Many a time, I have started writing a trip report, only to run out of time or motivation (the last one spent eight months as a draft and then I gave up), but finally I have one well underway and here we go with Chapter 1... It's written as a present-tense narrative but is now in the past, obviously.
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I do not like early morning departures. SQ238 at 09:15 from MEL is not my idea of fun (and I live in the west, so it's not even far!). And unfortunately I only manage three hours' sleep the night before. The Didi gets me to the airport smoothly. The Silver Kris lounge is of course busy, the food its usual fairly mediocre but just-good-enough self (the barista-made coffee is tolerable, and the "boutique" flavoured soft-drinks are almost the best thing in my opinion!).
I am embarking on a partially-Aeroplan-fuelled RTW. I mention this because it is my first time deploying my Aeroplan benefits from my mostly-hated HSBC Star Alliance card, ironically months after having cancelled that card and therefore no longer having *Gold.
This leg, however, is not Aeroplan, but rather SQ, allowing me to empty my Krisflyer account (never again to collect points with SQ directly, having been right royally cough*ked by SQ last year). I now focus on VA points and, despite the much poorer value, transfer them to SQ if/as necessary for my comfort needs.
Today, boarding is called in the lounge too early and we're all waiting to board for a good 10mins when we reach the gate. Seat 12K. Bellini. Desperate not to spill it after a malfunction on my last trip that left me with bellini-pants, bellini-remote, and bellini-seatbelt within five minutes of boarding.
Departure is on time, unscathed by bellini. Full cabin. B777-300ER. I still really like the physical layout of these seats and their storage options, despite their age and the clumsiness of converting them to sleep mode. I see that amenity kits are now finally provided automatically (maybe that started last year with the new La Labo (not Labubu) cloth kits).
Take off. My headphones are broken (one ear is dead) and it takes a while for them to be replaced. (I reckon the list of things to check before take off gets longer and longer: is seat working, are headphones working, have you still got your passport, is the bellini safely positioned
... . )
Today's goal is to eat well, but not so well as to obstruct two food goals: tasting Auntie Peng Banana Cake in Katong, and later doing some Malay-cuisine fine-dining at Fiz at Maxwell with a local friend.
The dining on SQ: The entrée is seafood, which I can't eat, and while the crew tries to find an alternative their best suggestion is... something with seafood. This is in stark contrast to some previous flights where more creativity was evident. (I'm not ungrateful for the attempt this time, not least because the proposed solution is from the first class menu, but why not just offer some salad or an extra bowl of warm nuts or ... . None of those are in short supply.) The main course is chargrilled mackas black angus. Quite well prepared, but underheated.
My god it takes a long time to clear Australian airspace! I haven't done a ex-AU day flight for a few years and because I'm really tired I am not finding a balance of casual shut-eye and sufficient distraction! Entertainment options seem a bit weak on Krisworld this time. Some of the lighter-entertainment recent movies range from meh! to tiresome. Thunderbolts. UGH -- I love escapism, but they've just juiced the superhero stuff dry. And Black Bag feels dully derivative -- the high rating on Rotten Tomatoes feels like a win perhaps through lack of comparable works for a decade or two!
Unusually, there aren't many TV series on Krisworld with a good dose of episodes. I also like watching local food documentaries sometimes (viz the abovementioned Auntie Peng) but the selection is really weak this time. I'm stuck with Chef James Cheng on GAStro Bites: this cook-weird-cough-sponsored-by-Caltex-petrol-stations show is somewhat amusing and at least gives some language practice.
--
Land in SIN at 15:00 and it's time for in-transit adventure, so with just a small backpack I make my way down to the bus terminal under T2. It's funny how the buses have always been the anti-tourist zone at Changi. Even three decades ago when the MRT hadn't been built, the buses were IIRC a complex pay-exact-fare-no-change-grumpy-driver and may-need-aircon-surcharge system that was not for the faint-hearted. Now you can just touch on/off with a credit card! But finding the buses is tricky (signage upstairs is very poor) and at-stop info is very local, so it's still a please-no-tourists scenario, loosely speaking.
