Skip to main content

Scooting to Singapore


Last week I made a quick trip to Singapore flying Singapore Airline's new low cost carrier Scoot. They will not be my first choice for long haul flights in future, with very uncomfortable seats, legroom obstructed by the seat support, no moving map and an inconvenient departure time back to Australia.


Departing from Sydney I tried to recreate in my mind the feeling of excitement from almost twelve years ago when I caught my very first international flight; to Singapore. Even if the onboard service was lacking I did enjoy  the views out of the window, especially as evening approached. The as we descended on to the runway, palm trees lining the perimeter, I did recapture that feeling.


Unfortunately, there was a stuff up in hotels, with the booking for the Hotel 81 Geylang, not the Hotel 81 Tristar in Geylang. I felt like something nicer than the former, and through the hotels desk the Amara Singapore was booked.

It took a long time to reach the hotel on the shuttle bus from the airport, but when we arrived I was impressed. Modern room with comfortable bed, plus a nice swimming pool outside. Even better it was close to the famous Maxwell Food Centre and Tanjong Pagar station. Pity that the internet access was so expensive. Fortunately I had bought a Preferred Tourist Pre-paid SIM from the UOB branch at the airport. Excellent value with free calls back to Australia and seven days to use 1GB of data as an option, all for S$15. I was surprised to find that Singapore's StarHub network seemed so much worse than Telstra back home.


Over the next couple of days I ate at the Maxwell, the highly rated Old Airport Road food centre and Geylang's Haig Road food centre (where a couple of my favourite stalls were closed). I ate satay and noodles, chicken rice and Malaysian pancakes and more. The food is so delicious and cheap. I love those food centres, sitting down under the fans at the communal tables with such a wide selection and wonderful food to try.



I also visited the Chinese and Japanese gardens, which were pleasant places for a stroll, but not must sees. Far more impressive were the Sky Trees and the new Gardens by the Bay. It was like stepping into a world out of Star Wars. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to walk through the glass conservatories.









Singapore is hot. I don't think that the country would have achieved anywhere near as much without the invention of air-conditioning. Mornings and evenings were okay, but come the afternoon all I wanted to do was vegetate. This really struck me on the final day.

My Scoot flight departed back for Sydney at 2am. Without online check in I couldn't take much advantage of Changi's wonderful transit facilities, so I ended up wanting to go to a hotel for a pre-flight rest and shower. Due to cost and distance from the airport it ended up as the Hotel 81 Geylang. I'm so glad that I didn't stay there earlier. Basic, noisy, with an ant infestation and in a very sleazy red light district it was fortunate that all I wanted to do was sleep.


The flight home was even more uncomfortable than the one out. But outside the window was everything I loved about night flying. Clear starry skies, glittering cities below and a magnificent sunrise that turned into a pastel coloured morning. I think we flew over the region around Lake Eyre in South Australia, where the desert salt lakes now had water and greenery.





Scoot won't be amongst my first choice airlines in future - I'd much rather fly Jetstar - but I can't wait to return to Singapore for the food!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A lazy day at the beach

It's 2am and somebody is still setting fireworks off on the beach in front of the hotel. I can't see the explosions as I have the window shuttered, but I can still hear them. I've wanted to have a lazy day and today was the closest I got. I woke up in the night from a very sad dream. Dreams follow crazy paths, but this one resolved itself as so. An entity had been causing disruption of computer systems around the world. It turned out that this entity had emerged from the computer networks and had been struggling to gain access to more computing power so that it could live. The entity had taken on the persona of a woman. The protagonist who had "defeated" the entity discovered that it was alive, spoke to it. Ultimately fell in love with her. But his prior actions would lead to its death. As a gift to her he downloaded his memories so that she could experience life even as she died. I know it sounds like a pulpy sf or technopunk plot, but dreams are about feelings,

Ho Chi Minh to Hoi An

The easy way to get to Hoi An from Ho Chi Minh City is to fly to Danang then go via car for the final leg. Then there's my way. We had to wake at 5.30 am to get ready for a 6.15 departure from the hotel. A hotel car took us the few kilometres to the domestic terminal at the airport, where we checked into our Vietnam Airlines flight to the central Vietnam city of Hue. The airport was nothing flash, but it seemed functional. Alex had sandwiches (refused banh mi) for breakfast, then we went to the gate. Our blue Airbus A321 was parked at a remote stand, which necessitated a packed shuttle bus ride. It was nice to be aboard a full service airline again, even if the service was just a cup of water. We took off over the hazy skies of Ho Chi Minh City and for most of the smooth flight were cruising over a carpet of cloud. We descended over mountains poking their heads through the cloud, across lakes and paddy fields and over the beach. It was lovely scenery.

The sound of running water

We made it home from Osaka. There is a special feeling that comes when your arrive at your house after a holiday. It is utter relaxation. No longer do you need to worry about other language or customs. There is no need to look up directions, to plan out your day, to journey between sights. Then again, you now need to clean up your own mess, to make your own bed. Rather than eat out you need to cook your own dinner. The shower is weak and the toilet doesn't wash your bum. And you need to wake up early tomorrow morning in order to spend a day at work. You are back to your old routine. Looking back upon this holiday in Japan I've decided that the theme of running water has applied to each of the days. Sunday - Arrival in Osaka - washing ourselves Japanese style Monday - Matsuyama - water from the hot springs at Dogo Onsen Tuesday - Takamatsu - waterfall at Ritsuen-koen Wednesday - Tsumago - streams of water throughout the town Thursday - Takayama - the sounds of rushing water eve