Enroute

The map on the screen in front of me traces our route across the north Atlantic, over Europe, and the Middle East on our flight to Singapore. We are currently over India – information on the map indicates that we’re just about at Agra and four hours 33 minutes to Singapore. It’s dark outside. All I see through the window are stars and occasional lights. We’re traveling at 1088 k/m at about 11, 800 meter and have a tail wind.

I wonder why we don’t go the Pacific route since Singapore is just about 12 hours difference (in daylight savings time).

The plane is full of different languages – many of which I don’t recognize spoken by Europeans, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Chinese, Indonesians and Indians.

I am excited to go to Singapore. I always hear mixed messages about the incredible diversity and communities living in one tiny island and how progressive they are in technology, amenities for people, cleanliness and lack of crime. Some feel it’s a 1984 repressive society, others the brave new world.

My Dad and I have embarked on this trip as “Asia Revisited” which began when he was in India and China during the second world war and for me when our family moved to India in 1960 where Dad had a two year assignment with the Indian Government with Merck. Those two years evolved into over 25 years working abroad and living in 17 countries. One place he was never able to go was to Ankor, mostly because of the Viet Nam war and ensuing reign of Pol Pot and the Khamer Rouge..

So we begin with Singapore after an 18 hour direct flight from Newark.