Arrived in Singapore!

Singapore is country #35 for us!

It's the first new country since we were in Barbados is October of 2017.

Let me tell you about the last 24 hours or so...

We got up at silly o'clock again in Los Angeles this morning. That would be around 3:30am. We requested an Uber taxi to get us to the airport. But this time, I was smart about it. I put the requested drop off location just outside the airport so that we didn't have to pay the airport drop off fee. This save us a few dollars, plus we got ten minutes worth of exercise because we walked the extra distance.

No problem getting our flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Oddly, we were just about the only white people on that plane. The rest looked to be varieties of Asian. We guessed that most of them would also be getting on the Singapore flight with us, but who knows.

Flying in for our connection in rainy San Francisco.

It was supposed to be only a two and a half hour connection. We were starved and had to get some expensive airport food for breakfast. We each had a nicely done fresh sandwich on gluten free bread. Without a drink, the bill was $23 USD ($31 CAD) for the two sandwiches. 

Yikes. But, we needed some food.

Getting settled on the Dreamliner.

They got us on the plane. It was almost full, but not quite. There were maybe 4 or 5 empty seats in economy. And a few more than that empty in Premium economy where you get ever so slightly more legroom. They came on the speaker saying that you could not sit there unless you were willing to fork over an extra $236... and yes, they have a credit card machine for your convenience!

Then, we were an hour late departing. The pilot came on and blamed it on a communication problem, then came on again and blamed it on a catering problem.

People were not impressed having to sit on the plane an hour longer than expected... especially on a scheduled 17 hour 10 minute flight!

The entertainment system is really nicely done.

Huge selection of movies to keep you entertained. I watched four complete movies during the flight, as well as a couple of episodes of Friends.

It wasn't long after take off that they came around with beverage service, including free wine and beer for those of us in the cheap seats.

Then meal service. We had requested the gluten free option, and that's what we got.

Kind of an uninspiring meal.

A piece of dry chicken breast with no sauces or spices. Ruth could teach them a thing or two about gluten free cooking! And the salad tasted like those "salad in a bag" that you can buy in the grocery store. Except this one had been sitting around too long and didn't come with any dressing. Good thing we had wine to wash it down with.

The best part of the meal!

The ice cream was delicious!

Later in the flight they came around with a snack and another drink if you wished. Ours was some kind of cold curried rice with chick peas, lettuce, and tomato. Not bad. At least it had some flavor.

Then they served us another meal two hours prior to landing. Ours was the exact same meal we had when we took off. Identical! Not great food. And we didn't even get ice cream the second time around.

Other than the food, the flight was fine. I found that the 18 hours passed without much problem. I would have a nap in between movies, and then there was the meal and drink service to break things up.

We arrived in Singapore at about 7:35pm local time. No problems getting through immigration. The officer was friendly and smiling and offered a couple of candies to welcome us to Singapore, as he processed our passports and paperwork. (Some countries could learn a thing or two about being more welcoming. You can be a border guard and be pleasant at the same time!)

We bought a local SIM card for the phone. SingTel has a Tourist Special where you buy a new SIM card for $15 SGD ($14.60 CAD, $10.90 USD) and it's only valid for 7 days. It includes unlimited local calling, and 30 minutes of long distance to Canada or the U.S... as well as text messaging and an amazing 100 GB of data, and yes, you can use your phone as a hotspot.

So, for $5 a day for the three days we are here, we are well connected.

Next stop was to buy a transit pass. We paid $15 SGD each for those. $5 for the card, and $10 worth of credit. Then, we hopped on the train to downtown.

Getting on the train.

By this time, it was dark out so no point in taking photos. Don't worry... there will be lots of photos of Singapore coming over the next couple of days!

Inside the train.

Made it to our AirBnb accommodations and let ourselves in using a passcode. We will be fine here. Might be glad we have air conditioning... it is hot and humid! But that's okay. We'll take this over what we left behind in Canada!

We're off to bed.... exhausted!

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