Out of Africa (Dec. 27 & 28/08 - Nairobi, Kenya to Singapore)

Since we learned of the violence occuring recently in India, we decided to avoid putting ourselves in unnecessary danger by skipping India altogether. It was a difficult decision to make since we were very much looking forward to experiencing the country, but for now it will have to wait until a trip in the future. As a blessing in disguise, we now have an extra three weeks to spend in southeast Asia, which will help to stretch out that portion of our trip. So today we are flying to Singapore, and from there we will probably hop over to Borneo for a week or two before heading up to Cambodia and Vietnam when our visas kick in mid January. Once we get to Singapore, though, nothing is booked until we fly out of Bali in March, so we're pretty much going to wing it! For a couple of rookie backpackers, that's both intimidating and exciting!

Our 3pm flight out of Nairobi was delayed until almost 7pm, so after spending nine hours at the airport, we were happy to be finally on our way. But when we landed in Doha, Qatar, mass confusion ensued as we ended up in th departure area still needing to check in, get our boarding passes, and collect our bags. We were directed four different ways before finally being told to come back later when everything would be taken care of. And it was! With $2 US in our pocket, we spent an hour trying to get money out of the bank machine and then trying to find somewhere that could change a $100 US bill so we could buy a sandwich. Gotta love airports! It was just a short hop over to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), where we struggled to get a bit of sleep in the crowded departure hall, since it was 6am and we had only managed a short nap on the first leg. By the time 10am rolled around, we boarded the big, spacious Etihad Airways airbus and were treated to individual movies and a yummy lunch before finally getting some sleep. A camera pointed straight down below the belly of the plane showed the green fields of central India pass below us, followed by a long stretch of blue as we crossed the Bay of Bengal.

It was 10pm local time by the time we landed in Singapore, but we had no trouble making our way downtown on the skytrain to find a hostel that was listed in the Lonely Planet. Phew! For the same price as paying for two people to stay in the dorm, we got a room that was about 7x7 feet, no windows, air conditioning, and our own giant fire hose box to use as a table. Works for us! So we made it to Singapore, got our bags, got a shower - we're happy! It might take us a couple days to readjust an get some 'chores' done, but then we have a new city and all of southeast Asia ready to be explored!