Singapore Trip!

When Blake, Camille and Pierce moved to Singapore almost 3 years ago, Keith and I did not know if we would ever make it halfway around the world to see them so for years we lived vicariously through the rest of his family who have been able to visit them multiple times. Camille is great about updating her blog almost daily so we are able to keep up with them virtually. But seeing them in person is always so much better so when we had the opportunity last month to visit them, we jumped at the chance to fly thousands of miles to Asia. Well, it took a little convincing Keith that the 15+ hour flight wouldn't be "that bad" but once the tickets were confirmed, there was no backing out.

Camille has already blogged about our trip so just click on the link below to see tons of photos!
http://dentonnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/rest-period-is-over-pics-of-uncle-keith.html
http://dentonnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/tours-around-singapore-with-k-e.html
http://dentonnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/chinatown-and-night-life-with-k-e.html
http://dentonnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/universal-studios-day-3-with-k-and-e.html
http://dentonnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/last-days-with-k-and-e.html

I do have quite a story to tell of our adventures in getting to Singapore. I guess I fly with a black cloud over my head because I seem to encounter endless problems when traveling! It all started on our flight from Dallas to Houston on Thursday night where that flight was 2.5 hours late getting in. So after landing at almost midnight, Julie picked us up at the airport and we slept for a few hours at her house and left very early the next morning to head back to the Houston airport to catch our flight to San Francisco. On the way to the airport, we find out that our flight to San Francisco has been cancelled and Continental had booked us on another flight to Chicago that left 40 minutes earlier than our original flight. I like to consider myself a well-seasoned traveler BUT the Continental check-in at IAH is AWFUL. They no longer have agents standing behind desks (I guess they're trying to save money) so instead, 3 agents share the responsibility of 20+ self-service kiosks. We tried scanning our passports and entering our info into the computer 3 different times but the airline had us still booked on 2 flights (one to San Fran and the other to Chicago) since the computer didn't recognize our original flight was cancelled. What a mess! Finally after standing at the same kiosk for over 30 minutes, we found an agent willing to help override the system. Frantic, we quickly got to security which was the longest line I had ever seen at an airport. There was another couple in front of us in line on our same flight to Chicago that left the gate in 20 minutes so all 4 of us cut in front of hundreds of passengers to get to the front of the line. Of course I got delayed in security after going through the new body scanners...the walkie talkies weren't working so I had to wait for what seemed like forever for the security guard to give me the ok to grab my bags and go. Tennis shoes in hand, Keith and I literally sprinted to our gate only to find out they had just closed the doors and the plane was taking off without us. Luckily there were about 10 other people in the same boat so it wasn't too disheartening. We were booked on a later flight out to Chicago and still made our connection to Hong Kong. I've never been on a 15 hour flight before but I wish they would make the seats a little more comfortable! When we sat down on the plane and started to get situated, Keith found out that his volume button on the headphone jack didn't work so he was out of luck. Thankfully the lady in front of us had 3 seats to herself so we used her headphone jack the entire flight for Keith to be able to watch all the movies. We survived the longest flight of our lives and finally landed in Hong Kong for a short layover. We just had to get off the plane, go through security TWICE and then get right back on the same plane. After boarding on time, we sat on the runway for almost FIVE hours. How in the world could a plane we just spent over 15 hours on have mechanical problems on such a short layover? The pilot kept coming over the PA saying that in another 15-20 minutes he would have updates for us but hours and hours of hearing the same thing, we all figured we would be stuck in Hong Kong overnight. At one point the pilot said the airport was sending buses to the plane to get all the passengers so we could sit in the terminal until the new parts we were waiting on were delivered and installed. Surprise, surprise, but the buses never came. I found 4 open seats and took a really long nap while Keith stayed up and watched a movie and a few hours of tv shows the plane was playing for us. Just to prove how small this world really is, there was a young American couple with their 2 year old daughter sitting behind us on the flight from Hong Kong to Singapore and she asked me when we first sat down if by chance I went to Texas A&M. I smiled and said yes and then she asked if I was a Kappa and I said yes again and come to find out she was a Kappa with me at A&M, just one year older than me. She looked really different from college which is why I didn't recognize her right from the beginning. She and her husband actually live in Singapore, know Blake and Camille and even go to their church. Crazy! So once we finally made it to Singapore and through customs, we had Blake waiting for us! He had called the airline numerous times to find out exactly what time we would land but he kept getting different answers to he drove up to the airport at midnight and slept in his car until 5:30 am when we finally emerged from the plane. Poor guy. It was quite a trek to get to Singapore but a 24+ hour flight we will never forget...

Sentosa Beach

That's a casino and small amphitheater behind us!

Chinatown

Fountain of Wealth...we'll see if it works!

We had the absolute BEST time with the Singapore Denton's! Thank you for sharing your city and home with us. We loved being to see you all for an entire week (and we got Pierce all to ourselves!!). We miss you already.