Day 104-(half of)105: The Long Haul
One of my favorite parts of this trip before it started was
that in my first United mileage iteration, I saw that I could potentially get
basically a full day in Singapore as I went home. Many people have asked me, as
I told them that I was flying Singapore back to the US from India, why I would
do such a thing, why I would intentionally select the far, far longer option
(one of my alternatives was a United direct flight from Mumbai to Newark, but
there were options on Swiss and Lufthansa, airlines I regard quite highly, as
well as Turkish (an airline I haven’t taken), and a slew of United/Lufthansa
combinations. Anyway, I chose this Singapore jaunt because, first, I was given
the most glowing recommendation possible about Singapore Airlines from my Dad.
Secondly, like Hell I was going to take United to end my trip. Talk about
ending on a low note. Third, who would pass down a day in Singapore? Fourth, I
would never pass down an opportunity to take an A380 (although, Lufthansa would
have given me my 2nd favorite plane, the A340-600). Fifth, I don’t
want to take United (I can’t stress this enough – and I think United is the
best of the three main US airlines). Sixth, this is the one time in my life (as
far as I know) where I can laze my way back to the US. Time was no constraint.
It was either get in Friday afternoon, or get in Saturday morning with a day in
Singapore. If I can risk a day, I’ll take the latter every time (of course, it
helped that because this was on mileage, the Mumbai-Singapore-Frankfurt-New
York route was not a single mile more than the Mumbai-Newark route. When I can
get a day in Singapore, take one of the best airlines in the world on the
world’s largest plane, and do it all for no more cost than it would have been
to take United on a different, less exciting plane, I’m doing it.
Of course, I didn’t know then that when I decided to combine
the two trips (the Australia-Japan part was originally its own trip from the
US), I would get another quasi-full day in Singapore on the way to Melbourne.
Still, I love Singapore. It’s about as far as any place can get from the US (a
place like Perth would be farther, but no one’s clamoring to go non-stop to
Perth), so getting to go to Singapore twice is just the cherry on top of this
whole thing. I had one image in my mind when I first booked the first mileage
ticket (New York-Johannesburg/Johannesburg-HCMC via Bangkok/Mumbai-New York via
Singapore), and it was on the final day of my trip, eating a messy but
incredible black pepper crab at the East Coast Seafood Center in Singapore, and
then going to the cab driver at the Taxi stand and telling him ‘Changi
Airport’, and while I told him that, I would be telling myself ‘Home’. That was
the ppicture, that was the goal, and while it didn’t go exactly as planned,
that’s what happened, and I can’t thank enough the weird mileage rules that United
has enough.
Before I get to Singapore, I still have to, in the literal
sense, get to Singapore. That flight was on Singapore Airline’s B777-300ER. I
still am questioning myself why I decided to take Singapore Airlines fewer
times than Thai Airways. What I should have done is take Singapore from Japan
to Bangalore, instead of the All Nippon/Thai combo, but the allure of taking
ANA weighed too heavily. Singapore’s plane for some reason couldn’t gate at one
of the jetbridges in Mumbai, and instead set up shop in the (for now)
unoperable section of Chhatrapaji Shivaji. The airport itself is going under a
massive rebuild that is about 75% complete. It’s a daunting project, made even
more so because they are basically building the new airport around and through
the old one. This was my first good look at the new airport, and it looks
great. I’m sure, being India, it won’t turn out to be as nice as it looks from
the outside, but it was about time that the International Airport at CSIA got
updated.
The Mumbai to Singapore flight is only 5.5 hours, which is
squarely in that too-long to stay awake the whole time but too-short to get a
good sleep, as you only have about 4 hours by the time the meal service and
drink service is done. I chose the Indian option of meal of Chicken Biryani. It
was very well cooked. It wasn’t the Lamb Biryani I once had on Etihad, but
that’s lamb and this is chicken – it would have been impossible for the chicken
to win out. One of my favorite parts of my experience on Singapore Airlines is
they put out a good product even on the out-of-India flights, which are
notoriously filled with lesser crew members and generally lesser service (this
is a bigger problem in the into-India flights – there’s a reason I got the Lamb
Biryani on the New York to Abu Dhabi leg, and not the Abu Dhabi to Mumbai leg),
but the Singapore product was great. They even have one of their better planes
on the route. I’m actually (for once) writing this in semi-real time, so I’ll
see if the true’ Long Haul’ from Singapore to JFK confirms my opinion of
Singapore Airlines enough to raise it above Etihad.
