Mileage Plus

IF YOU WERE TO SURVEY STUDENTS arriving on campus this fall you'd find travelers who know a thing or two about frequent-flyer miles. Here are the "travelogues" of five undergraduates who typically spend more than a day in transit from home to school. As their travel times indicate, their routes-are not as direct as the point-to-point mileage given.

One warning: Don't ask any of them how much fun it is to finally arrive at Boston's Logan Airport only to wait for the two-hour Dartmouth Coach ride.

David Strange '07

Hometown: Sydney, Australia Miles from Hanover: 10,025 How he gets here: Rides an inclinater up the cliff from his house to family car for 30-minute drive to Sydney airport; flies to San Francisco and then to Boston; takes bus to Hanover.

Travel time: 30 hours

How tough is it? "The inclinater vibrates a bit but is handy for luggage," he says. An even bigger plus: It's all down hill when he gets home at the end of the year.

Nikhii V. Gore '06

Hometown: Singapore Miles from Hanover: 9,318 How he gets here: Flies Singapore to Amsterdam to New York; rides to Hanover with a friend who drives from Long Island. Travel time: 24.5 hours How tough is it? Not all at. "Singapore Airlines has great onboard service and a good entertainment system. Between that, reading and sleeping, it's not a difficult experience. Getting to know a variety of people, even briefly, is what I enjoy about flying," says Gore.

Chetwadee "Candy" Singhakowin '06

Hometown: Bangkok, Thailand Miles from Hanover: 8,445 How she gets here: Flies Bangkok to London to Boston; takes bus to Hanover. Travel time: 28 hours How tough is it? "I once sat next to a man so big that he broke the armrest on his seat and needed a seat belt extension. He was swearing profusely and none of the flight attendants were very nice to him," says Singhakowin.

Frederick Ochieng '05

Hometown: Rongo, Kenya Miles from Hanover: 7,430 How he gets here: Takes bus from Rongo to Nairobi, Kenya; flies Nairobi to Lon- don to Boston; takes bus to Hanover. Travel time: 36 hours (at best) How tough is it? "There is always a poten- tial horror story, but that usually has to do with Kenyan roads and transportation," says Ochieng. Sometimes the probems are in the air: His brother, Milton '04, once spent two and a half days flying from Rongo to Nairobi to Addis Ababa, then to Rome to London to Newark to Boston before getting the bus to Hanover. Fred would have been with him but was visiting friends in Tampa, Florida, at the time.

Saiil Sharma '05

Hometown: Kathmandu, Nepal Miles from Hanover: 7,310 How he gets here: Flies Kathmandu to Doha, Qatar, to Frankfurt to New York to Boston; takes bus to Hanover. Travel time: 40 hours How tough is it? The hardest part is being able to get home only every other year.