Saturday, November 21st
I always get nervous on travel days and when there are multiple flights involved it is even more so. Today was a complicated travel day, to be sure. First we had to drive to the airport then catch a flight to Singapore then about 5 ½ hours later catch a flight to London Heathrow then, of course, get back to our flat.
It was an early one, that is for sure. The alarm went at 5:30 am and we took our bags to the car in the basement car park at about 6:00 am. Unfortunately, they would not let us eat until 6:30 so we sat around for a few minutes watching the news until they let us in…Commenting that others waiting with us had obviously not noticed that the restaurant did not allow luggage. We had some grim satisfaction that they were politely told to take their luggage somewhere else.
Breakfast was fairly relaxed. We were not in a hurry though the car had to be at the airport before 8 am to avoid any late charges. So, we took our time and enjoyed the food and the company.
The car park cost us $50 which is not that bad for the two days we have been here. It is piece of mind having it in the basement all secure while we were out enjoying Melbourne.
On the way to the airport I had to first do a bit of a drive around Albert Park on the Formula 1 track. I know I keep going on about it, but I am a fan…It was a bit of fun and neat to think I was on the same road as Schumaker, Button and, of course, Hamilton. A quick stop for fuel (a fill for $25! Wow! Wish it was like this in London…) then we continued north through the city to the airport. In continuing the theme, I had the navigation system set up to avoid tollways so we ended up going through some interesting suburbs and made the occasional wrong turn…but we were still pretty relaxed as we had plenty of time. The roads were only busy immediately outside of the airport where we joined a motorway.
Returning the car at 7:43 (17 minutes early!) we were told we had put 2,513 km on the car in the week we have had it. When you are averaging about 70 km/hr that is an awful lot of time in the car over a week…I am still not sure if financially it made a lot of sense to rent it but it did make our lives a lot easier and the trip far more flexible. We had a lot of fun.
Leaving the car behind we crossed over the road to the terminal. It was very cold today. Funny that we really have not had any hot weather though lots of sun.
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 12:20 (from gate 4) but check-in begins 3 hours before this so we were early. We sat around in a cafe reading for a few minutes waiting for the desks to open but then we were able to drop our bags and join the huge queue through security. A brief stop for an ion scan and we were through to enjoy the delights of the Melbourne airport.
We wanted to pick up some snacks for the people in our offices so Mel picked up some “Tim Tams” (chocolate covered biscuits) and I picked up some chocolate covered macadamia nuts (in a “Phillip Island” box). Mel also picked up some vegemite for someone at work - Evidently vegemite is quite different from the marmite you get in the UK…who knew? Ok, well, not me! We did pick up some peanut butter flavoured Tim Tams for us though…Quite expensive ($68!) and we were charged for a security bag for the vegemite as we were travelling through Singapore airport later. I have never found prices in any airport particularly cheap. I think you like to convince yourself that it is cheap and that you have made a great deal but in all honesty…
Wandering over to our gate we sat down to wait. Yesterday I had seen some nice looking hand-made sweaters in at Queen Victoria Market but had found them quite expensive. They had some here at the airport which were not quite so expensive so I tried a few on and the saleslady talked me into buying one. I am not one for buying clothing so spending about $150 on a single item is a big thing for me! After sitting for a few minutes at gate 4 we realized that even though there had been no announcement our flight was going to leave from gate 12. The people at the gate itself, of course (!), had no idea. We went and joined the massive throng of people at gate 12 waiting for our flight to Singapore.
This was my first ever trip on Qantas and I was not terribly overwhelmed with their customer service.
We were late in leaving due to some technical issues (hopefully not with the plane) and had a relatively uneventful flight except when few hours in, as we were cruising at 38,000 feet at 911 km/hour, we were told by the pilot to look out the right side window to see that we were passing over Uluru (Ayers Rock)! It is right in the middle of the country so we were very lucky indeed to see it.
Ok, hard to see, how about closer up:
Mel was not familiar with Uluru so I had to take a few minutes to explain…”big red rock, middle of desert, sacred to local people, climbed by ignorant foreigners, …“
We stayed awake for the 8 hour flight since we were travelling west we needed to stay up as late as possible to have a fighting chance with the jet lag. I watched two movies (”Ant-Man“ and ”Terminator Genisys“) that I have been marginally interested in seeing. They fed us three times: For dinner I had the “beef cheeks” served with vegetables and some very tasty salted caramel pudding; later they gave us small tubs of ice cream; just before arrival we had “sliders” (a small burger and a hot dog - very, very yummy). It is nice they gave us a menu when we got on board to let us know what was coming. It is annoying to be suddenly told half way through trying to get some sleep that they were going to feed you so I have taken recently to simply not eating when this happens, after all, I am not exactly going to be missing a 3-star meal.
