City of Lights to the Land of the Sun

In a swift of smooth velocity, I gained 8hrs and found warm bright sunlight when I opened my eyes.

Perhaps you're wandering what I'm talking about, perhaps you already know, if you've been keeping tabs on the ever so mobile me (I've not found any GPS transmitter on me yet but I'll keep an eye opened for it just in case...).

Travelling in Dec/Jan season is never a good time I fear. Must be the year end buzz, for those planes just never take off nor land on schedule no more. Tension is high with all the long lines at the check-in counters, passport control and security check. Many people had to repack their suitcases to the allowed weight limit. The girl at the counter made me removed 3kgs from my bag as well. Thank God I had an empty bag at hand. CDG must have really tightened up on their security measures as well. As I was waiting in line at passport control/security check, out came 3 policemen: one walking ahead, one leading a passenger with his hands cuffed behind towards the exit, and one pulling the suspect's check-in suitcase(It seems that all check-in bags go through security AFTER the check-in procedure, hence from the
tag attached one can tell immediately). I wonder what the man had in his bag that warranted his arrest, but it obviously didn't please airport security.

Everything went smooth flowing after security check, although the late departure didn't go too well with my pangs of hunger for lunch... lol... But soon we were on air, and then lunch! (^_^) It was a pleasant flight, with me attacking the food while being absorbed with The Da Vinci Code in French(I snatched my friend's copy) at the same time. I think I shall give Angels and Demons a try in Italian next...
4 hours later, we landed and applause broke out...!

Moscow International Airport is one word: tiny. The "world's best duty free shops" are found in little corners of the corridors between the gates. Duty free products are quoted in Euros, while anything else is all in Rubbles. I heard that Russian chocs are quite the thing to pick up from Russia, so I bagged two boxes.... FInally, the last leg of my journey is about to begin. Hoping for at least some movies to cure my boredom, to my dismay the inflight system was not working! If not for
the book and my Ipod, I would have just cried myself to sleep, but that wouldn't have worked for the kind granny like Russian lady (on her way to Sydney via Tokyo) would have tried her very best to comfort me in... only Russian. I wished hard during the 9hr long flight that my Russian friend Alyona was beside me to translate instead of me trying to communicate in sign language! What a sight we were, the 2 people (an American as well) sitting by her side.

We finally got into Narita around 11ish. Applause. The plane couldn't park for 15mins so we were nicely tucked away in a big fat bird. But everything cleared up and I finally got out of the airport around 12. My bags took forever to come out!! Oh, one big thing I've got to clarify, TOKYO is not NARITA, NARITA is not TOKYO. Narita Airport is in CHIBA, a different prefecture altogether, making Tokyo city at
least an hour away by the fastest train!

All say and done, I got myself in one piece back to my place around 2pm. Of course the whole procedure of unpacking, laundry, sorting out the pile of mail (one month's worth!!) etc and here I end up, writing such a long piece (the longest ever on my blog).

All's well ends well. Applause.

ps. Some of you might have gotten this on your emails.