I think perhaps I could have organised all of these flights a little more efficiently, but because of those inconsiderate Christmas Island crabs, which can’t decide quite when they are going to migrate, I have had to maintain some flexibility in my schedule.
A month or so ago, when I booked my flight out of the States, I made sure that I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in time to fly from there to Christmas Island on the 7th November, if the crabs were on the move.
However, as the crabs started moving too late, and won’t be in time to spawn this month, I now fly back out of KL to Beijing. The irony is that as I write this blog, I have just spent 14 hours flying from LA to Taipei in Taiwan, on China Airlines, and from here it is a relatively short hop to Beijing. But I now fly down to KL, on China Airlines, then a day and a half later, back up to Beijing, but with AirAsia.
Never mind, the flights are all relatively cheap, and I get to spend a day or so in KL, which is a great place. I am very much looking forward to roti bread and sweet milky tea!
For the second time in my 100 weeks I lost a day by crossing the International Date Line heading west. I flew out of LAX late evening on the 4th, and 14 hours later arrived in Taipei on the morning of the 6th. Missed the 5th of November completely!
And I’m now back in the same timezone as when I started this second trip back in May, which now seems so long ago. In Perth in Western Australia it is the same time as here, and I feel like I am rapidly approaching the end of this part of the journey.
I just hope the jetlag isn’t too bad. It’s only 7.00 am here, but it’s now 3 o’clock in the afternoon yesterday where I left from! All very confusing!