Day 1 - Oct 10,2007
M. Shafe’
Leaving alone from San Francisco for this 8300-mile journey, we planned this trip months in advance, and all seven of us were looking forward to a 10-day vacation in Indonesia - the Gili Islands and Bali, Indonesia. We were all looking for different and exotic experiences, and 2 of the couples were looking forward to some underwater scuba adventures.
My wife Kimiko, departed a week earlier and made stops in Japan and Singapore. Next to being away from my wife, the toughest part was encasing 12 bottles of wine for the trip in my luggage. Wine, which we all enjoyed, was scarce in predominantly Muslim Indonesia and extremely expensive, so we decided to pack our own. It turned out to be a fortunate match and completed our exquisite meals we were served later in Bali.
My flight took 14 hours to reach Hong Kong , and I counted the hours down as they packed the plane dense like my luggage. Making for a very uncomfortable flight, a broad shouldered person was seated next to me in a middle seat and was not considerate of my paltry space the airline provided me; I had to put a pillow between us to avoid being ‘tapped’ all the time by his elbow. A few movies eased the flight monotony, including the latest terrorist saga of Die Hard, and a Ben Kingsley flick of a hard working mafia alcoholic hit-man sent out of New York to San Francisco to get away from it all.
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