Driving down Orchard Road, taking in Xmas in the tropics!
December 2007 Archives
Singapore Changi's Terminal 3 will be going online during the first week of January. Most of SQ's long haul flights as well as the 380 will fly out of here.
Yes, it's really that tall. Note the people for scale....
One complaint I have about Changi is addressed in T3. Unlike T1 and T2, T3 has high ceilings and a very airy feel. To address the greenhouse effect that high ceilings have, it will have computerized shutters that will close off the windows from the sun during peak hours.
Immigration for arrivals
Immigration for departures
This pic is what you will see as you clear immigration departing Singapore. The fountain looks like an onsen!
What's missing in these pictures? Hint: the missing thing is gone because of the crap that blows downwind from Guangzhou Province...
So tonight I went with some frens to HK Disneyland to watch the Xmas parade and the fireworks.
"Sir, the mouse has been playing in the radioactive waste and is rampaging through the park"
The Xmas theme was all over the park. Here in Hong Kong, they say "Merry Christmas" which is the correct greeting/salutation during the Christmas season.
Beeeg treeeee
The actors were all in Xmas getups too
Now which one of use resembles an elf?
It's not a Disney visit unless you take in the fireworks show. Here in HK, there's a big "waaaaaaaah!" at the climax of the show.
...waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!!
Unlike the other mickey mouse land in Anaheim, things here are not a complete rip-off. And the food is pretty good. Check out this spread. It was really good and it was only HK$130 per person for a party of four!
mmmmm taste the value!
According to one of my frens, unlike the other Disney parks, the characters don't wander the park to camwhore randomly. Instead you go to a special area, queue and take pix that way. So much for random pix. There's a really big fountain in front of the park that has the Moby Dick whale as its theme. Naturally, that's Donald going down with the ship...
waaaak waaaakity waaaaaaaaaaaak waaaaaaak waaaaaaak!
And naturally, what HK experience is complete without the omnipresence of the MTR?
I wound up transiting through SIN overnight to get to HKG today. Normally it works like this:
Fly SQ1 from SFO-HKG-SIN, stopping over in HKG and continuing on to SIN a few days later.
However, SQ1 was sold out so I wound up on SQ15 which leaves SFO at 1245 and arrives at SIN two days later at 0100! Technically it's "two" days later since we arrived after midnight...
Anyway, my original plan was to stay overnight at Changi Airport's Transit Hotel then head into town via MRT in the morning. I really had a craving for kaya toast and sock coffee. Still do.
Sounds easy and stress free, right? This is me, remember?? Don't count on it.
First off, the Transit Hotel was sold out. Period. Second, there's not a lot of moderate (>US$100) lodging in Singapore. Basically, Singapore lodging works like this: There's a lot of hostels then boutique hotels and then the big ass fancy awesome get laid hotels that costs as much as your air ticket.
For that bracket inbetween the hostels and boutique hotels are a couple of local no-frills hotel chains: Fragrance and Hotel 81. They're spread all about the island but their critical mass is in Geylang where you can check in at 0200 and get a single room to crash in.
Besides the odd traveler, these Geylang hotels also attract working girls and their johns for *ahem* business. Not necessarily the *business traveler* type! If you tell your Singapore frens that you stayed in Geylang, be prepared for lots of jokes about "cleaning up". AHEM...
Anyway when I took the taxi last night to get to the hotel, I inadvertently left my handphone in the cab. I realized this after I checked into the hotel and promptly went into panic mode.
I panic VERY WELL. I asked the hotel clerk to ring my phone for an hour straight.
Anyway, there's a happy ending to the story when my phone was recovered by the cab driver and turned in to his office. Apparently, when my phone started to ring on the back seat, the cab driver heard it and kept it with him. If he picked up another passenger and the phone was just sitting there the chances that my phone would have walked off were high. Really high. How high? Well, answer this question: Do I like EQMs? Yes? Well that's how certain my phone would have walked away but for the driver rescuing my phone. I collected it on my way out to Changi Airport for my flight to HKG.
So I just emptied my karma pot for this trip. Best try to refill it on this trip...
So I get the question: "why do you do it"?
I can look out the window and see thing like this, that's why.
Or like this
Somewhere over Alaska on SQ15 en route to Seoul Inchon
Because most of my flight, this is what I saw.
Of course, this is how flying SHOULD be. But not if you fly a US carrier!
Also nothing beats SQ service! That's another reason...
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