Is it normal to have thoughts of walking away from the boarding gate? It happened in Singapore Changi Airport a few hours ago, and now it’s happening again in Shanhai Pudong International.
My flight home is departing at this very moment.
Is this goodbye? Am I really ready to go home?
- At time of posting in Shanghai, China, it was 32 °C - Humidity: 66% | Wind Speed: 1km/hr | Cloud Cover: partly cloudy
Layover in Shanghai before returning home. Looking back I realize…
And all good things shall come to an end…
I party it up with some classy ladies in Singapore on National Day:
I return the favor by having their apartment served:
The next morning (however difficult it was to get up for various reasons), I explore the very fake beach of Siloso at Sentosa Island:
And I try an original Singapore Sling at Long Bar in Raffles Hotel:
Columbia Reunion in Singapore! Lillian, BX, and Andrea:
Saying goodbye once again, whether to Singapore, to friends, to coincidences, to fate, or to these adventures:
So what do I do when I got a 6 hour layover in Shanghai? Ride the new maglev “fastest train in the world” into Pudong, of course.
But the Maglev looked a lot wimpier than I had expected:
Coming into Pudong:
This was probably the fastest I have (or anyone has, for that matter) ever traveled at ground speed:
- At time of posting in Shanghai, China, it was 32 °C - Humidity: 66% | Wind Speed: 1km/hr | Cloud Cover: partly cloudy
What if life turned out the way it does in the movies?
Sometimes they can:
And I’m staring at a plane that will take me away from this place.
This is our last goodbye
I hate to feel the love between us die.
But it’s over
Just hear this and then I’ll go:
You gave me more to live for,
More than you’ll ever know.
Well, this is our last embrace,
Must I dream and always see your face?
Why can’t we overcome this wall?
Baby, maybe it’s just because I didn’t know you at all.
Kiss me, please kiss me,
But kiss me out of desire, babe, and not consolation.
Oh, you know it makes me so angry ’cause I know that in time
I’ll only make you cry, this is our last goodbye.
Did you say, “No, this can’t happen to me”?
And did you rush to the phone to call?
Was there a voice unkind in the back of your mind saying,
“Maybe, you didn’t know him at all,
you didn’t know him at all,
oh, you didn’t know”?
Well, the bells out in the church tower chime,
Burning clues into this heart of mine.
Thinking so hard on her soft eyes, and the memories
Offer signs that it’s over, it’s over.
— Jeff Buckley
- At time of posting in Singapore, it was 29 °C - Humidity: 83% | Wind Speed: 1km/hr | Cloud Cover: few clouds
These are my last 2 days of my adventure, and I’m back in Singapore. It’s only fitting I sandwich India with this lovely city/state/country. It’s only fitting that I end my trip by running into Nikita back from Hyderabad. We left off at “That was our little two-paged fairytale. And fairytales are just that.”
Well “let’s add another page to the fairytale.”
Today becomes another nostalgic memory.
- At time of posting in Singapore, it was 29 °C - Humidity: 84% | Wind Speed: 9km/hr | Cloud Cover: mostly cloudy
Singapore should have been our intermediary between the Western world and the in-your-faceness of Southeast Asia…but instead we saw it as a reminder of the excesses of this place called the U.S. of A.
Convenient and thoroughly designed subway systems, speedy internet, multicultural food, huge malls, rooftop clubs, drinkable tap water, you name it…Singapore was simply a “just like home” delight for this New Yorker, and a perfect way to demonstrate what most of Southeast Asia lacks: comfortable, sustainable progress towards modernization.
It’s a night I’ll never forget.
After spending 24/7 with each other for 40 consecutive days in 11+ countries, it was finally time to say goodbye: my travel partner, Annah, just left for Korea. For the first time in 40 days, I’m alone.
But hold on, not really — I get a Facebook message from a friend that’s in the area.
Not even an hour into my newfound solitude, I’m grabbing drinks with my friend from NYC, Sajni, on the 70th floor of the New Asia Bar overlooking the Singapore skyline. We catch up for a bit and then we grab some mint-jasmine shisha at Arab St. Afterwards, I drop Sajni off and I return to my hostel. I think my night is done.
But hold on, not really — A message is waiting for me at the front desk.
10 minutes later I’m karaoke’ing Backstreet Boys with BX, my college friend (sitting on the left in the photos below), and Erin (sitting next to me in the photos below), a fellow American I met at my hostel only yesterday. Afterwards it’s once again back to Arab St. where Erin and I enjoy mint-rose shisha on the sidewalk. When the shisha café closes at 4:30am, the two of us are not deterred. We continue the night gallivanting around a city that isn’t used to seeing such yellow + white American diversity (and we proudly wear it on our sleeves, holding hands, dancing the dawn away on as if a scene had been stolen from Lost in Translation).
We laugh. We dance. For a night, we make Singapore ours.
We didn’t get back to our hostel until 6am in the morning. Usually I would sleep now, but I have to leave right this moment to catch a 9am flight to Calcutta (India!) via subway.
So much for sleep. But for the first time in a long time, I don’t miss it quite as much.
No need to dream anymore; it’s already happening.
- At time of posting in Singapore, it was 26 °C - Humidity: 100% | Wind Speed: 2km/hr | Cloud Cover: mostly cloudy
