Welcome to the first installment of my trip to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore! I’m about a week into my adventure and figured I better start writing things down before I forget. There’s so much to see and experience in this part of the world that it would be easy for things to blur together. If you like my ramblings, read on. If not, I’ll be back to regularly scheduled posts in early December.
Getting to Singapore from Austin is no easy jaunt, particularly when the great airfare sale you found is only for economy seats. But Southeast Asia is an area of the world that I really wanted to experience, so I sucked it up and bought a seat in the back of the plane. I mean, how bad could it be, right?
First though, we had to fly from Austin to San Francisco. United Airlines has been ramming more and more rows into their planes, reducing the seat pitch and installing those slimline seats. Those seats are basically pleather-wrapped steel structures. There’s no give whatsoever on the extremely thin padding. Halfway through the 3-hour flight to San Francisco, my hindquarters were achy and I was getting super uncomfortable. I was thinking to myself that I still had a llloooooonnnnnngggg flight ahead of me and if I was already this crabby, I might be regretting my decision to not use my entire savings to buy a business-class seat.
Landing into San Francisco, the hazy smoky air near the airport reinforced the devastation that the recent fires wrought on the state. You could smell the smoke in the plane as the pilots shut down the engine. As someone who has flown into SFO quite a bit, it was strange to smell that instead of the misty, foggy air you usually experience.
It had been about two years since I flew into SFO on United and fortunately, the construction in that terminal seems to be finished. We had about 2 hours before our connection to Singapore, so we hightailed it to the Centurion Lounge. As seems to be the new norm, the Centurion Lounge was packed to the rafters. We lucked out finding a seat at all. I hadn’t eaten since lunch and it was now about 10pm Austin time; but I was in that weird state of “I’m not really hungry and I sure as heck don’t want to be stuffed and then rammed into an airplane seat for 17 hours”. I ended up drinking a glass of wine instead, hoping that would lull me into a state conducive to sleeping later.
About 15 minutes prior to boarding, we left the lounge and headed for the gate in the International Terminal. Despite my apprehension about how uncomfortable I was going to be for the next 17 hours, I was super excited to stand in front of a gate that had Singapore listed as its destination. For someone like me, seeing all of the exotic cities posted on the airport departure boards gives me a pang of envy. “I want to go there!” And now I was on my way to another place that I had dreamt about for so long. I was grateful that melanoma didn’t take away this experience from me.
Boarding started and before I knew it, I was settling into my window seat on the 787 Dreamliner (and finally had a chance to play with the dimmable windows!). I made sure to have my Kindle and noise-cancelling headphones handy along with a self-made amenity kit (tissues, lip balm, hand cream, face wipes, and a comb – seriously, you can’t believe how much better those things will make you feel on a long flight) and all of the charging cords I needed for my electronics. I was basically setting up camp for the next 17 hours.
The 787 seems quieter than the 777; but the flight attendants kept the cabin way too warm for the first half of the flight, so the allegedly better air humidity didn’t seem to help. The warm air dried me out and I woke up sweaty at one point, which didn’t help my sleep prospects. I ended up watching five movies (completely unheard of for me, although I binged on 80s classics) as well as finishing the book that I had started on the Austin-San Francisco flight. I dozed fitfully but my days of falling asleep on a plane before takeoff seem to be behind me. The dinner served at the beginning of the flight was inedible, and I was glad I had the foresight to pack snacks (breakfast served about 90 minutes before landing was marginally better but if you’re taking this flight on United, you will need to bring something with you because shamefully they only feed you twice during the 17 hours onboard).
I kept an eye on the map showing our progress. But sadly they didn’t mark where the international date line is; so while I got to cross that milestone, I’m not exactly sure when it exactly happened. Finally, landmasses started to appear on the map after a long time of only seeing the blue of the Pacific. Nearly the whole time we were flying, we flew in darkness. But about 2 hours before landing, I watched a beautiful sunrise from my seat. When Singapore started showing on the map, I got giddy knowing that the long flight was almost over. Finally, after 16 hours and 45 minutes, the pilot came on the PA to tell the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for landing. I had my nose pressed to the window. The skyline of Singapore came into view. I was able to pick out landmarks during our descent and thought, “I’m actually here! Holy crap, I’m landing in Singapore!”
