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Singapore, Singapore

A taxi to the airport is around 70 euro, but if you are willing to negotiate the subway and a few changes you can do it for 9.40 euro each. We checked out and wished a fond farewell to Justin who assured us that time spent with us was pure pleasure and not considered part of his work (so charming and nice) and then faced the morning crush hour on the subways.

The train trip took about an hour inclusive of changes and connections. We have become used to the stuffy warm air of subway travel with close bodies touching yet impersonal faces. Typical of a city it shows how you’re not alone but you are – going about your business and staying out of others. We will kind of miss this, both enjoying the efficiencies of train travel.

Charles de Gaulle airport is huge and well signposted with check in staff that are the friendliest we have encountered anywhere. A tip for negotiating the airport is that unlike other large airports there are only a couple very small scantily stocked duty free shops after you go through the security check so if you want any last minute items, do it before you go through. Crazy and annoying as I missed out on a couple of cosmetic items that I wanted.

We were delighted to see that our plane was a big new A380-800 and it had noticeably more room in all classes, which made for a relatively comfortable 12 hr flight to Kuala Lumpur. It took an hour less on the way back then when we came over which is nice. At KL we were scheduled to have a 3 hr wait before our flight to Singapore which only takes 40 minutes. It was delayed a bit over an hour which was agony, as we were starting to feel rather tired by then.

We nick named the Malaysian airlines plane the Delhi Express as we were just about the only Europeans on it, and it was a bit grubby and run down. It took an awfully long time to get to altitude too, which caused me a bit of concern. Our fellow passengers were err, different too and the plane smelt of curry and bodies with musky sandlewood type scent. When the air steward was passing the basket of packets of peanut snacks he had to tell the passengers, only take one each as they were trying to take handfuls. I hope you are getting the picture!

As our flight from Paris was essentially during the day from 12 till 12 midnight we did not really sleep. Our arrival time in KL was 6 am local and by the time we arrived at our hotel in Singapore it was 2 pm local so our day and nights were definately blurred and becoming very long.

There is a very good train connection from the airport to the city for a few dollars and our hotel was a 5 minute walk from a city circle underground stop. Our room wasn’t quite ready so we checked our bags and went next door to a food hall of a shopping complex and had a light yum cha style lunch whilst our room got express made up. The hotel we are at is called the Pan Pacific and is rated 4.5 star but the look of it and service level is 5 star. There are about 38 floors and the centre is open like an atrium with cute see through external lifts taking you up to your room.

Back to lunch, it was very nice and cheap. We just got a wonton soup and a brisket beef and noodle stew with a few Asian greens for $18 (Singapore dollar and NZD are basically equivalent). Our room was ready by the time we got back and it is literally double the size of our Paris room with a super King size bed, memory foam pillows and a strong gravitational pull towards them!

We had been up 27 hours and decided it was perfectly acceptable to not stay up till local bed time. So we fell into bed at 3 pm without a shower (a first for me) and slept till we felt we did not need anymore sleep!

Footnote: clearly this is written after the day and I can add that we slept 18 hours, waking briefly inbetween only to sink back into luxurious, spacious quiet oblivion!

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