EK405 and a day in Singapore

Our Emirates flight experience was pretty good. Between our time in the lounge and the dedicated aerobridge to the plane, and the fact the entire top deck of the A380 comprised only business and first class seats, we didn’t see any economy class passengers the whole way. It felt quite odd and this was magnified when Xavier was given one gift/toy after another by the flight attendants. First, a colouring book and pencils, then a little bear with a small blanket stuffed inside it, then a Lonely Planet kids travel pack contained in a mini toiletries bag (no toiletries), and finally a snack box packed solid with chocolates and chips. We kept it all, except for the snacks, which went untouched and were left behind. It was becoming more apparent how the other side (and their children!) live.

The service was nice although patchy. Pre-departure Moet was a treat. Drinks orders taken soon after an on-time 6pm take-off (breakfast martini for me, water on the rocks for X). Then the long wait for dinner began. Xavier received his meal about 90 mins or so after we left, by which time he was wholly engrossed in a five episode Dora marathon! He flicked the meat sauce off each piece of pasta and loaded up on carbs, including a bread roll. My entrée (Vietnamese chicken salad) arrived about 20 mins later, just shy of two hours after take-off. Had I been hungry, I'd have been quite annoyed at the delay, given there were perhaps 12-14 flight attendants for around 50 or so passengers on the top deck. The salad was nice and the main, another chicken selection, this time of Chinese provenance, was excellent. The seared gnocchi and sage sauce were the winners from the dish.  Dessert came (logically) a bit later, and was great – orange chocolate panna cotta with a berry coulis and chocolate cigar (I think).  Probably larger than necessary, but really lovely.

Pre-takeoff champers - Moet

Getting comfy

Emirates food menu

Dessert - yum!

Xavier moved onto Paw Patrol while I watched “Breaking the Bank” (Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman). Time for X to stretch out in the giant bed and try to sleep. There was no shortage of room but we ended up temporarily sharing one seat so he would settle. By this time, the lights had been dimmed (to a rather unnatural shade of purple!) and only the man in the seat directly in front of Xavier (inevitably!) had his reading/spot light on, so it was relatively dim. X eventually succumbed and got in maybe a 3.5 hour snooze. I watched a terrible Kelsey Grammer flick, also about bankers, and then thought I'd try to sleep. I got about 45 mins before my noise cancelling headphones, which I'd left plugged in for noise cancelling effect (these were Emirates-supplied headphones which required power supply from the headphone jack in the seat to block out the noise) began blaring and my TV screen lit up, to tell me that duty free sales were ending soon!! Lesson learned – take off headphones when going to sleep. Mind you, this wouldn't have helped maintain low lighting, as both our TVs turned themselves back on. Another lesson – eyeshades!

We eventually landed in Singapore and breezed through immigration and bag collection, and found our Emirates-provided chauffer driver relatively easily. We were at our hotel around an hour after landing, which was a happy surprise. Checking in took two minutes and we were in our room, in bed, in ten more. Getting to sleep was slow but we both crashed and slept solidly for five hours. On awakening, I took to TripAdvisor and Zomato to find somewhere for breakfast. Triangulating both sources (Linton has trained me well!) led me to My Awesome Café, which was a short (~750 metre) walk. Alas, today was a major public holiday so the usual 7.45am opening time became 9am (waiter was outside setting up tables when we arrived at about 8.30am). X was clearly hungry so we went back to a little hawker centre on the same road to get something. Public holiday + Singapore = very late and slow shop openings, it seemed. Just a few of the hawker stalls were operating but we found a pad see ew vendor which met X's requirements and had a $4 serve – fresh, hot and tasty, so everyone was happy. Still needed coffee so thought we'd head back to the well-rated café as it was almost 9am. Opening now deferred until 9.30am! Walked on and found Australian-style breakfast place where a coffee and a berry smoothie were rapidly dispensed. We enjoyed our respective beverages surrounded by expat cyclists in lycra; turns out this place was much more like an Australian breakfast place than we had expected!!

Happiness is...an ice-cold berry smoothie (surrounded by MAMILs?)!

We wandered back to the hotel through Chinatown which was now a bit more abuzz with tourists than earlier.

Chinatown scene

Another Chinatown view

Settled in for a bit of TV then a nap. 90 minutes later, we both felt a bit more energised I think. Headed off to the Far East Organisation children's gardens in the Gardens by the Bay. We went here in April 2016 when we went to Sinagpore with Mum. X had a fantastic time then so Linton suggested I aim to repeat it. Took an Uber, which wasn’t really that great (Driver: Where do you want to go? Me: To the children's gardens, at the address I put into the Uber app. A bit later – Driver: Can you tell me exactly where you want to go? Me: Yes, to the Far East Organisation children's gardens, at Gardens by the Bay, at the exact address I put into the app. Driver: Alright, I'l just follow the GPS then. Me: Yes, well, that’s the general idea. Driver: Sometimes the GPS is wrong, blah, blah, blah...). I suppose this outcome should have been obvious when I noticed the driver not using the navigation function on Google Maps, but instead manually sliding the screen on his phone as we made progress…! Mind you, the $6.50 tariff was a bargain (we ended up paying $3 to take the MRT back to the hotel when we were done).

