Feb 14: Sydney-Singapore

Another series of postings, another trip. This trip originally started out as a straightforward trip to London until I found a great deal – Singapore-Japan return in Business Class for 30000 points. Of course, I snapped it up straight away. After a few adjustments, I had an itinerary.

A 4:30 wake up call for a 5:00 trip to the airport. The traffic was very light, and we arrived at the airport at 5:45.

Check in was painless, apart from the fact that I was checked in all the way to London, when I wanted to collect my luggage in Singapore, as I had a 23:45 hr transit (a stopover is defined as a connection which takes 24+ hr, so my connection is technically a transit, but amongst other things means I get can sleep on a real bed, instead of an economy seat). As a result, I had my Singapore-London check in cancelled, so it will be interesting to see if there are any effects tomorrow.
Since I was checked in with plenty of time to spare, I could do a bit of lounge hopping.

The first lounge visited was the Air New Zealand lounge, and as usual, was top notch. There as a breakfast spread out, including sausages, mini frittata with roast tomatoes, as well as the usual fruit/toast etc.

After spending ~45 min, I then moved to the Singapore Airlines lounge next door. Compared to the Air New Zealand lounge, the Singapore lounge was much cozier, with only a continental breakfast range, with the exception of Cup Noodles, which were popular with the Asian clientele in the lounge. The news (local & business) was also on, which was handy, as the US market was still open at the time.

After a quick stop at duty free, it was time for boarding. Boarding was completed, and we departed on time. From what I could see, economy was full, and quite a lot of people of Sub-Continental origin were onboard, which meant that there were a lot of special meals boarded, with the result being regular meal service would be delayed. However, they were just observations. Breakfast was served around 2 hours after takeoff, and was a choice of braised udon with chicken, or poached eggs. Unsurprisingly, I chose the noodles, and found that the optional chilli sauce was needed.

After breakfast (which was more like brunch), it was time to see what was on this month. However, I decided not to watch any movies, as I had another 2 flights with up to 26 hrs flying time. As a result, I got up to date with podcasts, and napped a little.

Lunch was served about 2 hours out of Singapore, which was only 3.hours after breakfast. The choices this time were chicken with potatoes, or pork red curry. I had the red curry, and was adequate, considering the 2.5 breakfasts in the preceding 6 hours.

We arrived in Singapore 15 minutes early, around 1pm local time, and my bag was in the first dozen to appear.

I had booked a room at the Crowne Plaza Changi, which was next to Terminal 3. The rooms were very open plan, with glass walls between the bed and toilet. My room had runway views, and it was fun to see planes take off and land.

Now I didn’t book a 23 hr transit to remain in the hotel room the whole time, so I headed off to the city to have a walk around, which isn’t easy when it’s 31 and humid. After finding a couple of interesting books, I had a bite at Food Republic, which is a big food court, with different stalls for different products (try the Oyster Pancake, and Chow Kway Tiew).

After returning from the city, I had a wander around the airport. Changi is huge – visiting all 3 terminals took the best part of an hour, and is bustling at all hours of the day.

One annoying thing is that even though the hotel is connected to the terminal (which has free net access), the signal doesn’t reach the rooms, and the wired access is $30/day. As a result, net access requires walking to the arrivals level and accessing the net there. This meant passing a lot of couples holding empty champagne flutes, and I hope I fall asleep quickly enough so I don’t need to find out whether there’s enough soundproofing between the rooms.

Off to London tomorrow, on the A380 (at last) – should be fun.