Sydney Trip Diaries: Singapore leg, Free food!

The trip from the house to the airport was uneventful although the taxi driver kept asking questions on which route to take implying that he was not familiar with the way to the airport (very suspicious!, I think it's just a ploy to use a circuitous route by taking the wrong turns on purpose).

Going through the NAIA airport is always stressful for me. I arrived before the check-in counter was open so I had a few minutes to spare. The immigration queue was unusually long. I think I spent more than half an hour. A lot of passengers were being sent back and I was a bit curious why. It seems that most of the passengers with problems were flying on budget airlines. Unlike the normal carriers, budget airlines does requires you to pay the travel tax separately instead of being part of the fare rate thus giving the false impression of being much cheaper than it actually is. Very sneaky huh...

Free food!One of the nice things when traveling on business class is the free use of the airport lounges. And for me that is especially wonderful because of the free food! I remember a few years back when I had a trip to Europe and I think I ate too much at the Northwest lounge and I was feeling sick all throughout the trip. I think I should not overdo it this time. The Krisflyer airport lounge was just serving light snacks mostly sandwiches and pastries. For starters I just grabbed a steamed meat bun (siopao) and a diet Pepsi. Unfortunately, I managed to spill diet Pepsi all over the table and some even went into the carpet. Ack! How embarrassing hehe. I really liked their cream of carrot soup. I went to the pre-departure area about 30 minutes before boarding time. The plane boarded and left on time.

It was a short flight to Singapore so it was a just a small plane. The Business class seats, although bigger than the economy seats still felt a bit cramped especially during meals. I was afraid that I might knock over my drink to my lap or worse unto my neighbor. Luckily, the flight was uneventful. I had a very brief stopover in Singapore first before continuing to the longer flight to Sydney.
Changi airport in Singapore is always a nice place to hang out. I was a bit distracted perusing nice gadgets on sale and contemplating trying out one of those free electronic feet massagers scattered all over the airport (I tried it once and it was relaxing but I couldn't stand it longer than a few minutes since I'm very ticklish). All the while I thought that my next flight was still at 10pm but it was actually at 8pm! Good think I rechecked my itinerary. The pre-departure gate won't open for 40 more minutes so I again searched for the Krisflyer silver lounge and had a light snack before boarding. Hey, I can really get used to this! The vegetarian ravioli in mushroom cream sauce was very nice.

An image of a boy enjoying food at an airport lounge - image generated with the assistance of Dall-E3. 


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