The plane arrived in Singapore around 8:00 AM, and since I
didn’t get a lot of sleep and since this wasn’t my only day in Singapore on the
trip, I decided to sleep for a bit. I was busy walking around Terminal 3 to
find a capable sleeping spot, and right around the time where I was getting
dismayed, I saw a sign for a ‘Snooze Lounge’ which was on the second level. The
‘Snooze Lounge’ is exactly as it seems, an area on the upper floor that has
about 20 lounge chairs perfect for sleeping in, with a view of the airport
beyond. If I could design a perfect thing to put in all airports, this would be
it. Man, is Changi pretty much the perfect airport.
I finally awoke from my slumber around 11:00 and again went
through immigration as the only person. This time, the immigration lady
remarked on the fact I was going through immigration three hours after my plane
landed, but I told her simply that I needed my sleep. She asked me why I chose
to come through Singapore on my way home from Mumbai, and I gave her a less
wordy reason than I did at the top of this piece. Soon, I was out of the
airport, just after I checked my carry-on bag for a scant 3.21 SD for the
entire day (is there anything this airport isn’t great at?), and was off on my
way.
The one negative of doing my days in Singapore like this is
I can’t really experience nighttime in Singapore proper. Because of this, my
various plans of what to do was somewhat limited. I decided first to venture to
Holland Village, a largely expatriate area of Singapore that specializes in
food of various international cuisines, all of high quality. Somehow, I settled
on Mexican, as it was the most crowded, and had my prawn enchilada, which was
as good as any I would get in the US, and a San Miguel draft, which I assumed
was some strange Mexican beer they were importing, but was instead a strange
Filipino beer that they were importing. Suffice to say, I have no more reason
to go to the Philippines after drinking the beer than I had before it. The food
was delivered quickly and soon I was on my way to do the only tourist
attraction I wanted to do a second time.
I don’t know what it is about animals, but I’ve spent way
too much time on this trip at Aquariums and Bird Parks than anyone normally
would. Of course, I like these places. Aquariums were attractive partly because
they were air conditioned (that was one of the largest selling points in KL),
but I had already been to the Jurong Bird Park in West Singapore on my trip in
2012. Still, I knew I wanted to go back. That bird park is just so well
organized, so well set up, that it was a surprising highlight of my first trip.
The one problem with the Bird Park is it is located on the total opposite side
of the island as the airport, and I have to take a cab from the nearest MRT
station, but none of this put me off.
I arrived just as they were starting some show, but as you
might imagine, the show was aimed at kids who are far too young for me (but the
perfect age for the park, I would admit). The last time I went to the park I
ended up walking uphill for much of it, so this time I decided to do it
backwards, and my sweat glands thanked me greatly for that decision. The park
was as nice as I remembered. It didn’t have the free-for-all
birds-all-over-the-place nature of the KL Bird Park, but there’s a certain
calmness and trueness in separating the birds into their normal places. The one
notable section was seeing the Emu area. These Emus, kept inside a medium-height
cage, were far less feisty and, to be honest, scary as those on Phillip Island.
When I was done, I took a cab back to the nearest MRT, and headed back into
town proper.
My plan was to walk around the waterfront, where the
Lionhead statue and bridge reside, and all the main financial buildings, which
creates an imposing little skyline towering above. After that, the plan was to
hop over to Boat and/or Clarke Quay (it’s really hard to tell where one begins
and the other ends) for a brew or two. Well, because of the intricacies of MRT
pricing, it was cheaper to go to Clarke Quay first, which helped because it
would space out my afternoon Irish Tea with my dinner at East Coast Seafood. I
was going to go back to Brewerkz, the craft brewery I went to last time, but
was stopped cold with a buy 1 get 1 free draft beer deal at this other place on
the way.
They had a nice
selection of draft beer from different smaller European breweries (the most
mainstream was Hoegarden, the least mainstream was bizarrely mainstream, called
Berekdter, which is of course what I got). Going with the half pint options, I
was able to try two of the Berekdter and two of the Cider they had on tap as
well, and added that a small portion of Lamb Kofta Kebab (one of their happy-hour
mini plates), and it was a great late lunch early dinner. I’m eating way too
much today, and have already reserved myself to that fact.
