Part I - Getting there

I took the Bar exam at the end of July and left for Indonesia a week later since I wouldn't get my results for 3+ months anyway. I had never been there before so I decided I would go to Bali first because it's the easiest place for a clueless tourist like me to start out. It was a fairly known quantity - I knew basically where the famous surf spots were, I knew there would be surf that time of year, and I knew it would be crowded.

My parents drove me up to LAX and, luckily, we were way too early so we stopped at In-N-Out on the way up. I had gone to Juanita's the day before, so I had a good solid fix of my favorite foods before I left. I still got to the check-in counter 30 minutes before it opened, but that was OK because it saved having to carry my surfboards around in a check-in line. The second person to get in line behind me was professional surfer Clay Marzo, who was only 17 or so. He was going to the surf video production mecca the Mentawai Islands, so we were on the same flight to Singapore. After I checked in I just went up to the waiting area and watched my last American sunset for a while. I liked the idea of not seeing the sun again until I was on the opposite side of the world - corny huh?

The flight to Singapore was maybe 12 hours or so, I forget. It was actually not bad at all, I watched several movies and the food was pretty good. It was strange - we took off in the dark and flew west "chasing the dark" all the way around the world, so that we landed in the dark. It was still an hour before dawn even though to me it had been dark for something like 15 hours straight. My theory on avoiding jet lag is to stay awake until it is time to go to sleep in your new time zone. So I bought some coffee, then I bought some more coffee, then I settled in for my (sigh) 11 hour layover in Singapore.

The Singapore airport is like no other airport I've seen. It is HUGE. It has a movie theater, dozens of restaurants, dozens of tv lounges, free internet access, free XBOX360 access, many upscale duty-free stores. I decided to forgo all of that and do the free tour of the city. Like everything in Singapore, these tours are ridiculously well-organized. We left for the tour and arrived back at the airport exactly on time, even though they had to deal with a group of 1oo people going through customs. Here's some photos I took during the tour:

A small part of the skyline as seen from the Singapore River.

There are interesting buildings everywhere you look.

There are dozens of little restaurants right on the river, with every kind of food you can think of.

The building on the left is a recently built opera house.

A closeup of the opera house.

After the tour I wandered around the airport, had a couple meals, then got on my plane to Bali.



Go on to Part II - Arrival in Bali