Almost there...

After almost 45 days of adventuring across 3 different countries, we are just 9 hours away from returning home again. The return leg of our journey back to Perth has been challenging - we left Haifa at 5pm on Wednesday afternoon, spent that night at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv before our early morning flight to Turkey. We arrived in Istanbul at about 9am on Thursday morning, where Shanks and I, despite being severely sleep-deprived at that stage, went in search of the famed Bosphorus cymbals (more about that adventure in another blog!). Then we snatched a few hours of sleep at the hotel we stayed in previously, before setting out to make some last minute purchases (well, you didn't really expect us to leave Turkey without a carpet did you?). At midnight we hopped in a taxi to the airport for our 2:15am flight to New Delhi, arrived there at midday on Friday and once again, without having slept very much at all, had one final Indian market experience (not to mention one final masala dosa!) before heading back to the Baha'i House of Worship for some much needed peace and tranquility. This achieved, we experienced one last crazy rickshaw ride to the airport...there is nothing like a 1 hour rickshaw ride through the streets of Delhi to make you so glad to leave India! Despite our trepidation upon arriving once again at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, our fears were allayed as soon as we saw that there were no unimaginably horrendous queue awaiting us - we even ended up having an hour to spare before boarding!

We landed at Changi Airport at about 4:30am this morning, our third night without uninterrupted sleep! However, being in Changi has a tendency to relax and refresh you straight away - the airport is so clean and visually beautiful, full of little comforts like the famed foot massagers, exotic gardens and of course, the free internet (great for killing time!). We now have about 3 hours left before our flight to Perth...we both have mixed feelings upon our imminent return home. Our travels have provided such wonderful experiences that partly we both feel like just keeping on going. On the other hand, there is never anything quite like home. Shanks is looking forward to returning to his evening musings in the garden and meeting the latest duck/chicken arrivals that hatched while we were away! And we're both looking forward to a looong sleep!

Well, the next post will no doubt be from the comforts of our own home, where we will be able to post lots more photos and magical moments to share with you all.

Neither here nor there...

OK, so it wasn't the best start to our little adventure...Shanks was working outside until 3am and after coming inside to pack, he only managed to snatch bare minutes of sleep before we left home at 6:30am to go to the airport. I didn't get to bed at all...partly due to over-excitement, part just being so tired that all my attempts at packing were occurring at the pace of a three-toed sloth!

Never mind, we all managed to make it to the airport bright and early (Ted, you would have been proud of us!), and already having checked in online 2 days previously, we were quick to get through all the checkpoints.

Astrid had a VERY pleasant suprise for all of us on the other side of customs...one of her good friends was working at the Singapore Airlines lounge, and managed to get us all in for a free buffet breakfast before boarding! Looking and feeling quite out of place in amongst all the suits and laptops, that didn't stop any of us from having a good feed!

The flight to Singapore was uneventful, we are currently in Changi airport...Astrid is looking for a digital camera, Christian has parked himself at a bookshop, and well, you can tell where we are!

Next post...Chennai...we hope!