Day 44 & 45: "Welcome Home"

We finally made it home after exactly 30 hours of door-to-door travel, leaving us with mixed emotions.

We got in a cab at 10 in the morning in Jakarta to head to the airport. The driver told Ashwin that he looked like a young Ronald Reagan (really?) and Danny that he looked like Chuck Norris (it's the beard). We had thought we had seen the end of our look-a-like possibilities, but then the taxi driver went on to say that Danny (yeah, Danny) looked like a terrorist and pointed to his beard. Twenty seconds after paying and getting out of the cab, Ashwin realized that he was without one of his most essential possessions on the trip (second only to his passport, of course) - his Tilly hat. He turned around and ran into the street chasing after a pale blue cab like a game of frogger, only to find out that it was not the right one (they all look exactly the same). Our cab was already out of site. After 45 days Ashwin loses his hat 2 hours prior to boarding our flight home, sending him into a depression that he may never recover from.

When we saw the gigantic economy check in line, guess what we did. We glanced at each other and without even speaking a word walked straight to the front of the "Diamond Card" desk. Without questioning our status as infrequent fliers with EVA, the man at the desk checked us in to seats in row 27. It wasn't until we boarded the plane that we realized he had checked us into business class - the first 20 rows are in the upper deck of the 747, leaving us 7 rows behind the nose of the plane. Sometimes not following "the rules" has its benefits. We were easily able to sleep for the entire 5 hour flight to Taipei.

For our 3 hour layover in Taipei, we spent nearly an hour searching for a minimart to buy snacks and caffeinated drinks for our 12 hour flight to LA. In an effort to avoid jetlag, we had decided to stay awake for the whole flight so that when we landed at 11 pm we would be tired and ready for bed. Mind you, our flight left Taipei at midnight, making this an extremely difficult task. Despite having more upscale shopping than most American malls, the international airport didn't have a single minimart, forcing us to purchase 6 cans of coffee from a vending machine, and spending our remaining cash on a fancy box of Swiss dark chocolate (not exactly health food but it helped).

The on-demand personal entertainment systems provided us with nonstop audiovisual stimulus for the next 12 hours, making the task of staying up all night a little easier. We managed to watch a total of 5 feature length films: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (typical terrible cheesy chick flick), The Soloist (an excellent drama), Adventureland (hilarious but not to be seen again), Fast & Furious 4 (was the 3rd one even necessary?), and finally The Birdcage (a properly categorized "Timeless Classic" that had us laughing out loud in our seats and waking up the people around us). We were the only people smart enough to stay awake for the whole flight (or dumb enough?). We really do question how all of these people will adjust to the time change when they wake up in LA at 11 pm. Staying awake was no easy feat, and we were both struggling by the 5 hour mark. Our protocol became downing a cup of coffee, eating a few pieces of chocolate, taking a few "No Jet Lag" pills (which worked miraculously via the placebo effect), climbing over the guy in the aisle seat, walking laps through the plane, and stretching in the flight attendants’ kitchen in the back. We were afraid that we would be detained at immigration for suspected drug use with our glazed over, blood shot eyes (not to mention our 6-week beards), but when we finally got off the plane we went through customs like a knife through warm butta (sorry, we couldn't resist). We were very surprised that Danny was not quarantined for having a terrible case of “Yellow Fever”. Doctor Ashwin (a title only 5 years premature) believes that a few days in Santa Barbara will cure his ailment, but that he probably shouldn’t step foot in Berkeley anytime soon. It wasn't until the custom agent's greeting of "Welcome home" did we truly feel like we were back in America. We got a bit nervous when more than an hour went by and we still didn't have our backpacks. Luckily, they were among the last few pieces to pop out onto the carousel.

Stepping out into the cool Los Angeles air was amazingly refreshing, more so to our bodies than our lungs. We celebrated with a high five and a "America, Fuck Yeah!" cheer (May, if you don't understand the cultural reference, we're sure Michael can fill you in). Even being back in America people were staring at us (as we still were among the few white people - have you ever been to Tom Bradley at midnight? - and were decked out in matching USA Polo Team jerseys). When we got off the SB Airbus, we finally took in a breath of crisp cool sea air.

It was wonderful to be back home in America, land where the air is clean, the food is recognizable, the butchers remove the bones from the meat, and the tap water is drinkable, land where the showers are hot and separated from the toilet, the toilet paper is two-ply quilted, the toilets actually have seats, and the public bathrooms are free of charge, land where the roads are paved, the traffic laws are obeyed, and the buses are air-conditioned, and, finally, land where purchasing a t-shirt does not involve a 15 minute negotiation where the guy you have known for only a few minutes calls you "my good friend" repeatedly until you shell out twice what the item is worth.

Despite everything we missed about America during our 6 week tour of Southeast Asia, we wouldn't have wanted it any other way. The unique cultures, exceptionally friendly people, and breathtaking scenery made our adventure truly memorable. Writing this blog has been especially rewarding - to have you along for the ride with us and us in your thoughts back home, as well as providing us with reinforcement for our merely human capacity for memory. Like all things in life our SE Asia adventure has come to an end, but this is by no means an end to our world travels (we are in negotiations with the Travel Channel for our own adventure show).

We'd like to leave you all with a few numbers to summarize the trip:

-70: Lowest elevation achieved (hint: we were not dry)
1: Unforgettable trip
2: # of hemispheres visited
3: Most number of nights spent in the same room
4: # of times we’ve contemplated joining AA
5: Ashwin’s favorite number (sorry, nothing happened 5 times)
6: # of countries visited (a very American way to travel)
7: # of bro-shirts collected (not sure what we’ll do with them now)
8: # of nights spent on moving vehicles (17% of all nights)
9: # of times lectured by foreigners about the US welfare system
10: # of times Janet has reminded us to hydrate
15: # of people following the blog just for Michael’s comments
20: # of times we've been mistaken as twins or brothers
25: # of times May has been worried about our well-being
45: # of times we said “Damn, this is the life!” (every day, no joke)
90: # of times the “4th generation” joke applied (at least Anu gets it)
109: Average # of unique visitors to our blog per day (thank you StatCounter)
22,000: # of miles traveled (est via Google Maps)
10 million: # of grains of rice eaten (a mere guesstimation but not too far off)
Countless: # of memories that will last us a lifetime


If you are ever contemplating a trip to Southeast Asia, please don't hesitate to contact us at aatre55@gmail.com and danseigle@gmail.com. We'd love to share our newfound insider knowledge and are open for hire as personal tour guides (we promise plenty of, if not too much, excitement).


"Memories are a part of human experience, at times so deep as to be permanent" - Chen Chi-Kwan