A visit to Singapore, Malaysia and a Quickie in the Philippines!

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There is currently a whole series of wonderful Trip Reports on AFF so I had to get back into the swing of things and join in the fun @ some creative writing. It has been a few months, maybe six, since my last Trip Report – the Buck’s Week – but now I am back, hopefully better, getting my fingers dirty and typing up this very late TR – yes it's very late but better than never!

As I reflect upon my recent travels and put those thoughts & experiences into this TR, all I can think of is ….. I want to travel more!!

Sadly I do not travel that often – it’s all subjective I know – but that is how I feel. Work will not send me to visit clients in a Boeing or an Airbus, they’re cheap and send me via the fleet of Holden or Toyotas that we have. Plus I need to complete a damn driving logbook which I dislike, I’d rather be completing ba97.com or myflightmemory.com. So as you can see, all my flying is purely for leisure and my pleasure.

It’s all about the planning, the booking, and then the long wait. Waiting for that day where it is time to make my way to the airport, the day where weeks of planning and anticipation come into action. Where that action now become the experience, the memories, and the trying of new & exciting things.

This trip of mine is going to be a relatively straight forward one. The main theme is to visit Singapore and attend the inaugural Singapore Formula 1 motor race, before a side trip into Malaysia and a quickie* in the Philippines. *no pun intended.

A brief summary of my flights can be easily read as: SYD – SIN – KUL – MNL – HKG – BKK – SYD. The carriers to be flown include QF, JL, MH, CX and BA.

My places of rest & sleep will be at the following spots:-

@ Singapore, Singapore = my sister’s condo

@ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia = Westin Hotel KL, Hotel Imperial KL and Le Meridien KL

@ Manila, Philippines = Dusit Thani Hotel Makati City.

There are lots of things which I am trying out for the first time, like flying BA in Club World, the idea of a mattress run, the notion of a mileage run & my very first First class experience in CX’s First Class suites.

On a final note, this will be a sensible holiday unlike my previous (& no longer posted) Buck’s Week in Asia TR where lots of nightly activities could not be remembered due to excessive alcohol consumption. So *sadly* do not expect much hanky-panky from this report.

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Grrrr... I now have one more reason to procrastinate on my assignments.

@ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia = Westin Hotel KL, Hotel Imperial KL and Le Meridien KL

Nice city for a mattress run. Hotels in KUL are still comparatively cheap despite the AUD taking a dive in recent weeks.

[Alanslegal]

SYD T1 TERMINAL, CHECK-IN and QP

SYD – SIN
QF 31
Economy – Seat 68A

This first leg of my travels is really the return flight segment of an ex-SIN ticket which I purchased last Christmas / NYE. The ticket was purchased when they had their SG$688++ special and when the AUD very good compared to the SGD then, it made the return flight approx. AUD$850 all up.

It’s T-3hrs and my mate and I were dropped off at SYD T1 and were faced with at least 40 passengers lined up in Q at the QF check-in. I wasn’t planning to spend at least 30 minutes in Q so we went around to the empty QP/J counters and tried our luck! Why? I don’t know if I’m still actually a QP member. As a QP member in the inaugural AFF corporate scheme, the 12 months was up, and I decided not to renew on their 31st of July deadline. I was expecting all of the QP benefits to vanish by now, this 25th of September, and thus not appropriate to use the empty QP/J lines to check-in – not to mention a visit to the QP.

Surprise Surprise! my QP status is still active almost two months after non-payment, we were checked-in and now on our way to the QP. Something for nothing I’d say! It saved me from using a couple of my QP complimentary passes which I can now use in a few weeks time when I fly JQ to HNL.

The SYD INT QP was quite empty when we arrived, it was mid-afternoon and we literally could choose any seat. The standard cold and warm food selection was there, as well as an OK range of complimentary drinks. The main thing was to unwind for a couple of hours before the 9 hours ‘right at the back of economy’ flight.

The QP SYD International:-





The cold food on display:-



I recall boarding was on time, if not a bit earlier, but we left the QP after a couple of announcements and arrived just in the nick of time given QF31 was parked at some distant gate, really away from everything!

QF31 747-400:-

[Alanslegal]

QF31 was flying to Singapore and then onwards to London. The plane was completely full – so I guess despite all the hoo-ha and media hype re: QF’s recent spate of incidents, QF still is flying full planes – well it was in this case.

