Travel Bits: May 2016

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I missed writing and publishing my regular Travel Bits series for the month of May 2016 by exactly one week. But rather than miss it completely, I decided it is better to be late than never. And so, I went about penning and publishing this blog post on a Sunday afternoon to make up for it. :-)

The last month had been an extremely busy one for me on the work front. However, just as I had an unexpected trip in April 2016 to Thiruvananthapuram (a.k.a. Trivandrum), I had another unexpected trip in May 2016. This was a last minute and hastily arranged work trip to Orlando in Florida of the United States to attend an industry conference.

Dome of the Orlando International Airport (IATA: MCO, ICAO: KMCO) as viewed from within the airport's passengers sitting area near the Duty Free shops, Orlando, Florida, United States (2016)

As usual with all my overseas trips regardless of whether these are for work or personal vacations, there are tons and tons of work to clear before, during and after the trip(s). But a chance to travel to a city that I had never previously traveled to and to a continent which I had never visited before was a thrilling experience despite this being a work trip.

The traveling part was tiring as I flew coach (a.k.a. economy class) all the way from Singapore to Tokyo to Washington DC before finally reaching Orlando. Total travel time including transits at the Narita and Washington Dulles airports was about 26 hours. The return trip was equally tiring as I flew (coach again) from Orlando to Denver to Tokyo and finally back home to Singapore clocking a grand total of 28 hours in travel time. ;-)

Denver International Airport (IATA: DEN, ICAO: KDEN), Denver, Colorado, United States (2016)

But visiting a continent, a country, a city and places for the first time bring with it immense learning and interesting experiences. Given the choice, I will re-trace this trip all over again; economy class flights, long airport security lines and all.

This coming December, I have plans to travel to the United States again. But this will be a relaxing 8-day trip to San Francisco on personal vacation with my family and I won't be flying coach!

An American Airlines Airbus A321 plane at one of the Gates of the Orlando International Airport, Orlando, Florida, United States (2016)

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