d-Wizz Hankuk Travel Diary [2005]
Day 35 (2005-08-30) / Day 36 (2005-08-31) / Day 37 (2005-09-01) 
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Day 36: 2005-08-31 (Wednesday)
I woke up naturally at 0450 and lay in bed for a few moments. Paul woke up shortly afterwards and prepared some toast for breakfast, then went to have a shower. I had a shower when he came out, then I began to pack everything up and prepare to leave with Paul.
We took a taxi to the station and caught a train at 0623 to Machida. Paul led the way to the bus stop, which was not far away. My bus was due to leave at 0650. I paid the ¥3,500 fare and boarded the bus when it arrived. We each took a few last photos of each other at the bus stop; me with my camera, and Paul with his mobile phone. We even took one when I was on the bus!
The bus crawled through the traffic for about 20 minutes, but once we were on the expressway, it was a much smoother run, all the way to Narita Airport. During the trip, we crossed the Yokohama Bay Bridge, a spectacular suspension bridge; in fact, the whole expressway for about 10km each side of this bridge is an engineering marvel in itself. We arrived at the airport at 0920, as per schedule, and I went to check in my luggage. I had rearranged the luggage so that the heavier items (CDs, books, etc) were in my backpack (which I would carry on board the plane), so that the suitcases were as light as possible. They tipped the scales at 28.8kg, and I escaped paying a surcharge. I think my backpack must have weighed at least half as much as the suitcases again!
I had to post the kippu ticket back to Tsyuoko at Fuji, as she would use the fifth and final day on it to return to Odai. I found a post office and arranged for it to be sent away.
There was not much time to do much else, not that there was much to do at the airport, except shopping, and as I had no money left, I decided to proceed through immigration and board my flight. It was a smooth procedure, and they just waved me through after scanning my backpack twice (maybe there was so much in it, they had to have a second look!).
At 1104, I boarded flight SQ997 to Singapore. It departed the terminal at 1131 and left the ground twenty minutes later on a 5,361km flight which was expected to take about 6 hours.
During the flight, I spoke briefly with the passenger sitting next to me. His name was Tanaka, and he was en route to Malaysia to present some seminars for the Kenwood company, something to do with in-car audio. I mentioned that Kenwood was well-known in Australia for high quality home entertainment systems, but we both conceded that the market has rapidly changed with the advent of MP3 and DVD home theatre, and Kenwood’s main focus was now on car audio.
I had specifically asked for a window seat, as I had intended to attempt to take some photos from the plane. Unfortunately, most of the trip was over sea, and it was covered by cloud anyway – not surprising really, as we had to deviate our course to dodge a typhoon! This actually caused a little turbulence, and I was a little apprehensive when the captain mentioned the typhoon, but it wasn’t as bad I thought it would be. I did get a couple of great photos of interesting cloud formations in the upper atmosphere.
As the plane descended for the landing at Singapore, the shadow was very clear on the ground, so I aimed my camera and captured a fantastic shot! I was very happy with the photo, and Tanaka added his approval when I showed it to him.
Our wheels kissed the ground at 1713 local time, having been airborne for 6hrs 22min. Our top speed during the flight was 980km/h, assisted by a gale force tail wind of nearly 100 km/h – probably an indirect result of the typhoon. I was watching FlightPath, and wondered if we would break the 1,000km/h mark, but we didn’t.
I went inside the terminal building to kill four hours until the flight to Brisbane was scheduled to depart. I decided to send a few e-mails to people to let them know where I was and how I was going. The free internet kiosks only give you 15 minutes at a time; then they log you off and whatever is not saved is lost. I had to retype a very long e-mail I was composing to a friend when the time came up without me noticing. I was able to avoid that happening again by sending the unfinished e-mail to myself first, then logging back on to finish it and send it to my friend. I was using the internet for nearly one hour!
I was beginning to feel hungry, so I went in search of food. I had changed all my Singaporean money at Busan into yen, so I only had $2.75 in local currency. I looked at the choices and realised I would not be able to buy any food unless I got some more Singaporean money. I was concerned that to change a small amount of Australian money would incur a relatively large conversion fee, so I baulked at this option. As I was thinking about what to do, I saw a currency exchange kiosk and noted with interest that there was no conversion fee (although I wondered about whether this fee was integrated into transactions by means of a worse exchange rate). I eventually made a decision to change $AUD5 into $SIN. I received $6.15 in return, which was enough to buy something to eat.
I went up to the food court on the next level and saw a Burger King, which I initially shied away from, not really in the mood for a burger, but the alternatives did not take my fancy either, so I resigned myself to a Whopper & Cheese Value Meal – my first burger for over a month!
I also noticed a sign that had escaped my attention when I was first at the food court with only $2.75 in my pocket. The sign indicated that payment was accepted in seven major world currencies, including yen and Australian dollars (but not Korean won). Any change would be given in Singaporean dollars. Had I seen this sign first, I could have paid for a meal with Australian money, without having to change it first. The exchange rate was almost the same as at the kiosk.
I took my burger, fries and drink and put all my luggage on a stray trolley. Then I proceeded to the gate from which my flight to Brisbane was leaving, even though it was still over one hour until departure.
Flight SQ235 began boarding at 2052hrs, and things happened very quickly after that. We were taxiing along the runway just 16 minutes later and took off at 2118, bound for Brisbane. The flight of 6,148km was due to arrive at 0600 Brisbane time the next day.
I was finally coming home!
Day 35 (2005-08-30) / Day 36 (2005-08-31) / Day 37 (2005-09-01)
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