Advertisement
Published: December 16th 2013
I don’t remember why I thought it was a good idea to book my trip from San Diego to Kuala Lumpur by going from San Diego to San Francisco to Hong Kong to Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, 32 hours and five airports when all is said and done, but I did. Probably because I’m, shall we say, frugal (sounds so much nicer than saying I’m cheap) and probably because I wanted to use miles to upgrade to business class.
I’m one of the few people I know who actually like airports – other than the standing in line bits. This trip gave me the chance to look at several airports, and some of them are clearly falling behind. A recent Skytrax survey showed that of the top 25 airports in the world, none of them are in the US. An article in the South China Post reported that the busiest airports in the US all had significant infrastructure issues. It shows.
I’m pleased to say that my home airport of San Diego has completed work on its Terminal 2 upgrade, and it looks good. There is now a TSA Pre-Check line, which makes clearing security much quicker if you
Changi horse
This horse is made entirely from living plants. Note the child at bottom lefthave Pre-Check clearance. There are some decent restaurants, and it is a much more comfortable experience than before. It’s still not on a par with some of the best airports in the world, but it is better than it was a year ago.
It was a fairly short flight to San Francisco, which is not one of my favorite airports. We were delayed about two hours out of SFO, which made making my connection a Hong Kong a little dicey.
Now, don’t hate me, but I used miles to upgrade to business class. My excuse is that I shattered my kneecap a year ago and I still don’t have complete flexion in that joint, making added legroom a necessity. That’s all true, but it is also true that spending thirteen hours cramped up in cattle-class is just no fun. Lie-flat seats on a trans-Pacific flight make it ever so much more enjoyable. It also helped that I was one of the first people off the plane since my flight landed in Hong Kong as my flight to Singapore was boarding.
One of the things I have always found odd about transiting in Hong Kong is that you
get off your incoming flight, go through security, and then go to your gate for your connecting flight. I mean, I had just spent the past fifteen hours sealed in a metal box hurtling through space at 38,000 feet above sea level. Where could I have picked up any prohibited items enroute? Or did they just not trust the security screening I had received in the US?
No matter, through security and a mad dash to my next gate. Hong Kong is a huge airport, and the shops and restaurants I ran past looked interesting. I got to my next flight with seconds to spare, and went through another cursory screening before I was allowed onto the jetway.
And then to Changi, Singapore’s Airport. Have I ever told you how much I like Singapore? I started to grin as soon as I stepped off the plane and smelled Singapore.
Changi is more like a small city than an average airport. It takes up 13 square kilometers – more than five square miles - and can handle 66 million passengers a year. It is also one of the busiest air cargo hubs in the world. Signs are in
Changi snooze lounge
You can just make out lounge chairs amidst the greenery. English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil, and the airport is surprising well marked. There are four hotels within the airport, as well as a swimming pool, gym, yoga studio, and movie theatre. In keeping with Singapore’s clean and green image, many of the walls in the airport are covered with living plants, both as a way to cool and clean the air, and also as a way to spread calm among the harried travelers. There is a plethora of restaurants and shops, and this isn’t your regular airport souvenir t-shirts and shot glasses. There is that, but there is also Bulgari and Mont Blanc and Tory Burch.
I landed at 2:00 am; fortunately I had booked a room at the Ambassador Transit Hotel. The transit hotels are all located on the plane side of security, so you don’t have to pass through customs and immigration. You can rent a room for as little as six hours at time, for not much more than the round trip cost of a taxi into town. The rooms are small but clean; I took a shower and slept for a few hours before my next flight.
AirAsia I had never
flown AirAsia before, and I was surprised to find that I actually had to leave the airport – go through Immigration and Customs – in order to check in for my AirAsia flight to Kuala Lumpur. With typical Singaporean efficiency, it took me all of three minutes to get through Immigration, and slightly longer to find the AirAsia document check counter. Turns out that since AirAsia is an ultra-low cost carrier, they do not have inter-line agreements, so they are relegated to space in the area before security checkpoints.
AirAsia takes its budget designation seriously. While they have dirt cheap fares (as of this writing they have flights from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore for US$12!) you pay for absolutely everything else. Want an assigned seat? A boarding pass printed at the airport, rather than at home? A checked bag? A glass of water? All those items cost extra, plus tax. Flying into Kuala Lumpur you do not land at the nice International Terminal, but at the shabby Low Cost Carrier Terminal. There are no jetways, no moving walkways, but there is a considerable amount of bus exhaust.
After an hour long bus ride, I’m here. Tired, sweaty, but
ready for new adventures. Just let me take a nap first.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.122s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0885s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Carole Pappas
non-member comment
Vicarious Thrills
Yay! You are on another exciting trip, one which I may never take. I am therefore very much looking forward to your posts and lots of pictures. Have a wonderful time.