Asia, here we come!!

Travel is an adventure. It’s fulfilling (at least to us), and is a wonderful way to get to experience things in cultures that we’d only otherwise see on the Discovery Channel.

It is also, unfortunately, a royal pain in the butt. Not the travel itself, because for the most part once you’re away from home and on the trip, the roller coaster has started. You ain’t gettin’ off until the ride is over, and it is what it is.

The worst part of travel lately, though, is packing to leave and then being treated like cattle headed off to market by the airlines as you’re packed into seats modeled after those in a 1964 Volkswagon Beetle while the airline forces the flight crew to see how much humans can actually endure.

Flying in coach isn’t the luxury adventure that it was just a few years ago.

There are, however, bright spots on that landscape. Last year on the way to Australia (http://ebljaus2009.blogspot.com, in case you missed it) Qantas Airlines was very pleasant, both across the ocean and once we were there.

This year, Singapore Airlines promises to be even more luxurious. Because our eventual destination is Singapore, we’ve been booked on them (other than a Usairways flight from Charlotte to Los Angeles to start the trip).

This is how people learned to love airplane flights.

Right after booking, they contacted us with the menus for meals we’d have in flight.

Imagine that – food on an airplane. If the reports are right, it’s not just a bag of peanuts and a soda, but real, hot food that you might order in a restaurant. There were easily half a dozen choices, and the menu was more like you’d expect on a 5 star restaurant than an airplane.

The other thing that’s great about this flight is that it recognizes that travelers – mostly Americans -- are a bit uncomfortable being quite so physically close to strangers unless there’s some type of permanent relationship involved.

We’re also bigger than the average Asian, and need a bit more, ummm “breadth” to our seats, probably because we tend to eat so much breadth along with our meals.

The plane we’re on is all business class. There are only 100 seats on the entire airplane, and you’re in your own little cocoon, complete with a 15 inch television screen (and entertainment in half a dozen different languages), you can plug in your own iPod (if you know how) or iPhone (if you have one), or the thumb drive on your computer (assuming it has things you’d like to see while flying, like photographs you took on your trip).

Instead if keeping you folded into an unnatural position for hours over the Pacific Ocean, each of the 36 inch seats (36 inches!! Wider than the Lazy Boy in the living room!!) folds down flat into a bed before they tuck you in and read you a story.

Adjustments will have to be made, of course. I’m betting there’s no electric blankie to go with it, although I’d also bet there’s no need for that, either.

There is, however, electricity to power your laptop in flight, although the particular plane we’re flying doesn’t have internet capabilities. Yet.

I was really disappointed last year when that wasn’t on the Qantas plane we were on. Not that we really needed it, but there’s something about the cool factor of getting to post to the blog while flying over the ocean. There are, however, telephones for free seat-to-seat calls, should you want to visit with the other people on the plane.

Amazing. Travel on an airplane, and being far enough away from other people that you weren’t constantly excusing yourself for bumping them.

In the meantime, of course, there is the chaos of figuring out what to take, what to leave, what can we buy there if it turns out we need it. Normally, I’d be stressed over what book(s) to take to read and which ones to load on my iPod. On a regular flight, the audio books are a blessing because once you plug them into your ears you can get by without moving again and thus avoid disturbing the folks next to you. This looks like a flight that might be kind of fun, though.

So we start yet another adventure. This year we’re going to try to post more photographs to go with the monologues, and I’ll try to write shorter posts. It’s not in my nature, and I make no promises. But I’ll try.

For now, though, we have to go pack.