The last trip I did to London I did not write in as ridiculous a fashion as my regular 6 readers are used to.
On this subsequent trip, I will go back to my regular style of making most of whats written up, stretching the truth and confusing the facts.
If you cant handle that, I dont care, I mainly write this for my own amusement and because plain old photos are boring as hell.
The first of my many flights was a domestic qantas flight from Adelaide to Perth, now I fly out of Adelaide airport every single week so this is hardly exciting. Plane was a surprisingly ancient 737-4, these are quite rare in the qantas fleet as most are the much newer 737-8 with wingtips. If you dont like plane nerd stuff you might want to move on because when you sit on planes and in airports for 30 hours, this is what you talk about.
Perth airport is a welcome to 1983 experience, actually Perth in general is, its my least favourite Australian city, its also 42C when I get there. Being hot outside wouldnt be a problem at a modern airport would it? In Perth it is as the international terminal is an inexplicable 20 minute drive from the domestic terminal, through busy suburban streets with no dedicated road and a transit bus which I just missed that comes once every hour.
So instead I get to line up for a taxi with 100 other people, but there are none (this is Perth remember). After about 30 minutes I finally get into a taxi and tell him international terminal please, to which he answers 'Fuck, I waited in line for 2 hours for a lousy fare around the block'. The driver then continues to abuse me for quite some time about all sorts of things, tells me im a Sydneysider in a suit that should stay in Sydney (im wearing jeans and a tshirt and am from Adelaide). On the journey you go through an industrial area where Australias 2 largest supermarket chains have their major distribution centres, and traffic is down to 1 lane as they are putting in new lanes etc for this. So the journey takes 30 minutes.
Once at the international terminal, theres barely time before my flight to get into the poor qantas club, but I did manage to have a couple of chocolates.
The qantas club in Adelaide, which is pre international customs and shared between domestic and international flights.
My plane to Perth, older 737 pre wingtips.
This is the lunch meal on the domestic flight, red curry, its actually really nice, probably the best meal I had on the whole journey (blackberry picture).
A330, not my one though (blackberry picture).
Plane was an a330, this plane, possibly the very same aircraft, was involved in qantas's most serious event ever recently. The autopilot went crazy due to pitot tube problems and descended suddenly (pitot tube issues are also believed to have brought down the air france plane). I figure that for this reason, especially if its the same actual plane, that its been gone over with a fine tooth comb so many times since that its now the safest plane in the fleet.
I had a bulkhead row, as I do for all routes due to my status with qantas, and no one sitting next to me. Flight was very comfortable. I watched Inglorious Basterds which was surprisingly boring, im not a Tarantino fan and continue to not be.
I flew economy the entire journey, my frugalness shall not be denied!
Bulkhead seat, leg room not great but no one in front to recline into your face, movie screen pops out from a hole between the seats.
Meal was a beef stew thing, as you can see the basic format of the meal is the same as qantas domestic flights. Ice creams were offered later on (this flight was only 5 hours), I declined due to my need to not blow up like a blimp.
Now, I love airports in general (mock me now), but I was really excited to spend a couple of hours in Singapore airport.
I have 3 hours to kill, so first I go check out the first class lounge, which is pretty dissapointing, and has the worlds slowest wifi internet.
Wondering if it was just the wifi I try one of their terminals they have set up and its even slower, not to worry I dont want to be trapped in here with people in fancy suits discussing the wine anyway.
So I set off to walk a lap of the airport, words cannot describe how large it is, how much there is to see, how clean and modern and generally impressive it is.
Every public toilet, and there are many, has an attendant, theres a swimming pool, xbox lounge, butterfly zoo, rain forest, various other gardens etc. Theres multiple trains linking parts of it together without drivers, theres multiple shopping malls, not just airport shops but real shops. Theres too many food courts and restaurants to count, lots of hotels and just miles and miles of gates.
When my plane left we taxi'd past the gates and I counted 42 wide body Singapore airlines planes lined up at gates.
They also have smoking lounges everywhere where you can get outside, it was only 30C but it felt hot as hell, Singapore is literally on the equator and considered the hottest city in the world.
Before too long it was time to board my 747 for London.
My attempt at an arty shot, up the middle of the travelators of one of the long hallways of gates, this must have been a kilometre long.
One of the many indoor gardens.
View from the smoking lounge in the low cost terminal, dont be fooled it has more shops and entertainment than the other terminals (all terminals are linked by the way).
Riding the driverless inter terminal train.
The luggage trolleys have touch screens and know where they are, telling you of attractions nearby.
My seat, picture doesnt convey it well but theres really a lot of leg room.
A really terrible roast chicken meal, my previous experience tells me flights catered from Singapore have terrible meals, yet every where I read that Singapore itself has fantastic food. Check out that bread roll the forks almost touching, its like a squeeze toy for a dog.