In my last blog we were enjoying Hội An in Vietnam. Since then a lot has happened and we have travelled a long way.
We took a taxi back to Đà Nẵng and a hotel for one night. The plan was then to walk to the airport but we abandoned that idea at the last moment due to the downpour and took another taxi. A flight to Kuala Lumpur and a short hop to Johor at the south end of Malaysia saw us back in Kevin and Johanna’s apartment. They have moved to the thirty-third floor so we could do some hill training without even leaving the city. The next day I returned to the airport and flew the length of Malaysia back to Langkawi to spend two days handing Artemis over to her new owners. We were out motoring around the first day and the second day they had her sailing. It was great to see people so happy on their “new” boat. Then it was one more flight back to Johor and back to Heidi. That night there was over an hour of fireworks and we could look down on to the city and the fireworks climbing towards us.
From Johor we took a taxi, then a bus, a bus, a train and finally another bus across the border and back to Singapore. Christin and Michael already had guests but Shirin and Greg were kind enough to give us a bed for two nights and it felt like coming home to the familiar surroundings and faces. Unfortunately I left my laptop charger in Johor so the next day was bus, train, bus, immigration, bus, immigration, taxi, taxi, immigration, bus, immigration, bus, train and then bus to go and collect it and return to Singapore. I was back in time for lunch.
From Singapore we flew to Abu Dhabi where we played cards at three in the morning. I lost about 600 to 1 or something and slept solidly on the next flight onward to Munich.
In Munich we had been instructed by German Customs that we should proceed to their collegues and present form 0430 in triplicate to allow us import our belongings tax free. We did exactly that and then spent half an hour going through variations of
“Why have you filled out form 0430?”
“Because you told us to!”
“But it is the wrong form. Why have you used 0430?”
“Because you told us to!”
until everyone got bored and they sent us on our way without paying any customs duty.
Outside the airport we were picked up by Michael and the “surprise guest” Julia. You can not imagine a happier Heidi as she was driven back to her mountains by her two children. I enjoyed the heated car which stopped me from suffering from a cold shock having traveled from 25°C to zero in 15 hours.