The entire flight was as standard and as routine as any other long haul flight in economy. In action speak, it is board the plane at last minute, store bags in locker, fasten seat belt, watch relatively old’ish Qantas cabin crew show the safety demonstration whilst plane taxis towards the runway, crew sits down, engine thrust to max, plane lifts off the ground, climbs, turns, climbs, engine thrust drops, reaches safe flying level, seat belt signs ding off, *click* *click* *click* as seat belts all come off, ask my mate in seat 68B and fellow stranger in seat 68C to move as I’m going to the toilet, Q up near toilet, visit toilet, flush toilet, toilet waste products secretly drop back to earth, back into seat 68A, seat belt back on, wait & wait, see food service coming, cabin crew serving either chicken or lamb, chose one, eat quick, ice cream is now being handed out, then tea or coffee selection, drink one, look at IFE for a bit, then try to catch some sleep sitting near upright, since I have slept on a train in Sydney upright I sure should be able to sleep on a plane, turns out I can’t sleep, watch more IFE which eventually ends being tuned to the flight map for the remaining 5hours, its been a long flight so far and I’m now hoping the plane will land soon, plane apparently is still flying over mainland Australia so not yet at destination, cruising at probably FL410 or thereabouts, smooth flight for a long time, wait & wait for hours, supper service appears, choose something to eat, then another attempt at sleep, but cannot sleep, I then question why I cannot sleep because I have slept upright many times in my mate’s car, then pilot announces our descent soon, the weather, the time, to donate generously to UNICEF, fill arrivals card, plane is being readied for landing, the plane starts to descend, a turn to the left, then a turn to the right, a few bumps as it passes through low level clouds, landing gear drops and a thump is heard, plane lines up with runway, 100ft off the ground, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50 and back wheels touches the hard stuff, then the front wheel and the reverse thrusters are powered up, and some metal slats on the wings lift up. Bingo, and that is what flying is all about.

Here’s our meals served in economy:-






Our arrival into Singapore was on time IIRC

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Usually Singapore immigration is super slick but as we were about two passengers from the counter, their whole computer network crashes and cannot process anyone for 40minutes!! We are stuck in Q as the Singaporeans run around like headless chicken trying to work something out. Eventually someone from IT solves their issues and we are processed through where we collect our bags which have already been taken off the carousel and neatly parked on the floor.

I meet my sister who awaits us at the arrivals exit where I explain for our lateness and offer to pay for her parking. She declines as she has an electronic tag installed plus she highlights that it only costs three (3) cents per minute, payable by the minute, compared with Sydney Airport where it is an excessive charge of $7 once you past the boom gates. Another thing Sydney should learn from its Asian neighbours.

A quick 15 minutes drive and we are at her condo – where it’s a quick unpack, shower and change into my shorts & top ready for sleep. After all, its now past midnight Singapore time!

TBC....

[Alanslegal]

I’m going to keep this short but Singapore is really too sterile for my liking. It is too clean, everything appears organised and everybody seems way too nice. If it wasn’t for the many hawker centres where I could test and try the various food dishes plus my sister living there I probably wouldn’t visit Singapore bi-annually.

There are interesting concentrations of mini-cultures within Singapore itself, including some of the places I visited, such as Little India. It happened to be Deepavali celebrations:-





Chicken Tikla & Tandoori for lunch:-

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And then onto Chinatown - which is a quick train ride away!






And some other foods I tried, like the Fried Carrot Cake and Kaya Toast with Kopi (coffee):-

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Singapore is the host of the first ever Formula 1 motor race to be held under lights. The build up to this grand prix was intense and the marketing of the race deemed it to be the best ever. The question now was could this beat Monte Carlo, home of the Monaco Grand Prix as the ultimate racing venue? The traditionalist said impossible! and I must agree.

For seating, I reserved seating in the Marina Bay Grandstand. On one side we had views of the Singapore Flyer, to our front we overlooked Marina Bay and towards the intense construction site of Singapore's future casino. And to our right, uninterupted city skyline views.

The F1 tickets were delievered in a box, with three passes for our reserved seating. Each pass had a specific dates printed on them and thus could only be used on those days.




Some of the pre-race events, such as the Porsche Cup and then Aston Martin Cup:-

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And the view from our grandstand:-

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Being a night race the whole atmosphere was different but most definitely in a good way. The summery weather, the gentle breeze, the glowing sunset, and the city skyline as the backdrop - there was not much more we could ask for.

At 8pm the first F1 car jumps on track for its first happy lap. The whole grandstand erupts in applause - excited - under the screaming shriek of the V8 engines. I believe it was a Force India car that was first out, but I could be wrong hehe

I leave my seat in the grandstand, and go find a nice corner by the fence where I can take some close up photos of F1 cars in motion. I am a newbie, my first ever dSLR camera in action:-



Felippa Massa in his Ferrari:-



Lewis Hamilton, as cool as he is in his McLaren Mercedes:-



Australia's Mark Webber, he is good but not good enough:-




The whole race as a cliche was action packed. Australia's Mark Webber was the first F1 driver to crash in Singapore - he understeered into Turn 18 which corner our grandstand was in, luckily for him, this was in the first practice session.

During the race, Nelson Picquet Jnr crashes into the barriers directly in front of our grandstands and the crowd rushes down to the fence to see his destroyed multi-million dollar car. It is still smoking.

Then later on, during the safety car period, Massa enters the pits and takes off without realising the fuel pump is still attatched to his vehicle. It rips off about three metres of hosing!

Real Drama!

The race is won by Fernando Alonso, the dual world champion from Spain, but the race is a success. Great work Singapore, And I will look forward to returning in 2009.