Anyway, I need to get to Auntie Peng and her Banana Cake at Katong Shopping Centre and bus is the way -- Katong is 1.5km south of Eunos/Paya Lebar MRTs, but closer to East Coast Park and bus is a more convenient choice. (The only reason I know of Auntie Peng - and her nemesis Dona Manis - is a food documentary on SQ that I saw last year. They have adjacent stores in a tiny local shopping centre (see below). One of those stubborn ludicrous rivalries. A bit like the Godiva shop that has opened next to Koko Black on Swanston Street in Melbourne, but without the long family histories joining the two ladies above. You need to watch the documentary to understand the intense drama
.)
So, the banana cake. Honestly, a letdown. Crumbly pastry with a tiny amount of coconut in it, and a soft, very ripe, slightly tangy banana filling. I think the reputation is more one of local-institution than local-delicacy! I'm thinking of opening Aspro2's Improved Banana Cake next door to them the moment a shopfront is available. I could show them a thing or two. Then I'll be on an in-flight documentary as well!
It's predictably hot (but not rainy today) in Singapore and I have decided I need to do some serious walking to work off the SQ food and Dona Manis before eating multicourse restaurant food at 18:00. I love walking as long as it's not too noisy, and Mountbatten Road isn't too bad (plus you get to see a lot of new mansions and their collections of cars -- licence-plate-fees-no-object in this part of Singapore). Then down to Meyer Road, and across to Tanjong Rhu Road. But you know, it's pretty hot and sticky
and I'm rather tired. And by the time I reach the first bridge (just above the map's "Marina East" label, I realise that I have underestimated the remaining walking time to Maxwell.
This then requires backtracking to an MRT station (I *hate* backtracking) and catching the train. I then, of course, arrive early at Maxwell, which affords just one convenience: I sit on platform level for a good fifteen minutes after leaving the train in order to evaporate.
Well air-dried, I then venture out for more sweating. The Maxwell Road area is where I first stayed in Singapore, in an old Chinese terrace hotel found in Lonely Planet, booked by fax, with broken louvred windows and a rattling old aircon brick sticking out of the wall. Times have changed. Although the old, genuine and decaying character of the area is well and truly gone, the modernised version is very attractive as a spruced-up dining district. Dining tonight is at Fiz on Tanjong Pagar Rd and it is a great experience tasting fine-dining Malay food (a rare occurrence), using a number of very local ingredients in some dishes, too. Not everything on the menu shines, and service isn't as polished as you'd expect, but it is worth going.
I head back to Changi around 21:00 by MRT. Even though my gate is in T3, I decide to visit the revamped T2 Silver Kris lounge cos I have no affection for the noisy overcrowded principal lounge in T3. The T2 lounge is ok, sufficient. No obvious queuing system for the limited showers as far as I could see, but I got one (which was likely to have been much harder over in T3 at late-evening peak). Rather more limited food options, but enough. Although pretty busy, it overall feels calmer than T3, which I appreciate.
Boarding SQ352 is from one of the multi-gate areas in T3 (where passengers are screened in advance, rather than the older per-gate-screening arrangement elsewhere at Changi). It's a bit of a scrum, and no-one really knows which announcement is for which gate (cos they're not listening!). There are "attendants" wandering around trying to identify and gate-check oversize hand-luggage. But the couple next to me with the *egregiously* oversized baby-stuff-backpack somehow manage to get away with saying forcefully "it's within the permitted dimensions" while tending to their baby, on three separate occasions. It isn't. No chance.
Boarding to Copenhagen is delayed by about 30mins, close to 00:30. Takeoff around midnight. Another full cabin. A359, same older business seat. I don't mind. Oddly, no amenity kits offered at any point! I am tired. So tired. I skip my BTC dinner of Singapore chicken rice, just having cheese and dessert. The headphones are broken again!
