My first trip to Asia to meet the Singapore folks. It seems each person in our group took a different path. Some more efficient than others and I was on the lower end of this scale. Just about 24 hours of travel and I was the only one who took the westward route. I wanted the miles and Business Elite from Atlanta to Tokyo is sweet. It also set me up for a layover in SLC on the return. Proper planning is essential.

I think they should have Business Elite on continental flights. You watch movies in your seat, tap on a few keys, you sleep, you eat, you drink, you sleep. When you wake up there's a nice looking flight attendant who refills your glass so you sleep some more. That's airline strategy. Keep people locked in a small tube for 14 hours without complaining through food, wine and a very comfortable reclining chair. It works mostly. But by hour 12 I was ready to jump out a window. The flight path took us over Anchorage and the Aleutian Islands. That was amazing.

I don't do much international travel so I have a bus approach to the system. Not checking in bags helps. At Narita I had all of 15 minutes to make a connection. I didn't know there wouldn't be another flight that day and didn't feel like paying attention to travel agents. Talking about feeling out of place. I was the only tall non-Asian in the terminal. It was crowded so the visibility was handy.

The surreal moment came when I saw some girl holding card with my name on it. It had to be me. Then she tried to pronounce it. 20 minutes later I was still trying to figure out what they were trying to tell me. I know all of a dozen or so words in Japanese (thanks to Yoko). Hungry, tired, cold, scared, crazy didn't seem to help communication. Finally someone who spoke a few more words of English showed up who explained to me that I should hurry to catch my next flight. But I knew that and now for sure I missed it.

They escorted me to the plane which was waiting for me. What service. They closed the door behind me and explained that my carry-on would not fit in the upstairs cabin. That's when you get that Ben Stiller feeling of over my dead body. But instead they took it and put it inside some closet while escorting me upstairs. No match for business elite but you can't beat the service. When we landed it was the job of a flight attendant to wait at the bottom of the stairs with my bag. I think airlines should do that with all baggage.

If Changi was any indication, this place really is a melting pot of sorts. More noticable than in New York. People of all cultures, accents and colors lined the terminal. I blended in much more here. Some people back home had a bet going on whether or not I would be caned. More likely for doing something stupid than malicious. The first test came when leaving the secure area. There were two exits. One for declaring and one for not. And no one was there. I don't think I have anything worth mentioning but who knows. Since standing there before the two signs was making me feel more suspicious I just walked out. No one followed.

This is about the time you (if you're me) realize that you have absolutely no idea where you are. That's ok with me it's just a matter of figuring out what to do next. There were normal taxis and then there were airport taxis (we might call them limos). I figured an airport taxi was a safer bet. For about 30 sinagpore dollars (whatever those amounted to) I was delivered to my hotel and got a complete explanation of the housing developments (we might call them projects but most everyone lives in one) along the way. This is where I re-discovered the value of a travel guide which of course I never had time to get. The right answer was a normal taxi for half the price and there is no tipping in Singapore.

I did some things remarkably right. I got to my destination without a map, in one piece, no significant lay-overs, 50,000 or so ff miles, and timed it such that I woke up at 7am with my clock in tact. Only I lost saturday somewhere in there. When I began to explore downtown and with the help of various street people and merchants I came to realize that shorts and loud tropical shirts are not the thing to wear. Changed into t-shirt and jeans (even though it's practically on the equator) to discover that this city halfway around the globe looks a lot like Boston. I wonder if they use the same construction company.

Being from the northeast I'm not accustomed to the level of respect and hospitality everyone treats visitors. Although at times it leaves you with a sinking feeling that you are being called a moron underneath the smiles. If you actually hear it now and again you believe the good vibes. I'm not a very outgoing person with new people but I discovered that it's all relative to your environment. Sometimes I had to try and be extra quiet to avoid feeling like a boisterous American.

I think I crossed a line at NUS when Cisco decides to drop in for a visit. I was using the conference room to catch up on email and there just aren't many available connections here. Cisco is selling IP telephones and send the nearest sales people (one from Australia and another from Hong Kong) to promote the party line. I couldn't hold it in anymore. Later I was told that it wasn't that the faculty and staff agreed with everything said by repeatedly nodding and smiling, they just don't exclaim You don't get it out loud. But for me it was just a replay of conversations I already had with a few of Cisco's product managers who seem to go deaf when talking to universities. Maybe because we won't impact the stock price (which was doing much better then). While Mike is used to our headstrong technical MIT ways, like doubting the claim that replacing a 5ESS with NT is an upgrade, I think he would rather I didn't crash their sales meetings in other countries.

Halfway around the world and a quarter the way under, the big meeting is with a group of MIT people sitting on the other side of a screen in building 9. Now that's surreal. It was worth the trip anyway but I had to get back because the plans for our new computer facility were being finalized the following week. Next time I hope to take more time and explore that part of the world. Or maybe our next meeting should be a compromise somewhere in between.

I left without a scratch on my ass.