Part 1: Seven Hours in ORD
Part 2: Cathay Pacific – First Class (CLE > ORD > HKG)
Part 3: Cathay Pacific – Business Class (HKG > BKK)
Part 4: Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel and Bangkok Airways Economy (BKK > USM)
Part 5: Conrad Koh Samui
Part 6: Thai Business Class (USM > BKK) & Singapore Business Class (BKK > SIN)
Part 7: Singapore & The Marina Bay Sands Casino & Hotel
Part 8: Bali: Anika Tailor & Grand Hyatt
Part 9: Bali: A Day with Wayan
Part 10: Bali: The Laguna Resort
Part 11: The Final Stops – Beijing, LA, and Home

It had been a long trip. It started in Cleveland, on November 28th in the wee hours of the morning, continued to Chicago O’hare, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Koh Samui, Bangkok again, Singapore and finally, Bali. This all had been within the previous week. Now – it was in First Class, eating cavier, talik salmon, drinking Krug, sleeping in villas off the Gulf of Thailand with private infiniti pools, swimming on 50-story high rooftop pools and 4-star resorts. The total cost had been below $1,000 for two – and if taking into account our gambling wins, under a few hundred. All-in. But it wasn’t enough. We wanted to see and experience more.

We started out in the airport in Bali, and accessed the Priority Pass lounge. While we were in Business Class for our Singapore > Beijing and Beijing > Los Angeles segments, we – queue the horror – had to fly economy for 2.5 hours to get to Singapore. It was rather lame, but the Priority Pass lounge wouldn’t let NSPfiance in because we had an economy segment leaving Bali. $27 – probably not worth it – but it gave us Wifi, drinks, light food and a relaxing place to hang out and wait for our flight.

Despite the word “economy,” our flight was more like US Domestic First, with a free meal and even a newspaper:

When we arrived in Singapore, we went straight to our gate, and shortly after boarded our flight to Beijing:

One thing that I hadn’t checked, was the seats on this flight…unfortunately they were angled-seats, not lie-flat!

The meals were good, not great – but it was late at night (a red-eye flight), and we were anxious to get some sleep.

We booked a layover in Beijing, for seven hours. Why did we spend weeks, if not months, to find a flight that stopped in Beijing, flying Air China, instead of a stopover in Tapei, on Eva Airlines? Well, there were actually two reasons: First, the Eva Airlines flight was on an old 747 with angled seats and not the lie-flats that Air China offered. Second, with a 7-hour layover, we could see the Great Wall!

We landed in Beijing around 6am – and having checked our luggage straight through to Los Angeles, went directly through customs and found the driver which we had booked the day before while we were still in Bali. She took us to the Great Wall, and since it was only 25 degrees, lent me a coat. We were riding up the chairlift just over an hour later, having bought hats and gloves in the market at the base of the wall.

While short, the 45-minute trek on the Great Wall was incredible. It was almost surreal to think about how long this wall was, how a civilization could build it today, let alone over 2,000 years ago.

The views were down-right stunning:

We opted for a toboggan ride back down the mountain, and made in back to the airport with about an hour to spare.

By this point, we were exhausted, and excited to head back home. The airport lounges had lost their luster, staring at the free beer – with it staring back at me – and feeling too tired to pick it up. The free food, sitting in front of me, but without energy to pick up my fork. It was time to head home.

We made our way to our gate, boarded the plane, and sat down heavily. Of course, it didn’t stop NSPfiance or I from having a final farewell toast of Champagne – although not of Krug caliber – strap in, take off, put down the bed and go to sleep.

The menu offered a Chinese option or Western option:

Snacks and dinner were good, but nothing to write home about:

It had been an amazing trip. 10 flights in 11 days. Not a single one delayed – and a few arriving early. That was, until we arrived back in the US. We grabbed our bags and headed to the Southwest check-in counter. Why were we flying Southwest instead of taking a Star Alliance Partner back to Cleveland? Well, new United routing rules dictate that you can only have 4 segments on a one-way award, which we burned from USM > SIN > PEK > LAX. Despite trying multiple agents, this seemed to be a commonly known rule and one the system wouldn’t allow even if an agent tried to put it in the computer.

