Our trip down under

From UK to Singapore

Finally we are here. Mat and Pamela in our new home town, after two and a half years of slog we have done it.  Sunny downtown Canberra.  I'll skip the boring getting the Visa, selling house etc stuff and do it as a diary thing;

Tuesday 2nd Oct 16:45
Door bell at mum and dads house, where we had been staying for a week, rings. Dad had booked and paid for a local taxi to take us to Heathrow from near Winchester.  Heathrow is such a nightmare that he had decided that taking us was really a no-go and that a taxi would be much better.  We were grateful as emotional goodbyes at airports are ucky undignified spectacles, usually made worse by long checkin/security queues that make it all a long drawn-out experience.

We said goodbyes, hugged mum and dad and said that we would see them in a couple of years.  My parents are well travelled, having brought us kids up in Zambia in the '70s, so knew the score and there were no tears and bawling.  At least in front of us.  We were sad to be saying goodbye, but also we had to get out of the UK (don’t get us started on that!  Lots of reasons, and the 'weather' figured quite low in the list) and at least the Internet and Videophones would help make the distance much smaller.

At 17:03 on Tuesday the 2nd of October me and my wife Pamela waved goodbye to my parents as we were taken away in a taxi.

18:45 Arrive Heathrow after having some of our reasons (UK is full and transport a mess) for leaving re-affirmed.  Taxi driver has done the airport run many times and knew a quick way to the terminal.

19:00 Checkin to Singapore Airlines.  Hardly any queue and very quick. Checkin clerk points out that as we are migrating we could have taken 40Kg hold-luggage each.  We had found that out 5 hours earlier after much, and heart rending, 'optimising' [Goto http://www.iom.int for details] and getting the weights down to 21.7Kg and 22.3Kg!  But, as Pamela pointed out, we had a connecting domestic flight from Sydney to Canberra to do as well and so the 40Kg each may have been a problem there.  I asked if we could have window seats in row 60,61 or 62 - the only 'twos' (rather than three's or four's) in economy - but they had gone;  so seats A and B in row 45 it was.

19:35 The security fiasco (you cant help thinking that the terrorists have won they affect things so much!) of having everything checked and toothpaste confiscated over we finally get into the rip-off city of Heathrow’s Terminal 2.  I had come prepared; course-grain mustard cheese and onion, salami lettuce and tomato, and pastrami cheese and pickle sandwiches made with home baked bread fed the two of us as I watched All Creatures Great And Small on my Archos and Pamela had a manicure.  No paying stupid Heathrow prices for dreadful food for us!

21:15 After filling our bellies and watching daft travellers increasing their debts buying tacky overpriced rubbish we make our way to the gate.  No real sense of celebration or excitement, after nearly three years of ups and downs in the attempt to escape we just want to go.  Like cattle at a livestock auction we are called row-by-row to be transported down the metal tube and spat onto the plane.  No, walking across the tarmac and climbing the steps while smelling the aviation fuel anymore; those days are long gone, much more efficient and run-of-the-mill now.

22:15 No delay!  Dead on time (that HAS to be a first for us at Heathrow!), the plane moves from its stand with the obligatory safety video showing - my screen doesn’t work, not a problem as I have 40 hours of TV programs recorded on the Archos but lets hope i don’t need to use the safety information.  I am by the window on the left side of the plane, next to Pamela who is chatting to an Aussie girl next to her.

22:37 As the plane rises up thru the low cloud I say a mental goodbye to Britain as my last sight of it is a traffic jam on the M25. I smile to myself, we are doing the right thing, staying in the UK would have driven us to drink or turned our brains to mush.

Flight is uneventful, I sip on G and T's and watch episodes of All Creatures Great And Small, Bergerac, Taggart, Poirot and The Profesionals while Pamela sleeps (as usual on flights).  Food is quite good and washed down with copious Claret and brandy’s - 'don’t drink alcohol on flights', what tosh!

