Hong Kong to Singapore on an Airbus A350
Hong Kong airport and the train to Hong Kong airport are both fantastic.
I left my hotel around 6 and was at the airport by 7am and through customs and immigration in under 5 minutes. Amazing. There was no line to check in even, I just walked straight up to the counter. Why can't all airports be like this? Remember, when I arrived in Hong Kong it was 12 minutes from the leaving of the plane to the boarding of the train, faster than I could do at an Australian domestic airport.
Hong Kong airport even has a much nicer lounge than Singapore airport, for Singapore airlines... but that is because they do less segregation of classes in Hong Kong where as in Singapore you get sent to the plebs lounge if you are flying on Virgin points, but I digress.
The supposed to be 3.5 hour flight to Singapore was full, I was starting to think all flights are now full, but read on...
The problem was, my connection time was 1 hour and 15 minutes, and then my plane landed 20 minutes late due to congestion, so I sprinted through the airport like a lunatic. It was quite far too, I estimate about 500 metres or so. Luckily I made it with plenty of time to spare.
Here is the Singapore airlines lounge at Hong Kong airport, it is great compared to the lounge they let me into in their home country as I mentioned above. Also they had Beerenberg jam from Adelaide.
I love to walk the full distance around Hong Kong airport, and I had just enough time to do it, I was excited.
This is not my plane, thankfully, as I do not fancy flying United Airlines, but it is a great view with the mountains.
Here is my plane, an Airbus A350, which you can clearly read on the side to be sure.
Singapore to Osaka on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner
First of all, the Airbus A350 is a nicer jet than a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, much quieter, better seats, but who am I kidding, on the way to Hong Kong I forgot which was which. They both have 9 abreast seating in a tube that should have 8.
In good news, this flight was less than half full, and I had an entire block of 3 to myself. Despite that, is everyone in the entire world besides me, sick for their entire lives? It is ridiculous how often people need to get some tissue work going, and keep it going for the entirety of a 5.5 hour flight. Some people just wore a tissue over their face and slowly drained themselves into it, periodically changing the tissue once soaked through, and then they put a mask on when the plane landed. Anyway, I think I need to see a psychiatrist, I must be the issue.
Now to rant about crap Japanese airports. Why the hell does it take so damn long? This time there were a lot of counters, but it still took over an hour to go through immigration, An improvement on 2 hours at Haneda. The QR code makes no difference, the camera does not work, the fingerprint scanner does not work, people were getting arrested at the immigration desk.
Better still, they made everyone join one of about 15 individual immigration desk lines, about 30 people deep each, and then the immigration agent would close their desk, and the 30 people in line would go to the back of another line, and the same thing would happen. It is idiotic. After that you fill out an immigration thing electronically that you already did via the QR code that is useless, photo again, QR code scan again, repeat repeat repeat. I nearly needed my wax stamp thing.
So now I am on the Rapi:T (followed by alpha symbol) Nankai limited express train going to Namba typing this. It looks fancy but sways violently, making it hard to type.
Also, hotel photos, the only thing anyone is even interested in.
Singapore was a bit damp, but after a refreshing sprint through an airport with my laptop and camera and other assorted mildly heavy things, I arrived at my gate just before boarding started. That is my Boeing Dreamliner.
The departure gate area, I had no time to take any photos in Singapore other than this.
I was surprised when I did board that there was no one else onboard yet, and it stayed relatively empty. When they opened the door 5.5 hours later, 1.3 million sneezes escaped into the atmosphere.
This is the inside of the stupidly named Rapi:T alpha symbol, whatever you do, name your things so that they do not come up in internet searches, it is the best way to keep customers to a minimum. Other than whatever I type for the 2 hotel pictures below, I typed the rest of this full days update sitting on this violently swaying fancy train.
My room. I have stayed here before. It is the Sotetsu Fresa at Namba station, and until a week ago, it was about $100 a night, but now thanks to liberation day, $110 a night. Trump increased the price of my holiday.
And no long day of travel is complete without a bathroom photo, the photo you have all been waiting for, a bathroom.