Sydney to Singapore

The little “nap” we had was short lived and we were up at 5 AM trying to get all of our luggage organized. We had a car coming for us at 6, so we needed to be ready by then. The hotel staff was right there with everything we needed and we were at the airport by 6:30. We were flying on Singapore Air and they truly lived up to their reputation. We were immediately checked in and whisked up to the Kris Lounge. I think the most exciting part is that our large luggage has been checked all the way through to LAX on Sunday. We had a little breakfast while in the lounge and then were taken to board just 30 minutes before the flight. What is amazing about this is the fact that we were traveling on the A380, which is currently the largest passenger plane in the world and carries over 500 passengers.

 

It has an upper and lower deck but we found out that Singapore Air has retrofitted it to carry less than it’s actual capacity of almost 800. We were greeted by name (even before they saw our boarding passes – can’t figure that one out) and taken to our seats. We were both speechless! I had heard that they have the largest biz class seats in the sky, and that is the truth, almost 36 inches wide. Mom even said that the seat was almost too big, seriously? The boarding process went so quickly and quietly and we were ready for take off after just 30 minutes. It’s hard to believe when you compare it to domestic flights with less than half that many passengers. When we went to take off we could tell we were on an enormous plane because it took a very long way to get airborne. We had 7 ½ hours en route to Singapore and we enjoyed every minute of it. In fact it seemed shorter than the flight out to LAX, but then again we didn’t have a flight quite like this. We were served two wonderful meals including the most wonderful brandied fig ice cream! I will have to take photos on our flight on Sunday to show here – I had forgotten to do this on the flight. We were on the ground a few minutes early and before we knew it on the way to our hotel. It was so fast to get through immigration especially since we didn’t have to wait on our luggage. Our taxi driver was so friendly and extremely knowledgeable. We managed to arrive in the midst of a thunderstorm and downpour that ended as quickly as it started. Our first impression of Singapore is what a beautiful city it is with all of the landscaping – trees, flowers, flowering shrubs, etc. Not sure if everything he said was true, but he said all taxi drivers are Singaporean and if they were to ever cheat someone by offering a “flat fare” they would lose their license and could never drive a taxi again. He then went on to tell us what a safe city it is since you are hanged of you are found in possession of a gun. He also showed us many of the unique buildings that are here including the new Marina Sands that has a boat on spanning 3 separate towers. It’s just too over the top.

Day View

Reminds me of Vegas at night!

Just your average shopping mall in Sin

We also saw the Singapore Flyer just before arriving at the hotel.

 

We are staying at the Fairmont, which is located across from the iconic Raffles Hotel and in the center of everything. We checked in and got into our room to see the beautiful view of the Marina District. We had reservations for high tea at Raffles, so we didn’t have much time to get ready. We went across the street to see the beautiful hotel and enjoy our tea and champagne. 

Exterior of Raffles

Lobby

Looking up in lobby.

In addition to the usual tiers of sandwiches and sweets they had an entire buffet set up with fresh fruit, scones and several different kinds of dim sum – that was a first. It was all so good!

After tea we walked around and admired the property and went down the arcade where the different shops can be found. The exchange rate is in our favor, so many of the shops were very inviting. So far we’ve been very good – that may end in “Sin”. We’ve had a pretty long day and it does feel much later since we had to move our clocks back 3 hours. Here’s the crazy part, in Sydney we were 14 hours ahead of EST and though we moved our watches back 3 hours we are still 13 hours ahead of EST. Maybe I’ll figure it out when I’ve had some sleep. We are calling it an early night so we can have a full day tomorrow. 

Susan - thank you so much for all of your comments, it's been great hearing from you. I would be happy to tell you about the snow egg, please just send me an e-mail by clicking here.