping extremely difficult as well.

I need moisture. I looked it up and airplane air is down around 10% humidity– almost nonexistent. I had plenty of fluids but I couldn’t stay hydrated. It’s not the airplane air itself that makes you sick but the extreme dryness leaves your body unprotected to any germs you might be exposed to on the plane or from others.

We had turbulence (nothing severe) much of our flight time; preventing even standing up and stretching from being an option.

I just kept reminding myself that it would soon be over and we’d be home with our dogs. I also kept imagining what it would have been like if we’d flown coach. I think I would have been ready to jump out the window! In addition to being sick, my body was aching and my cramps had cramps.

By the time we reached San Francisco, I was desperate for a break. I would have given anything to just walk around for a while. Except, immigration and customs took almost two hours! 1) Because the person in charge of line control for the automated immigration kiosks was clueless and half the machines were always empty; and 2) Michael got randomly pulled for his bags to be checked at customs. I find it somewhat amusing (and sad) that airports and customs all over the world can get it right– but the US is the most unorganized and slow. It was a good thing we had the five-hour layover before our final leg to Chicago. We needed nearly four hours of it just to get into the country and then through screening for our flight home.

Everything from Singapore was on time… until we reached Chicago. Surprise, surprise. We landed and had to sit on the plane waiting for a gate for nearly an hour. Not because the gates were full—but because O’Hare had shut down all the gates for the night– making all incoming flights wait and take turns at the few open gates.

Then of course, it was the same situation at baggage claim. It took another 30-45 minutes for baggage while Peggy was patiently standing by to pick us up.

By the time we got home, we were so tired and wired at the same time. It was good to be home. Best of all– almost better than anything you can imagine– was seeing my old boy Cash. He was happy to see us, greeting us with kisses and a big warm puddle in the driveway because he was so excited.

We pick up Belle and Dudley from boarding tomorrow after we (hopefully) have had some rest.

There’s a reason the saying, “there’s no place like home” has had such longevity. I love traveling and experiencing new adventures but there is nothing like your own bed, your pets nuzzling you– and the tranquility of your own space. It’s been such a whirlwind adventure. It will take time just for everything we were privileged enough to experience–just to sink in and sensory overload to catch up with us in real time.

For now, it’s all about getting back to normal, getting over this stupid cold and steamrolling into the holidays.

Next stop? London and Italy in September.

Maybe we can teleport there.