Singapore 2017 Day 1-2
Sun, Apr 2 2017 04:44
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Singapore Day 1 and 2
Luckily we were able to get all our luggage packed and all
our errands run early enough on Thursday in order to get to bed by about 8:30
p.m. It was an early morning on
Friday. We got up around 2:50 a.m. in
order to eat a little breakfast and be ready for our 3:45 cab ride to the
airport. We flew out on United and
obviously terminal 2 was not busy at that hour of the morning. It was one of the fastest security lines we
have gone through. There was absolutely
no one in line and with our TSA pre-check we just walked up, threw our luggage
on the belt and walked through the metal detector.
After we were through security, we headed to the United
Lounge to hang out for a little while before our flight. When it was time to board our flight to San
Francisco, we headed to the gate. We got
upgraded to first class for our flight from Phoenix to San Francisco, but
unfortunately there was some crazy old lady that sat in the seat directly
across from me. She was extremely loud
and obnoxious, but luckily once we took off she pretty much fell asleep for
most of the flight.
We made it to San Francisco and had several hours to kill
before our flight to Singapore. We went
to our gate and exchanged our United boarding passes for Singapore Airlines
boarding passes and then headed out into the terminal to look for something to
eat for breakfast. There isn’t much to
eat in the International portion of the terminal, but we managed to find a
place that served breakfast potatoes and bagels. After eating, we then headed to the Singapore
Airlines lounge to hang out. We had
approximately three hours before our flight to Singapore departed. We hung out in the lounge with some of the crew
for Carlos Santana. They had a concert
in Singapore on April 4.
As it got closer to time to board our flight, we headed down
to the gate. We flew premium economy
this time, which is kind of like domestic first class. The seats are a little nicer with a foot
rest, etc. and more leg room. We
departed on time and began the nearly 17-hour nonstop flight. It was a long 17 hours. As soon as we took off, I started my nearly
16-hour movie marathon. I watched one
move after another until about an hour before we landed. I didn’t fall asleep until about an hour and
30 minutes before we were scheduled to land.
We were served two meals and several snacks during the
flight. We had ordered the Indian
vegetarian meals. They were very tasty,
but a bit on the spicy side. I hardly
ate any of the second meal because I really wasn’t that hungry.
Other than being very long, the flight went pretty smoothly
except for the fact that there were about six small children seated just behind
us in coach that screamed and cried excessively during takeoff and landing and
a good portion of the rest of the flight as well. It didn’t bother me too much as I have
learned to tune out pretty much anything and Eric had his noise-cancelling
headphones so it didn’t bother him much either.
Once we landed in Singapore around 7:15 p.m., we made it
through passport control and headed for the MRT station to see about getting
some 3-day Tourist Passes. We double
checked at the information desk and she told us if we purchased them now they
would consider it the first day (which was already gone). So we decided to just catch a taxi to our
hotel and come back tomorrow to get the passes.
At the time of night we arrived, the airport wasn’t busy, so we did not
have to wait long for a taxi. Our hotel
is very close to the airport, so it was just a short ride.
We got to our hotel and got checked in. After dropping our luggage off in our room,
we headed next door to the shopping mall which is connected to the hotel to see
if we could find something to eat for dinner.
We didn’t see anything too exciting, so we hit the grocery store and got
some almond milk and cereal for breakfast in the morning and then came back to
our room and ordered a pizza via room service.
The Capri hotel is the same one we stayed in four years ago
when we were in Singapore. It is more of
an apartment style hotel where the rooms have their own kitchen with stove,
sink, fridge, microwave, and dishes. After
we ate dinner, we crawled into bed and had no trouble falling asleep. I haven’t been so happy to see a bed in a
long time. It felt really good to be
able to lie down.
After a good night’s sleep, we got up around 7 or 8 o’clock
and Eric did some work on his computer and I researched what we wanted to do while
we were in Singapore. We were a bit on
the lazy side today, so we didn’t get going until around 1 o’clock. We caught the hotel shuttle to the airport so
we could get our tourist passes for the subway and then rode the subway back to
our hotel from the airport. Again, upon
walking through the shopping mall on the way back to our hotel room, we weren’t
able to find anything decent to eat, so we came back to the hotel and had lunch
in the restaurant.
After lunch we decided we would head to Chinatown to do some
souvenir shopping. Last time we were in
Singapore I bought some hand-made items from a woman there. I had no idea if she was still there or if I
could find her stall, but I got lucky.
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After getting my souvenirs, we decided to walk down toward
Clark Quay (along the river). We walked
down to the river and walked along the area with all the restaurants and
shops. It was approaching dinner time,
but neither one of us was really hungry after having a late lunch. We ended up sitting on the patio overlooking
the river and just ordering a snack and a couple drinks. After enjoying our drinks, we headed back to
our hotel after our nearly 4 miles of walking for the afternoon. As soon as we got back to our room, we were
both ready to crawl into bed. As soon as
Eric’s head hit the pillow, he was out.