Off to Australia

Before we leave Asia, we'll have another fine Asian breakfast. CJ has two bowls of fish ball soup this morning; doctored to his Thai spicy specifications of course. The two older Asian ladies and our waitress are most impressed by our breakfast selections, if not a bit miffed by the red color of CJ's soup.

The Singapore Emirates lounge has excellent Asian and subcontinent food.

 

Arriving at the gate we're pissed.  We had booked the Airbus 380 and they've substituted an old Boeing 777-300.  Worse yet our beautiful pod seat compartments which we loved last year on the flight to Africa are now replaced by narrow not quite layback seats.  And Emirates is pleased to inform us that they are not charging us more for the reduced comfort.  Just how did Emirates get to be the #1 or #2 airline in the world? And this was on top of changing our flight from one where we could make a connection to Adelaide to one where we had to overnight in Melbourne.

Without local phones to call the 24/7 shuttle, we end up walking to the Holiday Inn which is two or three blocks.  Additionally, even though our five large bags are tagged through to Adelaide, with an arrival after midnight, there is no place to recheck the bags after clearing customs since unlike in the US where the airlines tend to have a common bag recheck, we must walk the heavy carts to the Qantas terminal only to find there is no one available. We must then push the carts across city streets to the hotel  It was not a fun night.

In the Melbourne lounge, CJ has a chat with Peter Siddle, one of the Australia cricket team's most consistent bowlers. Four Aussie cricketers are on the plane to Adelaide with us.  They are going to train for the upcoming Test.

We arrive home in Adelaide shortly after noon. As much as it looked at times this year that we'd never make it, we're finally home again.