Day 17: Boat -> Sea Plane -> Plane -> Plane -> Uber -> Car

January 5-6, 2025

After 16 days traveling around Southeast Asia, it was finally time to go home. We had the absolute BEST time on our honeymoon (though a couple of moments in the blog might suggest otherwise). Although we were very sad to be leaving, I think there was some part of us that was ready to get back. While we were away we had been approved to move into a new apartment so we had sort of started turning our attention to that and lightly easing our brains back into reality. But I digress. Let's get into the longest travel day of our lives and potentially the world's longest Monday.

We started today as so many of our days have - at the breakfast buffet to get some protein in us before we started making our way back to America. Our bags were picked up by golf cart at around 9:30am, so we had an hour before we were set to take a boat back to another resort to catch our seaplane to catch our flight from the Maldives back to Singapore. On our long walk to the boat, we were greeted by one final shark which was a fitting farewell to our time in the Maldives.

Our boat was scheduled to leave at 10:30am, which would have been plenty of time to make our flight from Male back to Singapore if it had actually left at that time. We finally left around a half hour late, but our bags were not on the boat which we were assured was fine and that they had been sent ahead. We got on the boat, trusting that they had this all handled, and waved to the staff as we pushed away.

It only took us around 7 minutes on the boat to get to the seaplane, where we waited anxiously as there seemed to be some confusion about who would be getting on the one seaplane that was waiting at the dock. There were about 2 seaplanes' worth of people in the waiting area. As time continued to tick away, we still did not see our bags. At last, we boarded an extremely full sea-flight for our 45 minute journey back to Male, the capital of the Maldives. Being on a seaplane is still a deeply unsettling experience where there are seemingly no rules in terms of the takeoff and landing locations. The most unsettling part is that a seaplane's best case scenario landing is a worst case scenario for most airplanes -- descending rapidly towards open water was still not something I was used to.

That being said, it was a really amazing ride and because we had better weather on this leg than on the way to our resort, we were able to get some more clear views of the other islands in the Maldives.

By the time we landed in Male, we only had around an hour before our flight to Singapore was supposed to take off. We were officially nervous, but not as nervous as some other passengers whose flights were seemingly taking off much sooner than ours. One piece of feedback for our hotel was that there was no reason this had to be so close for all of us. They should have had us all on seaplanes way earlier and ensured that there was no chance of being stressed or cutting it close, but for some reason they decided to maximize everyone's stress on our way out the door.

Anyway, once we landed we had to take a bus back to the main terminal. As we were driving by, all we could see was a MASSIVE line, which did not help our growing anxiety. Then we waited for our bags. We waited and waited as all of our other seaplane-mates received theirs, and still nothing. Eventually, we were able to flag down a staff member who called around and found out that our bags had been dropped off to a completely different part of the airport.

After briskly following around an employee through the un-air conditioned airport, we finally had our bags in hand. Then we had to get in the first of several lines, which was just as long as we had feared. Thankfully we were in business class for this flight and we were led to a shorter line, but it was still not what we would call short. Other families were allowed to cut in front of us and as we silently seethed over it, we became obsessed with figuring out if their flights were actually earlier than ours. Ultimately the lines moved quickly enough and after checking our bags, we went through security and customs, and made it to our gate with just a couple of minutes to spare. It was definitely the most stressful (and sweaty) leg of our adventure.

We were so excited to finally be back on a Singapore Air flight in business class after weeks of other budget airlines (which were still WAY nicer than any budget airline in the states, but budget nonetheless). They gave us champagne and a bellini while we got settled into our lie-flat seats where we would spend the next 4.5 hours back to Singapore.

The flight itself was pretty uneventful, but again the food was quite good. I don't remember exactly what I had, but it didn't kill me so therefore it was a successful airline meal. (Em here: it was obviously seafood pasta).

When we landed in Singapore, we had a couple of hours to kill before our last flight of the honeymoon - another 18 hour haul into Newark. Our first stop was the Singapore Airlines Lounge, which we had heard was one of the best lounges in the world and boy did it live up to the hype. Unlike lounges in America, which now have lines to get in and no seats due to the ubiquity of Priority Pass, this lounge was humongous with ample seating, food options including sushi and ramen, two bars, and showers. We both were feeling a little bit wobbly from our transportation so far, so while I evened myself out with a Singapore Sling, Emily caught up on some blogging and reading.

Then, we decided we would walk to the gate in the next terminal rather than take the Sky Train so that we could check out the Butterfly Garden that inexplicably exists within the Singapore Airport. Unfortunately, it turns out that butterflies need to sleep too and the garden (which is extremely difficult to find) had the lights off. Even so, we were still able to see one butterfly which did make it worth it.

Eventually we made it to our gate, which was a good 30 minute walk from the lounge. By the time we got there, they had started lining people up to go through security to get into a waiting area where we would wait for a little while before boarding. We FaceTimed Emily's parents briefly from there and then boarded for the final flight.

Our flight took off at just after midnight in Singapore on January 6th and landed at around 5am...still on January 6th in New Jersey. We really have ruined international flights for ourselves though. Business class on Singapore Air is simply the best. We pre-ordered our food this time and I got Lobster Thermidor - a meal that I would never consider on any other flight, I simply had no choice but to try on this one. Unsurprisingly, it was pretty good! Emily got ramen for her first of several in-flight meals.

We also learned from our first 18+ hour flight experience that we should convert our seats to beds much earlier in the flight. Our plan was to try to sleep twice and wake up just before landing so we would only have to stay up from around 5am ET until a normal-ish bedtime. They gave us slippers, eye masks, blankets, and a Le Labo dopp kit and tucked us in when it was time for bed.

Several movies and books (for Emily) later, it was time to land back in good old Newark. It was about as easy of a flight as you can ask for and, after 30ish hours of travel, the honeymoon was officially over. We had parked our car at Emily's parents' house, so after getting our bags we got an Uber and went back to Summit to grab the car. Our original plan was that we would do some laundry and nap at Emily's parents' but in the Uber we decided that we should just ride the travel momentum and get right back in our car to head back to our apartment. This turned out to be the right idea as our drive from NJ through Manhattan into Brooklyn aligned with the first day of congestion pricing and we flew through the city, making it home in record time.

We fell asleep at like 8:30pm that night and have basically not fallen asleep past 10pm since we landed - so you could say we are morning people now and that we have let jet lag win. It was also 25 degrees and snowing when we got back - a harsh reminder that the honeymoon really was over and we were back home.

But alas, we are back and cannot stop talking about our trip. It was truly a once in a lifetime adventure and we are so grateful that we were able to make it happen.

Hopefully we will be able to visit some of those cities again and we are already plotting our next international trip, which we will probably blog about - so stay tuned!

More wrap-ups and final reviews to come soon (ish) -- the blog life is a lot harder to maintain when we are back in reality! Until then, thanks for following along and we can't wait to see everyone and share even more stories and pictures soon. Plus, we're moving this month! Never a dull moment here.

Love,

Max & Emily