A MARATHON SEQUENCE OF FLIGHTS continued
Sorry for the delay.
Returning to BKK on the late flight, unexpectedly in first, meant instead of dozing like I intended I had to stay awake to sample the food and drink, and to check out the seat and IFE - purely in the interests of research of course.
The food was yummy, although the satay was prepared quite differently to Singapore's famous
satay - cooked differently and sauce smoother and less of it. Same cucumber onion garnish though.
The A343 has full avod so played around seeing what is on it. The flight is too short to see a movie but long enough to watch a few shows. There is less choice than Singapore's Wisemen 3000 but more choice than Qantas for example.
The flight lands all to soon and I now face a dilemna. With late arrival and early departure tomorrow its not worth getting a hotel. Decide instead to stay airside and spend the few hours dozing, wandering around, drinking in the bar with a few other hapless travellers, and generally avoiding falling into a deep sleep. There are very few flights between 2am and 5am but throughout the airport I'd guess hundreds of passengers also trying to sleep or while away the time. Most shops remain open all night, but some close. I spotted a neat trick (too late to use it) - in the middle of the terminal there is a massage place (wooden semi-enclosure) with lots of couches, after it shut they were taken over by people to sleep on, looked to be the most comfortable spot in the airport.
Early in the morning the transit desk opened (actually earlier than they'd said the previous day ^ ) and so I picked up my next couple of boarding passes and headed for the Thai first lounge by pier 5 for a refreshing shower and to check my messages. This morning there are no Thai or *A flights (other than Singapore) leaving from pier 5 or 4 and so had the entire lounge to myself!
The lounge attendant personally calls me when it is time to board and so head through security to the gate. The Singapore flight to Singapore is on a 3-class 777, which means no suite and also no avod. I distract myself with some (okay a lot) dom to get in the right mood and the flight passes quickly. Load is fairly light, which surprised me for the first flight of the day. On arrival at Singapore we have a long taxi, which sometimes annoys me, but not today.
For after a few close calls, I finally get to see the big bird A380 which landed in Singapore less than an hour before I did. Our taxi takes us past the gate at which its parked, complete with Singapore logos (rather small I must say) and an A380 logo on the tail.
Head up to the lounge and catch up with
MovieMan and
infoworks (who we'd arranged to be on the same flight) and also
CDG1 (who has been following the A380 very closely!). We decide to head out to the gate early, so that we can stop along the way by the picture windows in front of the A380.
With the flight being totally full we are unable to get seats together. While talking in the aisles I notice a couple are separated so I swap my seat so they can sit together. This short hop to Kuala Lumpur always amazes me how well organised the FAs have to be in order to do a meal service. Admittedly the meal only consists of panini or salad, plus coffee tea or water, but it is still quite good given may already be descending by the time some passengers are being served. The aircraft is a 772 (ie spacebed). For those unfamiliar with Singapore, this is their only route with 2-class where the 2-classes are first and economy. However first is in name (plus point earning!) only as the seats are spacebeds.
Arriving at Kuala Lumpur we take the short train ride to the main terminal, and quickly through immigration thanks to premier line. I get asked an odd question though - "Are you a caterer?"
No of course not. Seemed to satisfy the officer and straight through. After changing some money go downstairs to take the express train into the city - which by good fortune is just about to leave.
So my marathon flight sequence comes to an end. 4 days and nights of continuous flying - 11 flights and approx 30,000 miles flown.