The grand adventure to India
So, I was supposed to arrive in India on Tuesday evening. This was delayed slightly by the fact that plane was 4 hours late leaving Brisbane... this may not have been a problem had I not had a 70 minute changeover in Singapore.
However I decided to view it all as an adventure (well that decision was only made after talking to ground staff who assured me that if I missed my connecting flight that they would handle the rebooking, any additional costs, AND accommodation costs if needed, and gave us a food voucher for the Brisbane Airport) and just hung out in the airport striking up conversations with others with delayed flights, enjoying the fact that Qantas is so much nicer than Ryan Air ("your flight is now in 2 days. No we cannot give you any compensation of food vouchers") all those years ago when I got stranded in Edinburgh, and eventually got on the plane headed to Singapore.
The flight was uneventful, I had a spare seat next to me as the lady who checked me in strategically booked a seat next to one that was unlikely to be booked. I finished reading a book, watched a movie, attempted to sleep, became fascinated by a movie playing on the screen across the aisle a bit, planned to watch said movie on my next flight, and attempted to sleep some more.
We got to Singapore around 21.00 (my flight was supposed to leave at 18.25 or something) and were greeted by flight crew who had our new itineraries printed, gave us a lovely yellow sticker, and directed us to wait for them at luggage claim after going through immigration. I was pretty quick off the plane so there were probably at least 35 people behind me in our location group (which was basically anywhere in South East Asia - 42 of us in total). Did not actually know what I was supposed to be doing so followed people with yellow stickers and eventually made our way to baggage claim.
THE BAGGAGE CLAIM WAS SO SLOW! Like seriously, it took at least 90 minutes for us to get our baggage through. As I'd signed onto the Changi free wifi I was able to make calls and message people complaining about how long it was taking all the while maniacally keeping an eye on the yellow stickered passengers I knew were in my group. Eventually got my suitcase and set off after my yellow stickered friends outside to a coach that was waiting to take us to our accommodation. Due to a series of events in Singapore that week there were no hotels available near the airport that were able to accept the 42 passengers so we got taken out to Sentosa ("The State of Fun") which was about 30 minutes away. Got checked into the RESORT, got directed to a "light supper" and eventually made it to my room by which point it was almost 01.00. I was fortunate in that my flight the next morning was for 10.05 so I didn't need to leave the resort until 8 (but me being me and freaking out about being on time left at 07.30) but some people I ate supper with said they had to be up ranging from 03.00 to 05.00 to make it back to the airport for their new connecting flights.
In the morning I was quite disappointed to not see any wild monkeys, figured out I could not stay at that resort if I was paying for it myself, saw some peacocks on the way out of the resort and admired all the pretty trees along the roads in Singapore.
Made it to the airport, re-checked in, found my gate and had a foot massage while waiting to be able to go through security. Figured out I was one of very very few "white" people on my flight and eventually got on the plane bound for Bengaluru. Was slightly horrified to discover that I could not watch a movie because the plane had no entertainment available. Started reading the second book I brought with me instead and eventually attempted to sleep again.
And then, you have to wait for me to write the next blog post. No photos in this one because I think I've already put most of them up onto Facebook/Instagram.
However I decided to view it all as an adventure (well that decision was only made after talking to ground staff who assured me that if I missed my connecting flight that they would handle the rebooking, any additional costs, AND accommodation costs if needed, and gave us a food voucher for the Brisbane Airport) and just hung out in the airport striking up conversations with others with delayed flights, enjoying the fact that Qantas is so much nicer than Ryan Air ("your flight is now in 2 days. No we cannot give you any compensation of food vouchers") all those years ago when I got stranded in Edinburgh, and eventually got on the plane headed to Singapore.
The flight was uneventful, I had a spare seat next to me as the lady who checked me in strategically booked a seat next to one that was unlikely to be booked. I finished reading a book, watched a movie, attempted to sleep, became fascinated by a movie playing on the screen across the aisle a bit, planned to watch said movie on my next flight, and attempted to sleep some more.
We got to Singapore around 21.00 (my flight was supposed to leave at 18.25 or something) and were greeted by flight crew who had our new itineraries printed, gave us a lovely yellow sticker, and directed us to wait for them at luggage claim after going through immigration. I was pretty quick off the plane so there were probably at least 35 people behind me in our location group (which was basically anywhere in South East Asia - 42 of us in total). Did not actually know what I was supposed to be doing so followed people with yellow stickers and eventually made our way to baggage claim.
THE BAGGAGE CLAIM WAS SO SLOW! Like seriously, it took at least 90 minutes for us to get our baggage through. As I'd signed onto the Changi free wifi I was able to make calls and message people complaining about how long it was taking all the while maniacally keeping an eye on the yellow stickered passengers I knew were in my group. Eventually got my suitcase and set off after my yellow stickered friends outside to a coach that was waiting to take us to our accommodation. Due to a series of events in Singapore that week there were no hotels available near the airport that were able to accept the 42 passengers so we got taken out to Sentosa ("The State of Fun") which was about 30 minutes away. Got checked into the RESORT, got directed to a "light supper" and eventually made it to my room by which point it was almost 01.00. I was fortunate in that my flight the next morning was for 10.05 so I didn't need to leave the resort until 8 (but me being me and freaking out about being on time left at 07.30) but some people I ate supper with said they had to be up ranging from 03.00 to 05.00 to make it back to the airport for their new connecting flights.
In the morning I was quite disappointed to not see any wild monkeys, figured out I could not stay at that resort if I was paying for it myself, saw some peacocks on the way out of the resort and admired all the pretty trees along the roads in Singapore.
Made it to the airport, re-checked in, found my gate and had a foot massage while waiting to be able to go through security. Figured out I was one of very very few "white" people on my flight and eventually got on the plane bound for Bengaluru. Was slightly horrified to discover that I could not watch a movie because the plane had no entertainment available. Started reading the second book I brought with me instead and eventually attempted to sleep again.
And then, you have to wait for me to write the next blog post. No photos in this one because I think I've already put most of them up onto Facebook/Instagram.
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