We finally came to the end of our trip. We were excited to head home, but at the same time sad to end our journey - a mix of emotions for sure. We said good-bye to our awesome bungalow and began our long journey back to San Francisco.
Our itinerary was to take a boat to Lombok, get a shuttle bus to Senggigi to chill for lunch, get a ride to the airport, fly to Jakarta, fly to Seoul, Korea, and then fly to San Francisco. The total travel time: 43 hours! Amber was a proponent of breaking up the trip for a couple of days, but I wanted to maximize our island time and I made the plans.
Thankfully the journey went smoothly and our favorite part was our 8 hour layover in the Seoul airport. The airport was clean and modern, had some of the creature comforts from home like showers and Starbucks, and they were having a cultural festival. With time on our hands we immersed ourselves into the cultural festival and ate Korean food.
We were bummed that we didn't stay longer in Korea (I'll admit Amber was right about a stopover) and I think we realized on our way home that there was a lot of the world still left to see. Another adventure for another time I guess, because now we were making a beeline home.
There was a brief twinge of anxiety when going through customs in SFO. Did they figure out we went to a banned country in the Caribbean? But, the woman who stamped our passport was welcoming and friendly and we got through without incident.
Going up our stairs to our condo was quite a relief. The place was in fine working order and clean as our tenants were wonderful. We began to unpack our bags and our storage room to begin our new life in SF anew.
We made it. We had some ups and downs and thankfully more ups than downs, and even the downs were not even that bad. It is hard to believe that we achieved our big goal of traveling the world. I think we were a little stunned to be back.
More to come on our reactions to being home...
-Tom
Did you guys decide to say you went to Cuba or just omit that country on your form.
Posted by: Jen Floyd | 12/08/2010 at 10:26 AM
I think this last picture should be your Christmas Card! Love ya'll!
Posted by: Jane Reber | 12/08/2010 at 04:38 PM
Tom & Amber,
Great to follow your adventures on line, I have read all your posts and have found them very entertaining, educational, informative and have loved the photos. Have a great Christmas and New Year!
Cheers,
James
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I have my blessings on the 365 flower buds, they open one day, a beautiful day to bless you.
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