Trip Summary and The Dateline Again?

This is the final post for this trip. For me, the flight to Hawaii was not the best. It was with Korean Air and so it had the same selection of movies and TV shows to watch. There is a pattern to these long flights. You are served a meal (this time I chose chicken, which was a pretty American meal – salad, chicken, rice, a roll and custard for dessert. Steve chose Bi-bim-bap which has become his favorite Korean food (I think it is because he can pronounce it). Bi-bim-bap is what we had when we came over, only then we didn’t know what it was or how to eat it. Now we learned that it is a bowl of a bunch of different things and rice on the side. You put the rice in and some of the sauce packets you are given and mix it up and eat it. I think he had kimchi rather than salad and the same dessert and roll.

On this flight we crossed the dateline again, only this time we left Japan on a Friday night and arrived here in HI on Friday morning before we left Japan. I still have trouble getting my head around that!

Looking back this has been an amazing trip and we have connected with some good friends along the way. In some ways it is not how I like to travel. I like to be in one place for longer. I feel sort of confused between Korea and Japan and the Philippines seems so long ago. We were not in any particular place long enough to meaningfully connect with people there. We did benefit from knowing people in each place who guided us and showed us things from a local perspective at least.

Here in Hawaii I am getting to meet several people that I have not seen for years. There are a few friends that I made while here living in HI from 1990-1993. There was also a friend who I have not seen since High School who is living here and that I reconnected with through Facebook!  It has been a good way to gradually return home. Tomorrow is the crazy night flight from Honolulu – Maui – Los Angeles – Austin. It will be good to be home.

What does crossing the International Dateline feel like?

This morning (Saturday) when I woke up I felt like I had just been shot through a long tunnel and popped out in Manila. I think it is the same feeling Captain Kirk had when he was "beamed down" from the starship Enterprise onto a planet. I guess that the feeling is more from the long trip than from crossing the dateline.

Our trip was three legs: Austin to LA (3 hours), LA to Tokyo (11 hours), and then Tokyo to Manila (4.5 hours). With the layovers we were on the road for 24 hours. We left Austin early on Thursday morning and arrived in Manila Friday night. Somewhere in there we crossed the International Dateline and lost a day. I cannot seem to wrap my head around it, but when I look at my iPad it says that it is yesterday.... so I guess I am living in tomorrow. I wish I could explain it better than that. In Tokyo I saw this interesting sign on the wall of the bathroom stall.

At the airport we were met by our friend, Maricel and Sister Ann (a nun), who took us to the retreat center for the Religious Sisters of the Virgin Mary (RVM) in new Manila. We were surprised to find out that we would each have a separate room with a single bed! So, we woke up the next morning on our 39th wedding anniversary in our separate rooms! What an adventure it has been to be married to Steve!!  

Traveling this way is the best!  We are tourists and foreigners, but we have a connection to people who actually live here. We don’t stay in luxury hotels, but we have really interesting experiences where we stay.

Here are some things that happened in the first day:

• Waking up to the crowing of a rooster that lives at the retreat center
• Eating breakfast (an apple, a roll with bacon flavored mayonaise, nescafe) with Sister Ann
• Being greeted with a Welcome song by three young nuns
• Meeting many friends of our friend and being treated so warmly
• Observing all sorts of strange transportation (jeepney, motorcycle with sidecar that holds 3 or 4 people)

Tomorrow’s blog will be about a visit to a part of Manila that most tourists do not visit.