We’re here! And we already have stories to tell.
We caught an earlier-than-expected flight from Victoria to Vancouver. The two hour layover at Vancouver passed quickly. We boarded our plane around noon, and were very impressed when a steward showed us to our seats then stowed our handluggage for us. Immediately after takeoff we were given a hot towel and served drinks. Then we were given headsets, socks, and other amenities. Shortly afterwards we smelled food in the galley and sure enough, we were handed a menu – yes, a menu! – to choose our meals. No, we were not travelling in first class. That’s just how Singapore Airlines treats economy class travellers. Imagine the kind of service they were getting in first class!
The other great thing about Singapore Airlines is that they have a wide range of options for entertainment during the flight. You can watch movies and television shows, but you can also play cards or video games, or just listen to music. There were over 30 movies available so I went on a movie-watching spree. I started with the terrible Aeon Flux (I knew it was bad but just wanted to see it) then watched the depressing North Country. After that I needed something lighter so I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I started to feel guilty about not watching Oscar-nominated movies so the next movie I tuned into was Good Bye and Good Luck. It was really boring so I turned it off.
Around that time we landed in Incheon (Seoul, Korea) to refuel and take on new passengers and crew. We were required to de-plane with all of our hand luggage and go through a very thorough security check. After we cleared security we had 20 minutes to roam around before we were required to re-board the plane.
It took 15 hours to get from our doorstep to Incheon. The 6.5 hour flight from Incheon to Singapore was a killer. We were served another meal but I didn’t eat much because I was still full from earlier meals. I tried to pass the time by watching another Oscar nominated movie, Capote, which I’d already seen before but wanted to see again. Unfortunately I was too tired to really enjoy it. So, I turned it off and tried to get some sleep. I normally can’t sleep on airplanes but the seats on Singapore Airlines planes have these cool flaps that you can adjust around your head to support it while you snooze. Somehow I managed to snooze for about three hours. When I woke up we were about an hour from Singapore, and I managed to stay awake until we landed.
If you’ve ever been to Singapore, you’ll know why Changi Airport is rated the best in the world. It is so efficient that you are guaranteed to de-plane, get through customs, collect your luggage, and be in a taxi within 25 minutes. We had a bathroom break so it took us 30 minutes. We purposefully chose to fly to New Zealand via Singapore because of the airport – and the lack of uber-paranoid American security.
It took about 15 minutes to get from the airport to the hostel, which was good because we were exhausted and desperately needed to get to bed. The taxi driver was really confused about why we wanted to stay at the hostel. We thought he was just slotting us into the generic “tourist” category and expecting us to stay at some fancy hotel. When he pulled up to the hostel we understood his confusion.
Our first impression of the hostel was that it was on a dark, non-commercial street. There were no shops or restaurants, which is really odd in a city where the national pastimes are shopping and eating. Then we saw the stairs leading up to the lobby. I looked at our 70+ pounds of luggage and sighed. We schlepped it to the second floor where an old Chinese lady was sitting at a table. That was the “lobby”. We paid for our room then schlepped our luggage to our third floor room, which contained a bed, a dresser, a chair, and – thankfully! – a big-ass air conditioner. The floors were battered tile and dark stains were creeping up the walls from the floor. We were too tired to object to the condition of the room so we turned on the air conditioning, crawled into bed, and passed out.
In the morning we took one look at the ancient and filthy bathroom facilities and decided to high-tail it to a hotel on Bencoolen Street. (The facilities were so disgusting that I couldn’t find the nerve to use the sink to brush my teeth. The highlight of the shower was a 1-foot wide mass of hair around the drain. I’m not exaggerating.) I’ll have to write to the Lonely Planet and ask them to revise their description of the hostel, which is currently: “It’s a clean, well-run place…”
We were going to stay at The Strand (where we had stayed in 1999) but the cabbie recommended Hotel 81, a new hotel right next to The Strand. We decided to give it a try. We arrived around 9am but had to wait until 1pm to check in. We put our luggage into storage at the hotel and went across the street for breakfast.
The desk staff had recommended a $2 “Singapore” breakfast at a little café across the street, but we ended up going to a more up-scale café that offered a breakfast buffet. I enjoyed the fresh watermelon and pineapple the most because they had such a rich flavor. I think I had too much pineapple and orange juice, though, because I started to get stomach cramps toward the end of breakfast.
After breakfast we walked down to the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station to buy a $10 transit pass. The MRT and bus system in Singapore is very efficient and easy to navigate so we plan to use it to get around over the next three days.
By that time it was about 10:30am and 30 degrees outside – and bloody humid. So we did the best thing you can do here, and headed for an air conditioned shopping mall. We ended up at Plaza Singapora which was having some kind of amazing sidewalk sale because there were hundreds of people lined up waiting to get into the mall. Of course, this being orderly Singapore, only so many people were allowed into the special shopping area at a time so people were queued up outside and there were security guards to let people in 10 at a time. We bypassed the queue for the sidewalk sale and wandered around the mall. It wasn’t a touristy mall. There was a supermarket, a linen store, and variety of stores selling children’s clothing. Accordingly, it was packed with locals running erands.
We stayed at the mall until 12:30pm then headed back to the hotel. By then we were feeling absolutely disgusting. We had been wearing the same clothing for three days, had slept in a filthy hostel, and had been walking around in 30+ degree heat. A cold shower and change of clothes was high on our priority list.
Our room at Hotel 81 is small, with twin beds, but it’s clean and modern. There is a television but we probably won’t use it. The only amenity that is missing is a bar fridge where we can put drinks and fruit to keep them cool. Oh, well. One must keep things in perspective – a 1-foot wide wad of hair in the shower or no bar fridge? Hmmmmm. Tough decision.
We’re going to have a nap then catch the MRT to Clarke Quay. We’ll have a wander along the river, enjoy dinner at one of the many restaurants, then go on a bumboat ride. We just want to take it easy today and get acclimatized. Tomorrow we’ll go on a walking tour of Little India and maybe go on a night safari.
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