So the planning shifted to two weeks and we added a stop-over in Hong Kong because friends from our adoption group had recently moved there and had also extended an invitation to us to visit.
Our savvy travel agent booked tickets to Singapore via a layover in Taiwan and then flew us from Singapore to Hong Kong. The most difficult part of the trip for me was going to be the ten hour layover in Taipei after a fifteen hour flight. I've done some daring travel in my life but schlepping my volatile daughter halfway across the world with her brother BY MYSELF takes the cake. I did lose a few nights sleep in anticipation but then calmed a bit when I decided to hire a guide to pick us up at the airport, show us around, and return us in time for our flight. Mostly to make sure that I didn't lose my children because I passed out in the back of his car.
EM and I decided to have a party for Jack's class on Thursday the day before we were to leave. My flight was at one on Friday and I figured that I would pack after the party. I sent e-vites out to thirty students, other friends and their parents. I ordered the Margarita and snow cone machines and pizza. I cleaned the house and then I got a call from my travel agent to go over the details of the layover in Taiwan.
Thank God she called because if she hadn't I would have missed the flight. I was right in thinking that I was leaving at one on Friday. But wrong in thinking that it was 1PM. The flight was at 1AM!!! This meant that I actually had to leave for the airport on Thursday. So in classic Isabelle fashion, I decided to leave for the airport from our own party (and have EM clean up on his own). The party was held. Everyone came to celebrate and to laugh at me and ask me if I was packed. (I wasn't.) The party was supposed to be from 1 to 6 (giving me four hours to get my act together before having to leave). Of course nothing ever goes as planned and our guests partied until the last ones left around 8:30PM. I dashed around the house gathering the list of items I needed to bring... making sure I had the Benadryl and the DVD player... grabbing cameras bathing suits and Advil.
I surveyed my haul: One rolling suitcase (for the three of us for two weeks). One rolling carry-on. One stroller. One backpack and one tote. EM was impressed by my packing. My goal was to do laundry at my friends' and be able to move around the airport without Jack's help in case he was too exhausted.
The first seven hours of the flight went well because Makena slept. Then she woke up and tolerated the flight for another two hours until she decided that she wanted off the plane. The rest is a blurr. I do remember her screaming and crying so hard and for so long that she didn't want to wear the seatbelt as the plane began its descent into Taiwan and also that a flight attendant finally came up to me a minute before we landed and told me that they would not "see" me if I chose to hold her on my lap. So I did and Makena stopped her tantrum. Those Margaritas were beating drums inside my head.
Thankfully our guide was waiting for us when we cleared customs and took us around town for some sightseeing.
A stop at a Buddhist temple (to pray for a smooth layover and for a smooth flight to Singapore).
Chiang Kai-shek memorial park.
Makena phoning home.
The panda exhibit at the Taiwan zoo...
Making the best of it in 105 - high humidity heat.
Lunch at Taiwan 101 - currently the world's tallest building and then off to the airport for the flight to Singapore...(To be continued)
Is-far and away
PS: All these pictures were taken with my Iphone because in my rush to get out of the house I took my camera but forgot to take the battery that was left in the charger.
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