---
I do not like early morning departures. SQ238 at 09:15 from MEL is not my idea of fun (and I live in the west, so it's not even far!). And unfortunately I only manage three hours' sleep the night before. The Didi gets me to the airport smoothly. The Silver Kris lounge is of course busy, the food its usual fairly mediocre but just-good-enough self (the barista-made coffee is tolerable, and the "boutique" flavoured soft-drinks are almost the best thing in my opinion!).
I am embarking on a partially-Aeroplan-fuelled RTW. I mention this because it is my first time deploying my Aeroplan benefits from my mostly-hated HSBC Star Alliance card, ironically months after having cancelled that card and therefore no longer having *Gold.
This leg, however, is not Aeroplan, but rather SQ, allowing me to empty my Krisflyer account (never again to collect points with SQ directly, having been right royally cough*ked by SQ last year). I now focus on VA points and, despite the much poorer value, transfer them to SQ if/as necessary for my comfort needs.
Today, boarding is called in the lounge too early and we're all waiting to board for a good 10mins when we reach the gate. Seat 12K. Bellini. Desperate not to spill it after a malfunction on my last trip that left me with bellini-pants, bellini-remote, and bellini-seatbelt within five minutes of boarding.
Departure is on time, unscathed by bellini. Full cabin. B777-300ER. I still really like the physical layout of these seats and their storage options, despite their age and the clumsiness of converting them to sleep mode. I see that amenity kits are now finally provided automatically (maybe that started last year with the new La Labo (not Labubu) cloth kits).
Take off. My headphones are broken (one ear is dead) and it takes a while for them to be replaced. (I reckon the list of things to check before take off gets longer and longer: is seat working, are headphones working, have you still got your passport, is the bellini safely positioned
... . )Today's goal is to eat well, but not so well as to obstruct two food goals: tasting Auntie Peng Banana Cake in Katong, and later doing some Malay-cuisine fine-dining at Fiz at Maxwell with a local friend.
The dining on SQ: The entrée is seafood, which I can't eat, and while the crew tries to find an alternative their best suggestion is... something with seafood. This is in stark contrast to some previous flights where more creativity was evident. (I'm not ungrateful for the attempt this time, not least because the proposed solution is from the first class menu, but why not just offer some salad or an extra bowl of warm nuts or ... . None of those are in short supply.) The main course is chargrilled mackas black angus. Quite well prepared, but underheated.
My god it takes a long time to clear Australian airspace! I haven't done a ex-AU day flight for a few years and because I'm really tired I am not finding a balance of casual shut-eye and sufficient distraction! Entertainment options seem a bit weak on Krisworld this time. Some of the lighter-entertainment recent movies range from meh! to tiresome. Thunderbolts. UGH -- I love escapism, but they've just juiced the superhero stuff dry. And Black Bag feels dully derivative -- the high rating on Rotten Tomatoes feels like a win perhaps through lack of comparable works for a decade or two!
Unusually, there aren't many TV series on Krisworld with a good dose of episodes. I also like watching local food documentaries sometimes (viz the abovementioned Auntie Peng) but the selection is really weak this time. I'm stuck with Chef James Cheng on GAStro Bites: this cook-weird-cough-sponsored-by-Caltex-petrol-stations show is somewhat amusing and at least gives some language practice.
--
Land in SIN at 15:00 and it's time for in-transit adventure, so with just a small backpack I make my way down to the bus terminal under T2. It's funny how the buses have always been the anti-tourist zone at Changi. Even three decades ago when the MRT hadn't been built, the buses were IIRC a complex pay-exact-fare-no-change-grumpy-driver and may-need-aircon-surcharge system that was not for the faint-hearted. Now you can just touch on/off with a credit card! But finding the buses is tricky (signage upstairs is very poor) and at-stop info is very local, so it's still a please-no-tourists scenario, loosely speaking.
