Home to Singapore

Finally we are off on our next adventure. This time we are travelling for one month with Finesse Bridge Club, then we have 3 weeks on our own.

Friday was like any other day. Played bridge, went to lunch, then collected a car from Newcastle airport.

Saturday we drove to Sydney and dropped the car at the airport and booked in to the Mercure Sydney International Hotel. This has become a regular for us as it is across the road from St George Rowing Club – very convenient.

Watching the planes come and go from the balcony of the rowing club certainly gets us in holiday mode.

On Sunday morning it is a short shuttle trip to the international terminal for our 7.55 am departure on a Boeing 777 to Singapore. We met up with Greg and Gai from Finesse before we boarded the plane.

As many of you know I don’t enjoy flying. By chance, in February when we were first planning this trip we had a conversation with Carolyn and Paul and they told us about Premium Economy. Not being regular flyers we were unaware of this medium step between economy and business class.

We did some research and decided to book premium economy for all 4 flights. It is already worth the extra money after one flight.

For those regular travellers this will not be new information so I apologise if I lose you here.

Premium economy is allocated 32 seats on the plane we were on. It is a separate section curtained off like business class. The configuration is 2-4-2 so Paul and I had 2 seats together on the side. More leg room, wider seats and noise limiting headphones provided. We could also ‘Book the cook’ before we left to select our meals. We had no idea that we would be served first because we had done this. Looking around the cabin, it seemed like only a handful of the 32 had booked ahead.

For me the main benefit of premium economy was that I got to have an armrest on both sides. I think I have flown about 80 hours previously (not much compared to many of you) but I only remember having access to both armrests when we flew from Hawaii to Fiji and no one had booked the 3^rd seat on our section. Every other flight I have had one or no armrests and sat in a contorted position for the whole flight. Not great for backs and necks. And I am usually avoiding contact with a complete stranger.

So when we arrived at Changi Airport in Singapore I felt very relaxed. Two movies, two music albums and a short nap and the 7.5 hours had gone – and I was still comfortable.

Thanks so much Carolyn and Paul – your advice and recommendation is greatly appreciated.

We were so lucky when we arrived at Changi. We took the travellators for the long walk to arrivals. Then down the escalator to immigration and there were no queues. Very unusual, but a welcome sight.

So it wasn’t long until we all had our luggage and found our driver for a transfer to the Carlton Hotel.

Greg and Gai from Finesse have booked all the transfers and accommodation so we are just along for the ride now.

The Premier floor of the Carlton is fabulous, Up high on the 19^th floor with great views. We arrived at about 2 pm and settled into our rooms. And as usual Paul was then looking for a beer.

None of the bars at the Carlton open before 6 pm so the concierge directed us to a bar across the road. It was called ‘AngloIndian’ and had all day happy hour. Paul was in heaven!

The foyer and art work in the Carlton is beautiful. We also got to watch the chefs in the patisserie as they prepared the delicacies for the coffee shop and the Premier lounge.

 

At 6 pm we met the Finesse group in the Premier lounge on Level `19 at the Carlton for their ‘Happy Hour’. All Premier guests get free drinks and food for 2 hours so this was our dinner – nothing else needed.

We enjoyed Tempus Two Savingnon Blanc ( so close to home!), Tiger beers and Singapore Slings.

About 8.30 we all pulled up stumps and went back to our rooms for a good nights sleep.

Next morning we dawdled to breakfast about 9am – again in the Premier Lounge. A beautiful breakfast all included in our room fee.

Then we took some photos from the balcony before going to explore the Raffles City shopping centre across the road.

Paul thinks the building above has been designed by an architect with an IT background as it looks like a giant router hub!

Paul was amazed at the 7 ft tall manequins in the shopping centre.

On the way back we saw this rickshaw driver. It was 11 am and he was sound asleep. What a difficult job in this humidity. It isn’t super hot but is very humid.

 

Raffles is currently being renovated. The whole rooftop is being retiled. See the photo above of the tilers – not a single piece of scaffolding in sight. We are hoping it will be open when we return in September as we would like to do High Tea there.

Tonight we will have dinner at a local restaurant before catching our red eye flight to Paris at midnight.