March 25, 2006 The next chapter: Singapore
The National University of Singapore provided a ticket on Singapore
Airlines - a direct flight from Newark to Singapore. Previously when I took
the United flight - from Chicago to Singapore, we flew west, over the
North Pole and down toward the equator over Siberia, Manchuria, etc.
Yesterday's flight took the eastern routh - over the North Pole and then
down through central Russia and over Mongolia, China, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Thailand and into Singapore. Consider
flying near the North Pole - crossing 13 time zones in about 10 min.
For the young learners out there - see if you can figure out the
answer (Hint - don't think of the map of the world as a rectangle (as
shown below) but as a nice round orange with the North as the stem and
the South Pole opposite). Here are the flight paths.
There is a 13 hour time difference - so day is night and night is day.
Photos will follow as my brain adapts to hopefully its unscrambled
state. Again - a huge grin from the sendoff party by Mickey Rogers and
his ABS team - Cashman and Testa. Ken Canty was there on the dock with me
and it was Ken that opened the door for our unbuilding web page. Thanks
to all! - Frank
When last seen - Mickey had painted Frank into a bit of history
and literally a few seconds later Frank was just a few bubble - with
Pio walking up to check to see if I was tunneling my way to Singapore -
as Testa did with the Big Dig in Boston.
Fortunately for me - I got here - and here is this morning
(Sunday) from my temporary apartment. Look near the center and you'll see
a small pedestrian bridge over the Singapore river. Nothing like an
interesting bridge to start the morning!
- looking a bit to the west. Look carefully and you'll see a tower
crane busy building. I suspect there is some unbuilding here also.
Smiles from Singapore