Wheels down, we taxied a long time to our gate. But finally parked, the captain turned off the seat belt sign and I was able to unfold myself from my seat. Walking down the jet bridge, I could feel the effects of immobility for 17 hours but fortunately, my back didn’t twinge. The Changi Airport is a soothing place to disembark after a long flight. Rather than herding you through a sterile and inhospitable area of the airport for immigration and customs, you wander through the gate area filled with shops and restaurants on your way to immigrations. The immigration process itself was super quick and I had a very friendly agent welcome me to the country with a lovely-to-my-ears thwack of the passport stamp.
Grabbing the suitcases, we quickly found our way through customs and into the arrival hall. I had selected a hotel near the airport as we were boarding another flight the next day. This hotel advertised a shuttle service on their website and we walked a long way to the end where the coach buses pick up. After loitering there for nearly 30 minutes, a representative of the transit company noticed us. “Where are you trying to go,” he asked. When I told him the name of the hotel, he shook his head. “No, they stopped service October 31.” You have got to be kidding me. He recommended taking the train one stop as the taxis may not want to take us such a short distance. Of course, the train station was way on the other side of the arrivals hall. Lugging the suitcases, we trudged the length of the hall and descended the escalators to the train station… only to discover that the ticket machines do not take credit cards, nor do they take the large bills that the ATM dispenses. At this point, my irritation flared and I was about to just say f-it and get a room at the onsite Crowne Plaza instead.
We went back upstairs and bought a soft drink from one of the restaurants to get change for the ticket machine (thinking back, I was definitely hangry and probably should have gotten a donut from the Krispy Kreme outlet to take the edge off my crabbiness – not very cosmopolitan but at that point, sugar was probably the only remedy). We trooped back downstairs and finally were able to purchase two tickets for the train. Seeing as we only needed to ride it one stop, it was fairly foolproof in terms of directions. And fortunately, as the train pulled into the Expo Station, I was able to actually see the hotel so there wasn’t a bunch of walking up and down the street looking for the right direction to go.
The Capri Fraser is located in an area filled with office buildings, a mall, and an expo center. It doesn’t seem to be the place many tourists stay and as a result, we were definitely an anomaly wandering around. We got to the hotel lobby around 10:30 a.m. and I held little hope that a room would be ready for us. Shockingly, there was one available (maybe to make up for the fact that there was no longer a shuttle from the airport) and I practically snatched the keycards out of her hand before she changed her mind.
Dropping our bags in the room, the hubby wanted to immediately go out and find lunch. But my need for a shower overwhelmed anything else. So while he was trying to just turn around and head back out the door, I peeled off my stinky airplane clothes and luxuriated under the rainfall showerhead instead. I don’t know many others who enjoy the restorative effect of showers as much as I do. I realize how incredibly fortunate and privileged I am every time I step under a stream of fresh, clean water. There are billions of people in this world who don’t get to enjoy that experience – ever. It’s sobering and serves as a reminder to me that my happy accident being born where and when I did is something to be grateful for.
Properly clean, I acquiesced to the hubby’s stomach and wandered the adjacent mall area looking for food. Now, I will admit that I rarely care about food in the way that he does. While I love food, it’s not the be-all-end-all it is for him. As usual, even after all of these years together, he still finds it baffling when he hears “I don’t care, you decide” from me in regards to the age-old question “what do you want to eat”. We played that game for five minutes before I threatened to make him go to McDonald’s if he didn’t make a decision.
After lunch, we wandered a bit more, stopping in an outdoor bar for my first Singapore Sling. It is more sugary than I expected for a gin-based drink. (It now has become a thing to try it every stop on this trip to compare the different versions.) We made our way back to the hotel, where I promptly fell asleep. I didn’t expect to nap for quite as long as I did, but I woke up refreshed and enjoyed the ability to stretch out as much as I could – an experience to cherish after being in those economy-class seats for so long.
It was evening when we emerged from the hotel in search of dinner. We ended up bouncing around to a few places near the hotel to sample a bit of everything before ending up in the hotel bar for a final Singapore Sling nightcap. My previous nap did not prevent me from getting a long and restful night’s sleep.
I woke up the next morning around 9am (the usual time when I am at least semi-coherent at home). Shockingly, I wasn’t jetlagged and seemed to adjust to the time change without any ill effects. We needed to make our way back to Changi Airport to catch our next flight, but it wasn’t scheduled to depart until 2:45 p.m. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before jumping back on the train to the airport to check in for our Scoot Air flight up to our next destination – Chiang Mai, Thailand…