January 15 - Sydney to Singapore, a new perspective on flying

Last night I had dinner at a restaurant just a couple of blocks down the street from my hotel.  It was a small local place recommended by the concierge and it lived up to his praise.  It’s called Fish at the Rocks and as the name says, it’s a seafood restaurant.  There were only about 15 tables in the place and I was the only foreigner.  Everything about it reminded me of some of the little family-owned restaurants in the North End of Boston.  All the plates coming out of the kitchen looked delicious and I settled on an appetizer of a couple of little crab cakes and a seafood pasta.  They were both very good, although it’s hard to beat Chesapeake Bay crab cakes.  As I walked back to the hotel I was taken by the interesting houses along the way.  As I mentioned it’s an old section of the city and many of the houses lining the tree-lined street have fancy wrought iron fences on the ground floor and wrought iron balconies on the second.  It really is very lovely.  If I come back to Sydney I would stay here again.

The street the Langham Hotel is on

This morning I got up pretty early to get ready for my pickup to the airport.  Here in Sydney they advise arriving three hours before your flight.  Traffic wasn’t too bad going out of the city but it looked like typical rush hour going in.  I used Blacklane, an international car service which I’ve used before and I highly recommend it.  Their cars and drivers have always provided impeccable service.  I got through check-in and customs pretty quickly and then walked through the very large duty-free shopping mall to get to the Singapore Airlines lounge.  I had heard and read that the airline is great and when I arrived at the lounge I began to understand why.

I got a good deal on a first-class ticket from Sydney to Richmond with a stopover for several days in Singapore.  I didn’t realize that my flight from Sydney to Singapore would be in one of their “suites” but that’s what I had.  There was a separate lounge for suite passengers and when it was time for me to board someone walked with me toting my carry-on all the way to the aircraft door.  There the flight attendants dressed in traditional Singaporean sarongs took over and escorted me to my suite.  It literally was that.  I had a massive leather chair which swiveled 360°, a TV monitor on the bulkhead in front of me and a larger one on the inside wall, a fold down bed and two credenzas.   There were only six of these suites on the upper deck of an A380.  Even the two lavatories were enormous; one had a shower!

Here's my home for the  8-hour flight

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I settled in for my 8-hour flight, had my first ever Singapore sling, caviar as a starter followed by lobster and I have been ruined forever for any other flights.  There’s a three-hour time difference (earlier) in Singapore so I decided to try taking a nap (unsuccessfully).  The flight attendant made up the bed with a mattress, a down duvet and two down pillows.  It was actually comfortable!  I skipped the snack which was offered and just watched movies.

Arrival in Singapore’s Changi airport was a little late due to local thunderstorms.  Apparently they are pretty much an everyday occurrence.  I was met on arrival, whisked through immigration because I had filled out the immigration form online and my luggage was waiting when we got to the carousel.  I’d arranged for the hotel to send a car to pick me up and a representative from the Mandarin Oriental met me as we walked out of the customs area.  She called the car, we loaded up and I was off to downtown Singapore. It was the easiest arrival I can ever remember experiencing.

I picked the Mandarin Oriental Hotel because of a number of things.  It received good reviews and is in a good location overlooking the Marina Bay area.  I’m pretty sure it’s the hotel Al and I stayed in 30 years ago, but it has since been added onto and completely renovated and the area around it has changed dramatically.  I don’t remember so many tall buildings around it.  At the hotel I was taken straight up to my room and that’s where I checked in. It was a seamless operation.  My room looks out on Marina Bay and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the tallest building in Singapore.  I’ll write more about that on another day.

It had been a pretty long day so I stayed in and got something to eat at the international buffet restaurant here in the hotel.  That was the only mediocre thing I experienced today.  The food was okay but nothing to write home about.  Anyway, that’s all for now. Good night from Singapore.