Out of India

Out of India. 

Leaving India we had a solid 24 hrs of travel from our Tiki hut to Singapore. We had our last of all the epic car rides in India. Our last driver was possibly the most gentle of all, we even all had seatbelts. We got to the airport and had a solid 4 hours until our plane left late...that wouldn’t matter because we had a scheduled 7 hour layover in Mumbai. Finally taking off and landing back in the smog of Mumbai we were now in the haven of their international terminal. 

We left the kids with iPads, drinks, and chargers at what I thought was our gate to Singapore. Finally when it was our boarding time we lined up and started to board, only to be told by the gate agent we were at the wrong flight to Singapore, so with some mild panic we ran to the other gate and other plane going to Singapore...I’m not going to lie, as much as I love India the moment I set foot in the pristine sparkly clean international terminal I had checked out of India...we could not miss this flight, I didn’t have another death defying car ride or cold shower left in me. So I had already decided when I ran up to the other gate agent I would cry if necessary to get on the plane, I don’t have to cry, in fact the run was  unnecessary as  unlike the Singapore airlines flight I had tried to board that was on time and organized, I had booked us on Air India, so it was late. We were a solid 17 hours in and all completely spent. So as is always the case the pain of trying to sleep on a red eye flight began. Kids were out before the doors closed. I woke up with body parts so asleep I didn’t think they’d ever wake up. 

Singapore 

We landed and had time to kill before our Apartment would be ready so we ate pancakes at the airport with a poster of San Francisco on the wall.  For a moment I reflected back on the morning we flew out of SFO and all the moments we had since then. 

Singapore is clean. Singapore is very very clean.  I’m not going to be able I say that enough. You could literally eat off any public surface. I’m going to say that again, you could 

eat off any public surface. We had come from 5 weeks in India, where I’m pretty sure nothing would have shocked me. So the contrast was total. 

We took the spotless metro to the city. Our building sits under a major metro stop. Taking the sparking escalators up there were floors and floors of shops, there was food, and there was trash cans oh my! 

Our apartment was on the 46th floor and faced downtown and the bay. We had not only changed countries we’d completely changed worlds. Our high speed elevator zipping my dirty kids who’d had to be told on the plane by me to stop intentionally making clouds of dust from their dirty pants, who’s bags were now stained from a sprite bottle that exploded on an overnight train in India, who’s shoes were still full of sand from the beach. So yes those kids now stood in a mirrored(ya they’d totally be marks up with their hand prints all over them by the time we left) sparky clean elevator zipping up into the modern apartment overlooking the dazzling Singapore skyline. 

 

Shower. Please please of all things let there be hot water, and a lot of it. And there was. I took an obscenely long shower, still also trying I wash the color back out of my hair(remember I’m still a brunette-I forget too until I look in the mirror). 

We wondered around in the sticky heat. We went and got ice cream and came home an hour later sunburnt.  We’d failed to appreciate we are only 80 miles from

The equator. Oops.