This morning we managed to sleep in until 9am. Just as well because we needed to recover from a busy and late night last night. Plus it would be a long day today with the overnight flight to Helsinki.
For breakfast, we went down to the White Marble Restaurant near the lobby. It was table service rather than a buffet with much more choice. The food was better than the Club Lounge but the service was surly.
Today we'd be going on the hop on hop off bus again but this time on the red route. Since the red route doesn't go past our hotel, we needed to catch the yellow bus to the Suntec Centre and swap there to the red route.
We left the hotel at about 10:30am. Once again, it was hot and humid.
This time I took my streamer device which communicates with my hearing aids via the iPhone app. This meant I was able to hear the recorded commentary on the bus this time.
When we reached the Suntec Centre, a red route bus was waiting there.
Apparently the English set up separate parts of the colony for the different racial groups and religions. So the red route would go to the Indian village, then the Malay and finally China Town. We'd been to China Town on a previous visit to Singapore and Suzy was keen to go back there.
According the commentary, Indians make up about 10% of the population. The streets in the Indian area were decorated with banners across the main streets.
Similarly, China Town had street decorations too. We got off the bus at China Town and walked slowly through some of the streets. Suzy thought it looked quite different from our last visit.
Rather than catching the bus again, we decided to get a taxi back to our hotel. This would save quite a lot of time. We were back at the hotel by 1pm.
By this time we were tired from the oppressive heat and humidity. Suzy decided to cool off in the hotel pool.
For lunch, we went up to the Club Lounge where we had a light lunch of croissants, pastries and coffee.
We'd organised a late checkout time from the hotel (6pm) because our flight to Helsinki tonight doesn't leave until 9:40pm. After checking out, we left our bags with the porter and went back up to the Club Lounge for a glass (or two) of red wine and some finger food.
We got a taxi to the airport at about 6:30. The driver was very chatty and informative. In particular he was encouraging us to go to The Jewel which seems to be a fancy shopping centre at Terminal 1.
I'm sure it would have been interesting but when we reached the terminal at about 7:15, we sent straight to the Finnair check-in counter.
I guess we were early but there were no other customers there. We started to think that not many people fly from Singapore to Helsinki.
Whenever we check in at an airport, we take careful note of the tag that they put on our bags to make sure the bags are going to the right destination. Interestingly, the airport code for Helsinki is HEL.
Perhaps that's appropriate because we'd just spent the last two days living in SIN (Singapore) and now we were going straight to HEL. (Is that a Dad joke or maybe a Grandpa joke?)
Business class passengers with Finnair can use the Marhaba lounge. This was a good place to relax and enjoy a light meal and another glass of red wine prior to our flight.
We got chatting to a lady sitting nearby who turned out to be a travel agent from Perth. We swapped experiences about travel and we were even able to give her some advice from our travels. For example, do stay at the Samma Samma Hotel in KL and in Portugal do not travel with Air Portugal (TAP) if you can avoid it.
It was a long walk from the lounge to our departure gate - probably the furthest gate along a long walkway.
There we needed to go through security. They seemed to be obsessed with checking boarding passes. At least four or five people one after the other checked everyone's passes.
Just as we finished the security check, they announced that business class passengers should board - perfect timing. So we were on board by 9:15pm and all passengers were on board by 9:25. The plane pulled back from the terminal at 9:35 which was five minutes early.
I guess we'd travelled on quite a few planes over the years but this was probably the most efficient boarding process that I had seen. (The exact opposite of TAP in Portugal).
Although our seats were comfortable, they had lap sash seat belts which were not comfortable. Thankfully we were allowed to disconnect the sash part after take-off. There was another seatbelt further down which they recommend we use at night while we are asleep.
About an hour after take-off, we encountered some turbulence which was a worry because they had just poured me a glass of McLaren Vale shiraz and there was a risk it would spill. So there was clearly no alternative but to drink it quickly to avoid losing an of it.
Once the turbulence was over, they served an excellent dinner. The service was friendly and attentive. I was very impressed.
At about midnight (Singapore time) they dimmed the cabin lights so people could get some sleep. The business class beds lie flat and horizontal (once you work out how to do it).
One thing that is strange is that the end of the bed where your feet need to go is quite narrow.
Normally, I have difficulty sleeping on a plane. Perhaps tonight I'll have more success.
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