I managed to make it till 4am, but I think George stayed up the entire night. His flight left earlier, so it made more sense. Since my flight left at 3:15pm, which is 3:15 EST it didn’t make much sense for me to not have a nap, so I slept till about 7. Once I was up I headed to the coffee shop to check my flight info, and make sure everything was go for takeoff. I wanted to buy one last souvenir, but the shop didn’t open until 11, so I went back to the guesthouse, showered, and check out. At 11 I took the subway to the shop, made my purchase, then headed back to the guesthouse to grab my bag and head to the airport.<\/p>\n
Airport bus was cheap, and I had about 2 hours to kill at the airport. Spent the majority of my Hong Kong dollars, which was quite lovely, then got on the plane. Middle row, middle seat, between two sniffling Chinese guys. Not much for conversation, but all in all not terrible seat mates. I think I was a little fidgety as I tried to sleep. I managed a couple of intermittent hours, which will hopefully allow me to survive the evening when I get to Toronto.<\/p>\n
Watched a couple of movies ( “Vantage Point”, “Definitely, Maybe”, and about 10 painful minutes of “27 Dresses” before I had to turn it off), and listened to some inflight music as well. Even read, surprise surprise. <\/p>\n
Touched down on time in YYZ, but had to wait about 1.5 hours to get my luggage, as there was lightning preventing people from going on the tarmac. Made it unscathed through customs, and out the gate, which kinda sorta brings this travelogue to an end.<\/p>\n
I had a lot of time to read. At some point in Australia, I decided I’d only read books by author’s I’d never read before. Here’s the list:<\/p>\n
Red China Blues by Jan Wong
\nRight As Rain by George Pelecanos
\nSiddhartha by Hermann Hesse
\nRiders by Tim Winton
\nGolden Compass by Philip Pullman
\nGone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
\nThe Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
\nLove and Free by Ayumu Takahashi
\nA Drink Before The War by Dennis Lehane
\nHell To Pay by George Pelecanos
\nThe God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
\nThe Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
\nTotal Control by David Baldacci
\nThe Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
\nTuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
\nFirst They Killed My Father by Luong Ung
\nNext by Michael Crichton
\nThe Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
\nThe New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
\nThe Collected Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
\nDay of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
\nClockers by Richard Price
\nBlack Cross by Greg Iles
\nThe Girl In The Picture by Denise Chong
\nMy Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
\nThe Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
\nA Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
\nCatch-22 by Joseph Heller
\nCrime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
\nEat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
\nThe Reader by Bernhard Schlink
\nThe Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
\nThen We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris
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