The Big Reboot

Conventional travel wisdom suggests one recovery day for every time zone traveled before the body fully adjusts. That's pretty close for me, but my physiology is perhaps a bit faster: I usually top out at five recovery days even on a seven-hour time zone change as with this current trip.

The usual symptom of course is disrupted sleep patterns, especially for me waking up way too early. I'm more of a nightowl and love my sleep, on average requiring eight hours per night. So imagine my chagrin waking in Korea at 5am Wednesday, 6am Thursday, 7am Friday, etc. Wednesday I popped a 1/2 Ambien to sleep three hours more, Thursday I went for an early-morning run (a sure sign something is amiss), Thursday I read in bed (another oddity). Saturday's early flight to Singapore required a 7am airport arrival, again too early for my liking. Korea and Singapore aren't close: the flight lasts 6:15, like flying from Chicago to Bogota, Colombia. So today Sunday was my first real chance to sleep in. Before hitting the sack at midnight last night, I ratcheted the shades up tight, inserted the trusty earplugs and set no alarm.

I was quite annoyed waking Saturday feeling still groggy in the dimly lit room. I shut both shades even tighter, so not even a crack remained and returned to bed with a pillow over my face, only to toss and turn. I finally got up, resolving on a nap later in the afternoon. I was slightly confused checking my watch...yes indeed, 1:30 in the afternoon. The hot post-noon sun flooded the room upon finally cracking the shades. OK, well...over 13 hours of sleep, mission accomplished.

To complete my recovery, I ate an entirely Western (British) breakfast...um, brunch that is, here in the excellent Grand Hyatt Singapore (Steph's work favors are treating me right). Billed as afternoon tea, the small but exquisite buffet was quite phenomenal, including a "starter" of the best scones on the planet. Imagine the best scone you've had (not so great, right?) and multiply by 10 just to get close. They more resembled an upper-class buttermilk biscuit but with currants. The baker in me was extremely jealous. I hit the fitness center later, another key component to feeling whole again. Dinner with our local host seemed to arrive quite early, but he chose an excellent Japanese restaurant, probably the best start-to-finish Japanese meal I've had (admittedly I haven't had that many) including a very good warm sake.

From what I've seen, Singapore is quite a nice town. Hot and humid as can be, and rich in a way that just exudes rich, doesn't hit you over the head with it. Every square meter is immaculately groomed. A blend of East and West with an ingrained emphasis on the West, still with a large British presence vs. say, Hong Kong, another East/West blended city but one leaning much more towards the China side. With limited experience to date I prefer Southeast Asia, i.e., Malaysia and Thailand, to East Asia, i.e., Korea, China, Taiwan.

So consider me now mostly recovered three days before returning home and repeating the process. That's just the way it works. A few minor pics from the trip: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=2hd8fyj.6n3rbx73&x=0&y=1540tc&localeid=en_US