We love the Singapore (Changi) airport. It has to be one of our favourite airports in the world. There is so much to do and see here we will easily be able to find something to keep us occupied during our wait for our final leg back to London. We had been thinking about going into the city and doing something there then coming back to the airport but now that we were here we were more comfortable staying in the airport where we are pretty sure we won’t miss our flight.
As we arrived it was too early for our next flight to even be on the departure board so we wanted around in the “transit” shopping centre which is absolutely enormous with plenty of places to eat and shop with most of them open 24 hours.
We only had a few Singapore dollars in cash so our first stop was to exchange some of our leftover Australian dollars which is worth, roughly, the same. It was only $50 but it will allow us to eat and pick up a few things. Mel is still not feeling all that great so we picked up some cough syrup at a pharmacy then found somewhere to sit down. Easier said than done. Going up some stairs we found some seats arranged around a television broadcasting cartoons. We haven’t done much but we were still exhausted already.
Looking up I noticed that there was a bar located on the roof so I decided to have a look. Mel was not all that bothered so had a seat and waited for me. It is a cactus garden with a small bar and restaurant. Not huge but really interesting. It was very warm outside but I had a look around.
There were a number of people that were obviously taking advantage of the fact that it was outside so they could smoke but mostly it was very quiet…except for the occasional plane taking off. Not many airports with a cactus garden…
Having a map we headed towards one end of the terminal we passed by a London bus, a phone box and other bits and pieces - Amusingly, a tourist display for visiting our home.
We quickly had a look at another outdoor garden this time for water lilies. It was much smaller and much smokier so we did not spend much time here. Not many airports with a water lily garden…
I dropped Mel off at a spa at about 6:30 so she could get a massage and relax for an hour (reasonable at about $95) while I wandered around. I am not all that interested in massage so gave it a miss. Not many airports with a spa…
I enjoyed another outdoor garden nearby…This one had a wonderful, sweeping path that led up to the first level with impressive plants all around.
I just love the idea of an outdoor garden at an airport. It is great to leave the odd world of the airport lounge behind and enter back into the real one, at least for a few minutes.
In this particular case, given that there are people passing through at all hours of the day it is nice to see there is lots to see and do. Better than just sitting and simply waiting for your next flight…at least there is the choice.
I ended up visiting a local newsagent and bought a book about Singapore by an artist who I knew from her work on Hong Kong and a magazine. Not many airports with a newsagent, what, really? Oh, ok, most airports have a newsagent, my mistake.
Returning to the spa I sat down to wait for Mel’s session to end by reading my new purchases. The spa is small but has quite a lot of services. A glassed off area to my left held two large “fish manicure” basins that a couple of people used while I was waiting. To my right is a small kitchen with a number of snacks on offer but, unfortunately, not for mere visitors such as myself. Behind me are the sectioned off areas where the masseuses do their magic. The spa is open 24 hours a day which is quite useful in a 24 hour airport.
I did not have long to wait. She was certainly happy she had the message. It is a long day and a long time sitting on both of our flights.
It was getting onto 9 pm so we thought it would be good to have something to eat. A few months ago I read about a street market here in the terminal so I was determined to give this a try rather than eating at a normal and, possibly, boring restaurant with food you could have anywhere in the world. While Mel was being pummeled I managed to find out where it was as it is a bit out of the way. It is not really a BIG street market with only about four stalls but they had a few interesting things on offer. Mel had “Wanton Noodle Soup” ($4.67) and I had “Ipoh Horfun Dry Noodles” ($5.61). It was certainly not expensive and tasted really good. Also, it was prepared right before our very eyes.
This eating area is also 24 hours. Not many airports with a 24 hour street market in it…
Eventually we returned near to where the gates were located to have a sit down and drink at Starbucks. There is a place selling “sushi burritos” which are what you would expect - An odd fusion of Mexican and Japanese. I have to admit they did look interesting…but massive!
Eventually we figured out where our gate was and we stood around outside of it before they finally opened. We had to go through a small security checkpoint before being allowed into the lounge. Boarding started at about 10:30 pm but the flight left just before 11 pm.
This is a long flight. The longest we have been on this trip at just over 14 hours which is almost 2 hours longer than our flight from London to Kuala Lumpur. I guess the difference is this time we are travelling against the Jet Stream.
I can’t sleep the whole way so I have so far watched a couple of movies: “Pixels (not very good) and the new “Fantastic Four” (meh). They have, of course, fed us though we were not really all that hungry. I am going to try to get a bit of sleep before we get to London. I am hoping I can get comfortable in these seats.
If you are interested, click here for our pictures from Australia.