After 24h of traveling from Singapore to Tokyo then Tokyo to Chicago we are finally here! On our flight from Tokyo to Chicago we got seats on the upper deck of a 747. It’s the first time we have sat up there, and it definitely looks a lot higher out the window! The problem with the upstairs deck though is that it is a bit more cramped as the top is curved.

Aerial view about an hour from Chicago.

The hotel we’re at is pretty nice, we’ll write a full review when we leave, but so far we got a free upgrade to a suite and it’s definitely a great feeling to be on a suite on the 35th floor with a view of Lake Michigan and downtown Chicago.

We haven’t seen much of the town yet as we’ve been to exhausted to step out of our hotel - not to mention the backlog of work we had over the last 24h - so all we’ve seen is what we passed in the taxi on the way here.

By the time you are reading this we will (hopefully) be on the plane to Japan then Chicago for the start of our epic adventure around the world. Since our last post we’ve had to add one small bag to our luggage as we couldn’t fit our winter coats in our main suitcase or our carry on bags and we’re sure we’ll need them in Chicago. After all, we’ll be coming from the tropics to a city in the middle of winter and it might take a bit for our bodies to adjust to the cold.

We’ll leave you with a video of us in tropical Borneo. We filmed this when snorkeling off a coral reef on Mamutik Island near Kota Kinabalu. Coral reef’s are extremely fragile and most of the coral in the reef we saw had already died. This reef was just off the beach and some parts were so shallow we had to be careful not to step on them or rub our body against it as the coral is also very sharp and produces nasty cuts.

This Clownfish led us to its Sea Anemone home

Luckily for the animals in this coral reef it is a protected area where tourists are not allowed to take anything and care is taken to make sure that the coral isn’t further damaged. Of course with boats pulling in and out of the beach and tourists swimming around the coral it is hard to completely protect it, but at least they are trying.