I had a standard Southwest award still, which mean $2.50/person was the cost to fly across the country, and since Southwest has Wifi, this was also a preferable option so I could catch up on work.

But…Delayed. Multiple hours. We were going to miss our connection in Chicago, and were told we would have to spend the night in LA. That was not what either of us wanted to hear. We started looking through every possible option, and within a few minutes had found we could re-route through Nashville and possibly still make it home that night. Southwest re-ticketed us for free, and we had about an hour and a half to kill. So what to do at LAX, with a 90-minute layover?

That’s right:

For those of you that don’t know this great trick, The Parking Spot in Los Angeles is about 15 yards away from In-N-Out. Jump on the free shuttle, tell the driver that you want to be let off in the “self-park” lot, and you are dropped off about as close as one could be to the front door of In-N-Out Burger:

We experienced a delightful and exhausting lunch, caught the free shuttle back to LAX, and caught our final two legs of the trip: LAX > BNA and BNA > CLE. As we rolled into our house, it was hard to fathom the experience we had just had. All of the places we had been. All of the flights we had taken. And all the memories we had made. Ten hours later, we would be on our way back to work – but despite the tiredness, the journey was certainly worth it.

Now, time to plan our next trip…

Part 1: Seven Hours in ORD
Part 2: Cathay Pacific – First Class (CLE > ORD > HKG)
Part 3: Cathay Pacific – Business Class (HKG > BKK)
Part 4: Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel and Bangkok Airways Economy (BKK > USM)
Part 5: Conrad Koh Samui
Part 6: Thai Business Class (USM > BKK) & Singapore Business Class (BKK > SIN)

Having to leave Koh Samui, and even more specifically, the Conrad Koh Samui, was not easy. Well, that’s not entirely true. We dialed 0, had a buggy pick us up two minutes later, and we were driven directly to our car that was awaiting us. In addition, since we had to depart at 7am and breakfast wasn’t being served at 7am, the Conrad gladly prepared omelettes, pastries and fruits for us. The service, as it was all week, was impeccable.

We arrived at USM Airport, quickly made our way to Thai Airlines business check-in (no one else was in line), and checked our bags for Singapore. While Singapore was technically only a layover (22-hours), they allowed us to check the bags only to Singapore instead of all the way to Bali.

Once inside, we made our way to the “VIP Lounge.”

While small, it was nice and the food offering fairly decent.

After four or five espressos, our plane began to board. Imagine our surprise fifteen minutes later when they closed the airplane door and the only person sitting in business class with me was this person:

The meal left something to be desired:

The one thing I love about Asian airlines is the service. Whether it is the warm towels or food served on 45-minute flights in economy or the warm smiles from all flight attendants, Asian airlines just seem to have service down. It doesn’t surprise me that they put comment cards in the seat-back pockets. Imagine if United did that…

In Bangkok airport, we had a short hour and a half layover, but was enough time to check out the Singapore Airlines lounge:

I was really, really looking forward to Singapore Business class. Very seldom does United release Singapore Business class award space. Imagine my surprise when we got on the plane and there was a 1990’s-esque TV screen:

Maybe it was the couple glasses of champagne, or just the fact that this was our 6th flight in as many days, but it took me over an hour to find that I had my own personal hidden TV as well:

The food was OK – nothing special, and the seats/experience was also what one would expect from a standard Business Seat offering:

The Christmas decorations and holiday music playing during taxiing was a nice touch, though:

Overall, it was a good trip; however, our excitement for the haul was far outweighed by our excitement for our 22-hour layover in Singapore, and we wanted to make it to the 57th-floor infinity pool as soon as possible…