Days 30-32: Finnair and Singapore


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Asia » Singapore
October 30th 2016
Published: November 8th 2016
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Our journey home began with a short hop from Vilnius to Helsinki; from there, unlike all our long hops on the route to Europe, the 11 hours to Singapore were undertaken without exit-row or bulkhead seats to benefit our respectively long and dodgy legs. Happily, we slept a few hours each, which was unlikely to be the case for the neighbours of a hard-drinking, Putin-T-shirt-wearing Russian passenger a few rows forward, who was eventually refused further service from the trolley.

Like our stopover in Malmo, Singapore was intended mainly as rest and only a little recreation, to break up the long journey home. We were surprised to hear from our taxi driver from the airport to the rather classy Goodwood Hotel (taxis are cheap there) that we had arrived in the middle of the Deepavali (called Diwali in India) festival, which was to peak the next day. So we did mount one major walking excursion on the middle day, first fortifying ourselves with a dim sum breakfast at the hotel. It began at the quite extraordinary Raffles Hotel for an obligatory Singapore Sling, then meandered via a number of clothing shops through the Arab quarter to Little India, where we joined the throngs of locals for the celebrations at night. Much bright lights, spotlit temples and brightly coloured clothing, and Helen finally found some of the latter for herself.

Next day, faced with a 12:40am departure with Scoot airlines, we didn’t do much, contenting ourselves with a bit of reading, leisurely lunch and packing our cases for the last time. At night we headed to the Newton Food Centre, where street hawker food has been semi-civilized into an array of stalls and tables and seats, selling a cultural variety of fare in hygienic – in fact downright pleasant – garden surroundings. It must be said that the “No Touting” signs are completely ignored by the vendors, each stall having a front man or woman issuing vigorous invitations to vulnerable-looking Westerners. The food was very cheap and very very good and fresh – not a bain-marie in sight – and washed down with a couple of Tiger beers it gave us a memorable send-off from the island and the tour.


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