From there, I went on my walk, partly to sober up and partly
to get some exercise to make me the slightest bit hungry by the time dinner
comes around. The walk to the heart of Singapore is quick, but still
impressive, as most things are in Singapore. I saw a deal a travel agency was
giving for a reduced rate on the Singapore Flyer. The Singapore Flyer is the
large Ferris Wheel that Singapore uses as its competitor to the London Eye. The
Singapore Flyer is not really affordable in general, but the deal made it
slightly more so. I had quite a bit of Singapore dollars that remained from my
unfortunate turn at the Singapore Hold ‘Em table, so I decided to go for it.
The view atop the flyer was incredible, but the most haunting, and most
ominous, part of the view was the dark storm clouds brewing overhead.
Storm clouds happen basically all the time in Singapore, but
they gave me caution for my planned dinner on the waterfront at the East Coast
Seafood Center. From the flyer I walked back across to the City Center, near
the infamous Raffles Building, and went inside the MRT. Bedok was the
destination, the second to final stop on the East West MRT line. I knew Bedok
because it is the closest MRT station to the East Coast Seafood Center. Almost
directly above it, the map gave me the impression that it was sort of walking
distance. I learned later how stupid and uninformed that notion was, but it is
still the closest MRT station. With the popularity of the East Coast Seafood
Center, I’m surprised there isn’t one that is closer, but that’s the way it is.
I got into the cab over to the East Coast Seafood Center,
and made a beeline for Jumbo and Long Beach Seafood, the two most famous places
at the Center. I decided to start with Long Beach, as the last time I was in
Singapore I gave Jumbo my business, but Long Beach told me I would have to wait
at least an hour for an outdoor table. No way was I going to go for that, so I
headed over to Jumbo where the accommodated me immediately. Of course, it
started raining and they ushered all of us that were seated outside. Somehow,
they were able to conjure enough seats to fit all of us, and soon I was under a
roof, but still with a good view of the Harbor in front and the planes
descending into Changi overhead.
Because I wanted to get rid of my remaining Singapore
Dollars, and because it was the last meal of the trip, I decided to order a
Grilled Whelk appetizer as well as the Black Pepper Crab, and while the Grilled
Whelk was good, the crab was something special. I’m not sure how they make it
so good. It shouldn’t be that complicated, but somehow it is so that only that
one place in the world has it at that quality. Somehow I was able to not make
any sort of mess. Some of it was me sucking the black pepper sauce off of my
fingers at steady intervals, but the other part was that they don’t douse that
in gravy. I tried to take as long as I could with the crab, savor each bite,
and make that meal last forever.
It didn’t of course, but I did get to say ‘Changi Airport’
to the cab driver, and tell myself “Going Home” in my head. Before I knew it, I
was in Changi airport, and past immigration and walking around their beautiful
T3. 25 minutes earlier I was finishing paying the bill at Jumbo. I thought the
process at Changi would take more time, so I had a lot of time on my hands. Not
the greatest thing when you have 22 hours in a plane to come. Soon enough, we
boarded our A380-800, our home for the next day. I settled into my seat (after
getting switched to make room for a family of 3), and we were off on our flight
to Frankfurt.
Singapore Airlines is about as good as I could have
imagined, in the end. Their service was constant and impressive, with two full
meals and a large snack in the middle of the twelve hour flight to Frankfurt.
They mixed a damn good scotch and soda as well. Their seats recline more than
most, and their movie selection was great as usual. I slept through about half
of the twelve hour flight to Frankfurt, my last night flight of the trip, and
around 8 am we reached Frankfurt. Because of the fact that the US loves to
check people’s feet in security, the handful of us that were continuing on to New
York had to deplane, go through security and get back in with all the people
flying just the Frankfurt-New York leg. I was shocked how many people weren’t
continuing to New York (easily 80% of the plane). I guess there are just as
easy ways to get to New York from Singapore on other airlines (going through
Dubai takes less time, even), but everyone on the plane seemed to speak German.
Before entering the transit lounge, I was asked to step aside and have my bags
checked. I immediately felt that this was some profiling, but most of the
people they chose to rummage through their baggage were white. Soon I was
entering the plane, the final of my thirty flights and the final part of my
trip.
