The mother of all roads trips: Mandalay to Bangkok. Getting to base camp.

Some trips just call your name. And so it was with me and this one. There were the usual obstacles, but the biggest were the dates…. Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Who travels solo around this time of the year? Wonderful World was apprehensive that no one would sign up. I was jittery about leaving the folks at home around the holiday season. Then, we had issues with government permits and had to change our plans. We could no longer drive from Imphal. We moved to plan B which was to start from Mandalay.

The route to Mandalay seemed long and convoluted. We had a flight via Singapore. Were there no direct flights? It seems not. Apparently the average Indian tourist has not yet made a beeline for Mandalay. 

With a 5 hour layover at Singapore, I wandered around the terminal before finding a chair and trying to get some sleep. Red eye flights are the worst. 

But still, the roadtrip is almost here! Just a few more hours of hanging around and airport food and we will on our way.

A last random thought before you go. Have you noticed that airports everywhere try to appear unjaded (is that a word?) around Christmas time? Some glittery decorations, the mandatory tree in a couple of locations, Christmas carols being played over the speaker system, a sprinkling of holiday wreaths, the list goes on. I suppose no one wants to be crowned “Scrooge of the fly zone!”