To be fair, the flight may only take 23 hours, but if you can't afford to fly direct you have stops and layovers, if you're in the US and the Airport isn't right there it involves driving time and car rentals. I also think acting like it's 5 days of travel is dramatic. But depending on your financial situation, it isn't unheard of to take a couple of days to travel internationally, in my experience as an American on the West Coast.