HORROR! The water park was closed when we got there, due to the risk of lightening – it had been raining and thundery for about an hour – so we repaired to a little café for some lunch and I crossed my fingers the storm clouds would blow over. Thankfully, they did and we spent nearly three hours between the water play area and the amazing, huge adventure playground. It was loads of fun for both of us, and the other 1000 kids who were there!

Pre-moisture selfie

A bit damp but loads of fun

Demonstrating promising Spiderman skills!

Water park with Marina Bay Sands and giant
air-conditioned greenhouse in background

We walked via the Gardens by the Bay to the MRT station and then back to the hotel for a while.  X decreed he wanted a burger and chippies for dinner so I did my best to find some local options.  Unfortunately, because it was a public holiday, some pub-style places were closed although this became apparent only after finding that our selected dinner venue, and others like it that we subsequently walked past, were not open.

I refused what would have been the easiest burger option – the very conveniently located McDonalds – and we ended up at an Austrian restaurant (yes, they exist, it seems!), X having french fries and us sharing a gluggy, cheesy pasta dish that I’m sure was not translated authentically from Austria to south-east Asia.  So, no burger (but also no Happy Meal, so not a complete loss!) but the chips hit the mark for X I think.  Clearly vegetable intake was going to be a challenge on this trip!

Then, back to the hotel for Big Hero 6 on TV, a quick Facebook Messenger call with L and bed, with bags mostly re-packed for the 7am hotel check-out the next day.  Linton was at the time ensconsed in the Qantas business lounge at BNE, awaiting his 00.55am departure to HKG, connecting 90 minutes later to BKK.  His review of the lounge was not all that amazing, but free wifi and a few complimentary drinks are not to be scoffed at.

Hotel check-out and taxi to the airport both went well on Saturday morning.  Check-in for the flight to Bangkok was a breeze, as was immigration control.  No security screening yet, as they do this at every gate at Changi, so we headed to the Singapore Airlines SilverKris (business class) lounge for about about 90 minutes.  Darkly furnished and dimly lit, but heaving, the lounge wasn’t amazing in my opinion but it fed and watered us and kept us comfortable for a good while until we joined the long security screening line at the gate.  It didn’t take too long to get through and, boarding having commenced a bit previously, we walked straight onto the plane and took our roomy but clearly aged seats on the Singapore Airlines 777-200.  I had ordered our meals using the ‘Book the Cook’ service, which is basically a long a la carte menu.  Given the hour (departure at 9.35am), I resisted the urge to order the lobster thermidor (apparently this is the pinnacle of business class dining if the regular visitors to the frequent flyer forums are to be believed).  Instead, I plumped for eggs benedict.  I requested poached eggs on an English muffin for X.  Much more thoughtfully than Emirates, Singapore Airlines served Xavier first (as in, first meal delivered to any business class passenger), and his tray was piled high with (mostly sugary) options, including the poached eggs, which failed dismally to impress – when the yolk is hard, powdery and just a little bit dark around the edge, you know the life has well and truly been poached out of them!  The poor old English muffin became a bit of a sponge for the poaching water that made its way onto the plate, so was largely inedible. He ate the eggs (well, I fed them to him) anyway, and this meant his yoghurt, Coco Pops and other less healthy options didn’t get touched.  He partook also in some orange juice and a croissant, with crumbs all over himself and the seat representing signs of his enjoyment!!  My eggs benedict fared a bit better, I think because the hollandaise sauce prevented the moisture being totally lost from the eggs.

X and I with his Spiderman figurine
(courtesy of Singapore Airlines)

Copious breakfast options on SQ to BKK

The flight was smooth and we landed pretty much on time in Bangkok.  Despite the potential for extensive questioning, we progressed through immigration easily and very quickly (apparently X is still an ‘infant’, so we got to access the priority queue!), and collected our bags swiftly.  The whole 'getting off the plane and luggage coming out first' phenomenon could lull someone into a false sense of promptness and ease when it comes to international travel!!  Despite the best laid plans (where Linton’s flight and ours were scheduled to land within 30 minutes of each other), L’s arrival from Hong Kong was delayed by 90 minutes, so X and I took the transfer car into the city to our hotel after a little bit of a mix-up finding the company rep (readily resolved), and Linton travelled in a taxi, arriving about an hour after us (he had a better traffic experience than us).