12 Hours later arrive in Singapore, on time, pleasantly inebriated and very tired.  Maybe i should have slept more and drank less - still, wouldn’t have been half as much fun and as we have to have the window blinds down all the time now during the flight I cant watch the world go by anymore.

Wednesday 3rd Oct 18:00 (Singapore time)
As usual at Singapore Airport, Immigration and baggage collection is a breeze.  The officials always smiling and wishing us a pleasant stay (as long as we don’t spit, swear, drop litter, chew gum, wear odd socks, walk on the pavement cracks etc...) our passports are stamped and cases collected.

As we walk to the taxi rank, Pamela realises we have no Singapore dollars!!  Doh!!  So much for seasoned travellers, we forgot to get some currency for Singapore.  Oh well, never mind.  We track down the ATM, draw out a small wad and jump in a Taxi to the hotel.  One tip for Singapore is make sure the Taxi driver turns on the meter, otherwise he will charge a small fortune!

18:45 The hotel, Parkroyal on Kitchener street, turns out to be ok.  It was 'automatically' booked by Trailfinders when we got the flights.  I had noticed it on the itinerary but hadn’t realised it would be booked and be part of the package when we paid (so, if using Trailfinders be wary of this!).  When i had looked at reviews, on the web, for the hotel i had been dismayed; I had never seen reviews this bad for a hotel.  We are not 'snobs', but we know our hotels; Pamela had worked as a chef in a Scottish highlands hotel and I (through work) have stayed over a thousand nights in hotels - and these reviews were not good.  Last time in Singapore we had stayed in the salubrious Copthorne Waterfront; much more expensive (the Parkroyal was only £102 for the two nights) but very good.  We had hoped to stay there again but Trailfinders had put paid to that and saved us a few hundred quid as well.

We checkin to the Parkroyal and take our bags to room 1207.  The bell-boy did offer to carry them up but I like to carry the bags; partly because I can never work out what the right tip is and always feel awkward when I do it.  To our pleasant surprise the room was ok.  Good size, stuff worked, half-decent view, was clean (although a very odd smell!  Not unpleasant, just odd) and the bed comfortable.  Windows were double-glazed, so the room was quiet as well.  Great, thanks Trailfinders!

19:50 Strolling around 'little India' we find a great small stall for some good Indian grub.  Forget the larger, shiny, expensive joints.  The small local eateries is where the real local food is.  And the taste is far far better.  And much cheaper.

21:00 Bellies filled and jet-lag tapping on our shoulders we retire to bed for night.

Blogging!

09:55, Saturday 6 October 2007 .. Posted by Tiggs+Graz

Great first installment! When do we get the second?! (not that i am impatient or anything :) ) Adele x

Fancy forgetting the Singapore dollars!

10:13, Saturday 6 October 2007 .. Posted by Fly Away

Glad to hear the flight went well. We ate out in an open air 'food theatre' in the Malaysian quarter which was amazing and so cheap. So I can agree about the authentic food.

Hope you are alert enough to get the next installment online soon.

Nicola
XX

goodbyes

09:56, Sunday 7 October 2007 .. Posted by daunted

bought home the reality of leaving the UK for one final time - it hasnt ALL been bad.
So ok when is the next gripping installment x

Hello from Singapore

03:16, Monday 8 October 2007 .. Posted by Seasider

Hi, I just stumbled upon your blog - love reading about my adopted home from a visitor's viewpoint.

Just wanted to say, in case this should come in handy in future, that all taxis are regulated here - drivers MUST turn on the meter. If they refuse, either get out or threaten to report them using the number shown on a plaque on the door frame. Most drivers are good (well, they're incredibly bad drivers but honest) but a few will go on a tour of the island if they know you don't know the way.

Also, forget the chewing gum, jaywalking, litterdropping - people have been fined for using unsecured wireless networks. Seriously.

Good luck with your new life in Oz. Made our move over five years ago and haven't regretted a thing.