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Published: March 8th 2018
HE SAID... Today we were flying from Singapore to
Hobart.
We woke early at 3:30am, prepared our packs and checked out (with a hint of sadness) at 4:30am from Amoy, our beloved hotel in Singapore’s Chinatown. We jumped into a taxi and sped through the city’s deserted streets and highways, arriving at Changi Airport at 5am. The place was virtually deserted, so we cruised through Changi’s seamless security, took advantage of the airport’s free Wi-Fi and settled at our gate lounge. We lifted off the runway without incident around 8am – we were on our way home.
When the lunch trolley rolled down the aisle we both opted for the
gaeng kiew wan pla (fried fish in green curry with stir fried vegetables and steamed rice). The green curry was spicy and tasty, as was the fish, but the vegetables and rice were dry and bland. I managed to spill my second glass of wine all over the tray table, so Ren donated her White Russian to calm my nerves… it worked!
It was a seven hour flight, but the time seemed to fly and I was able to catch up on most of my travel writing… I
love flights that just drift by without any discomfort. A young kid sitting next to me prayed continually for the final 15 minutes of our approach into Melbourne, as the inclement weather made for a bumpy landing (which Ren slept through).
We touched down at Melbourne Airport in the late afternoon and breezed through customs, but we ended up having to wait quite a while for our packs to emerge. When they eventually spurted onto the luggage carousel, we slung them over our shoulders and walked to the domestic terminal, where announcements were being made about weather conditions delaying flights in Tasmania. After dropping the packs at the bag drop counter, we settled at our gate lounge with a refreshing Boost Juice. It was pouring with rain and a mere 11 degrees outside, but it was good to be home.
The flight from Melbourne to Hobart was pretty bumpy, but we arrived intact at 9:30pm. We picked up a couple of Subway rolls on the way home, lit the fire as soon as we got in and sat on the floor with a glass of red wine and our Subway rolls for dinner at midnight. We cleaned the
house and unpacked as best we could, and eventually crashed at 2am after waiting three hours for the hot water cylinder to warm up enough for a shower.
We woke at 7:30am but struggled to get up – we were exhausted. We drove to Hobart and managed to gather a few groceries before collecting Mia (the cat) from Ten Lives, her lodgings when we travel. On the way home she pooed in her cat carrier, only five minutes from our front gate. The smell was unspeakable. We had to wash the poor little thing as soon as we got home.
Jasper and Oliver (the kelpies) were dropped off in the early afternoon, and they were happy to be home. We cleaned the house and slowly got back to a normal routine. We had noodles and red wine for dinner in front of the fire, with Jasper and Oliver in their bean bags and Mia on the couch with us. 😊
SHE SAID... The holiday was over, and we were heading home to
Hobart!
The 3:30am wakeup call from reception at our Singapore hotel was brutal. We had napped in the afternoon the previous day,
and as a result I hadn’t fallen asleep until around midnight. We walked down to the lobby at 4:30am and got into our taxi in a daze. I was so out of it that when the taxi driver asked where we were flying to, I thought he was making small talk! Luckily I could engage my brain enough to remember our flight details to Melbourne. He looked up our flight number, told us we had a gate change and took us to the right Terminal. Something I’ve never mentioned before is how amazingly friendly and helpful the taxi drivers are in Singapore.
The check-in and immigration processes at Changi Airport took all of ten minutes. We were in Terminal 3, which is where we had landed two days ago, so I was happy to find the bronze Wings sculpture I had spotted at the time. Mexican Artist Jorge Marin created eight copies of the sculpture to be installed in major cities across the world as part of his 'Eight Cities, Eight Cultures' project. It was hilarious watching people posing with the interactive sculpture, momentarily giving themselves angelic wings. Andrew refused to pose for me. 😉
After a wait
of an hour we went through to our gate, and we were on the plane within another half an hour. So the two and a bit hours we’d allowed ourselves was mostly spent waiting for the flight. Changi Airport has really got their business end of things down to a fine art, a very different story to about 10-15 years ago, when I really disliked transiting through this airport.
No sooner had I settled into my plane seat than I fell asleep (absolutely no surprise there!), only waking after take-off for the breakfast trolley, and then sleeping again until midday Singapore time (almost four hours after take-off). Not coincidentally, lunch was served a few minutes later. 😊
Lunch was a Thai green fish curry, which was good, but not to the standard of the other Singapore Airlines meals we’d had recently. Again, not surprisingly, I napped a little more after lunch, helped very much by the two very strong Baileys White Russian I had as my lunchtime tipple.
I had hoped to do some writing on this leg of the trip, but it wasn’t looking good. I looked to Andrew to chat to me and keep me
awake, but he was out like a light too. The purpose of the stopover in Singapore was threefold – to eat good food, to break up the flight, and to regain our energy before we returned home – and it did its job admirably. We had pre-empted that the heat and somewhat fast-paced trip in Sri Lanka would catch up with us at some point, but I was a bit amazed that we were both still so tired.
All our flights on this trip had truly been a dream. Singapore Airlines (who was code sharing with Virgin Airlines) had upped its game considerably, and we truly love flying with an efficiently run airline. Even unpredictable – but frequently experienced – travel issues like bad weather, bad attitudes of fellow passengers and overtired/noisy kids hadn’t been issues. As I said, a dream run.
Landing in Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport was a depressing reminder that the seasons had well and truly changed while we were away. It was 11 degrees, dark and raining at 5pm. Immigration and customs took no time at all, but it took a long while to get our luggage before we made our way to the Virgin
domestic terminal to await our short flight home to Hobart.
Whenever we land in Hobart, I look forward to that rush of fresh Tasmanian air when the aircraft door is opened. Even though the fresh air was very welcome, braving the rain and bracing winds as we walked across the dark tarmac was a less welcoming feeling.
I really dislike arriving home late at night after an overseas holiday, but we had no choice this time. We made the most of it by enjoying a late takeaway dinner in front of the fire… our ‘welcome home’ to ourselves. 😊
I honestly don’t know how we found enough energy to unpack and clean the house after dinner. However, when our feet started dragging and our words turned monosyllabic, we had hot showers and bundled ourselves off to bed.
The next morning was spent shopping and picking Mia up from the cattery. Mia showed her displeasure at being abandoned for a month by soiling herself in her carrier while we were driving home. But she may have regretted her decision when she realised this meant being subjected to a thorough washing, before being unceremoniously left to dry in
front of the fire. Our kelpies – Jasper and Oliver – were their usual bundles of high energy and pure joy when they were dropped off later that day.
As much as we love travelling, we really do adore coming back to our home and the three fur babies. It was nice to be back on home soil, even if the weather was heading with determination towards winter with its dark, cold and wet ways. Cue nights in front of the fire, with adult hot chocolates while binge-watching films. And we’ll also be enjoying our presents…especially the delicious Sri Lankan tea in that beautiful new teapot from Singapore. 😊
Our adventure in Sri Lanka had come to an end. We are fairly behind in our blog writing, but hope to catch up when we settle into a routine again. I’m also looking forward to spending some time reflecting on our travels and experiences.
As usual, we’ll share our thoughts and feelings on Sri Lanka in our Epilogue blog.
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Kuan Yin
Karen Johnson
Changi
I dearly love Singapore, and would happily live at Changi if conditions warranted it. The comparison between the polite and efficient Customs and Immigration process at Changi and the slow, brutal process in Los Angeles is night and day, and I'm a US citizen,