Anyway, I need to get to Auntie Peng and her Banana Cake at Katong Shopping Centre and bus is the way -- Katong is 1.5km south of Eunos/Paya Lebar MRTs, but closer to East Coast Park and bus is a more convenient choice. (The only reason I know of Auntie Peng - and her nemesis Dona Manis - is a food documentary on SQ that I saw last year. They have adjacent stores in a tiny local shopping centre (see below). One of those stubborn ludicrous rivalries. A bit like the Godiva shop that has opened next to Koko Black on Swanston Street in Melbourne, but without the long family histories joining the two ladies above. You need to watch the documentary to understand the intense drama
.)So, the banana cake. Honestly, a letdown. Crumbly pastry with a tiny amount of coconut in it, and a soft, very ripe, slightly tangy banana filling. I think the reputation is more one of local-institution than local-delicacy! I'm thinking of opening Aspro2's Improved Banana Cake next door to them the moment a shopfront is available. I could show them a thing or two. Then I'll be on an in-flight documentary as well!
It's predictably hot (but not rainy today) in Singapore and I have decided I need to do some serious walking to work off the SQ food and Dona Manis before eating multicourse restaurant food at 18:00. I love walking as long as it's not too noisy, and Mountbatten Road isn't too bad (plus you get to see a lot of new mansions and their collections of cars -- licence-plate-fees-no-object in this part of Singapore). Then down to Meyer Road, and across to Tanjong Rhu Road. But you know, it's pretty hot and sticky
and I'm rather tired. And by the time I reach the first bridge (just above the map's "Marina East" label, I realise that I have underestimated the remaining walking time to Maxwell.This then requires backtracking to an MRT station (I *hate* backtracking) and catching the train. I then, of course, arrive early at Maxwell, which affords just one convenience: I sit on platform level for a good fifteen minutes after leaving the train in order to evaporate.
Well air-dried, I then venture out for more sweating. The Maxwell Road area is where I first stayed in Singapore, in an old Chinese terrace hotel found in Lonely Planet, booked by fax, with broken louvred windows and a rattling old aircon brick sticking out of the wall. Times have changed. Although the old, genuine and decaying character of the area is well and truly gone, the modernised version is very attractive as a spruced-up dining district. Dining tonight is at Fiz on Tanjong Pagar Rd and it is a great experience tasting fine-dining Malay food (a rare occurrence), using a number of very local ingredients in some dishes, too. Not everything on the menu shines, and service isn't as polished as you'd expect, but it is worth going.I head back to Changi around 21:00 by MRT. Even though my gate is in T3, I decide to visit the revamped T2 Silver Kris lounge cos I have no affection for the noisy overcrowded principal lounge in T3. The T2 lounge is ok, sufficient. No obvious queuing system for the limited showers as far as I could see, but I got one (which was likely to have been much harder over in T3 at late-evening peak). Rather more limited food options, but enough. Although pretty busy, it overall feels calmer than T3, which I appreciate.
Boarding SQ352 is from one of the multi-gate areas in T3 (where passengers are screened in advance, rather than the older per-gate-screening arrangement elsewhere at Changi). It's a bit of a scrum, and no-one really knows which announcement is for which gate (cos they're not listening!). There are "attendants" wandering around trying to identify and gate-check oversize hand-luggage. But the couple next to me with the *egregiously* oversized baby-stuff-backpack somehow manage to get away with saying forcefully "it's within the permitted dimensions" while tending to their baby, on three separate occasions. It isn't. No chance.
Boarding to Copenhagen is delayed by about 30mins, close to 00:30. Takeoff around midnight. Another full cabin. A359, same older business seat. I don't mind. Oddly, no amenity kits offered at any point! I am tired. So tired. I skip my BTC dinner of Singapore chicken rice, just having cheese and dessert. The headphones are broken again!
