Home

Well, I made it home. The trip was uneventful. I had a short layover in Tokyo, which was pretty disappointing. There was a very limited selection of chocolate (e.g. no Cadbury), and the sushi was surprisingly average. The 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Dulles seemed endless, but it gave me plenty of time to finish Anna Karenina, which I had been lugging around since Feb. 1. Spoiler alert: she kills herself.

We landed in DC about 45 minutes early, and I was surprised to see that it was snowing! My conversation with the guy at passport control:

Guy (looking at my arrival card): You were on a vacation to Switzerland, India, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, and Japan?
Me: Yep.
Guy: How long were you gone?
Me: 2 months.
Guy: Welcome home.

Having survived that grilling, I was picked up by Todd and the boys, who were bearing cold Diet Sprite -- my first in 2 months.

I got home at 5 o'clock, exactly 25 hours after leaving my hotel in Singapore that morning. My first impression on arriving home was how much stuff I have. Having lived out of my relatively modest Patagonia bag -- with 3 pairs of shoes, 5 pairs of pants, etc. -- for 2 months, it was sort of shocking to see all of the clothes and shoes and toiletries and books and cds at my disposal.

Some stats:

Books read: 30
Flights: 23
Other modes of travel: trains, boats, buses, taxis, autorickshaws, tuk tuks, motos, cyclos, bicycle rickshaw, trishaw, bicycle, horse cart, elephant
Items lost: the cap to my moisturizer and 3 contact lenses

I plan to post about Vietnam in the next few days, so stay tuned.