Empire Hotel and Country Club – Improved High Tea Commended

Having spent just short of four years in Brunei, we have been to the Empire Hotel and Country Club a number of times. This self-proclaimed 6-star hotel may not quite be 6-stars in quite a few people’s opinion but it is certainly a hotel that does things BIG and has lovely grounds.

Everything in the hotel is a bit OTT and it is a fun place to go to for an afternoon out and is always popular with visitors. And whenever we do have visitors to Brunei, this is on the to do list – usually for the weekend high-tea followed by a walk round the grounds.

Unfortunately though, the last few occasions we have gone for high tea it has been well below standard (eg. coffee taking 45 minutes to arrive) and was topped off by uncooked BBQ chicken being served the last time we visited. Because of these disappointing experiences we had not been for quite sometime, until today.

We thought it would be a nice way to celebrate a birthday so made a booking to go there this afternoon and we are pleased we did. The set up is slightly different. The weekend high-tea has always been a buffet (as opposed to a 3-tiered cake stand of nibbles on weekdays) but unlike previously, where a large table in the centre of the lounge held all the buffet food, the food this time was placed on individual small tables and scattered round the central area of the lounge. It looked good. The food spread was also good and unlike previous visits, the quality of the food was excellent.

All in all it made for an excellent afternoon out for a celebration and High Tea at The Empire Hotel is back on our ‘ recommended list’.

More pictures now that I am back from holiday:

The Nexus Resort – Five Star(ish)?

As the week long half term holiday comes to an end I thought I would do a quick review of the resort where we have just spent a few days.

When making plans for the half term holiday we decided it would be easiest to go somewhere near by and meet the little ‘uns grandparents there. We decided on Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Sabah. Just under a year ago MAS Wings – the Malaysian Airlines Borneo brand – started flying to Brunei, once again connecting Brunei and Kuching (following the cancellation of the route from RBA) and also increasing frequency and competition on the KK route. We were able to book return flights to KK for B$104 for the three of us – which was pretty much all tax!

Flight times were also convenient. The flight is scheduled for just 35 minutes but the off the ground time is much less. With MAS Wings using the ATR-72on this route you get a good view as you mostly remain below the clouds. It was amazing to see just how many areas have been cleared in Brunei for building work. It was also remarkable (and saddening really) to see just how huge the housing complex is that is being constructed between the Mentiri highway and Jalan Muara.

A chunk of cleared greenery.

Further land being cleared by the Muara-Tutong Highway.

An example of the cleared land for building.

A bit more work going on by the highway, just before landing in Brunei. You can see our house if you look carefully!

We were soon in KK and then proceeded to get a taxi coupon at the taxi desk (as required for all taxis from the airport). This is quite a good system as you pay the desk not the driver and the prices are fixed. The Nexus Resort in Karambunai is 30 km from the airport and takes around 40 minutes in a taxi. The taxi costs RM75 for a small taxi but we needed the larger one to the bags we had with us (blame baby not golf clubs!) which cost RM105. We did only pay RM90 for the return from the Nexus though but I think this was because they charged us for a small taxi despite giving us a large one.

Upon arrival at the resort we were fairly efficiently checked in although it would have been nice to have been offered a welcome drink then and there while waiting rather than being given a voucher to claim an orange squash drink at a later time! Once we received our key cards we were driven down to the room which although was only a 5 minute walk from reception was easier to be driven with the bags.

The rooms were lovely, spacious and comfortable. The bathroom was big with shower and a bath and plenty of space for things. The bed was comfy and there was a largish couch and a desk. There was also a big balcony with table and chairs that overlooked the pond by the room. All very picturesque as you can see from the photo’s.

Looking back from the balcony. Clean and roomy with traditional Borneo decoration.

Sink, cabinet and shelving. Clean and modern.

Spacious bathroom with a big bath.

Separate shower section.

Desk area.

Very spacious balcony area.

We were in Borneo Deluxe rooms, a quick walk to the sea and white sandy beach and also to the pool.

Clean, white sandy beach.

View to the sea.

The reason for the title of this blog post is I wanted to highlight some of the excellent things about this resort but also some of the things I do not think are up to scratch with (a) the price paid and (b) the image the resort portray of themselves. The positives first. The grounds are magnificent. Plenty of areas to walk around, surrounded my greenery and ponds. You can see plenty of wildlife, especially on the attached golf course. The pool is big and well cleaned. There is a shade sail over the shallow kids pool and there are three other sections of the swimming pool that are deeper. There is an in pool bar although we didn’t really use this and it didn’t seem to be regularly staffed. The golf course attached to the resort was excellent and very well kept. It is expensive unless you are a resident of Brunei, Malaysia or Singapore in which case it is very reasonable.

Right, the not so positives. Breakfast was included in our rate but for a place that charges 5* prices the breakfast was at best 3* (generous). Coffee was usually warm not hot, choices were heavily Asian based and the food was not kept hot. I am not naive to think there should not be Asian food on the menu in an Asian hotel – in fact I quite like Asian food – but there should be a good selection of world foods in any 5* resort restaurant. A good coffee can make such a big difference. The breakfast restaurant was very crowded and staff did not seem to have much care and attention towards guests.

Beyond the breakfast I thought the staff were polite but not that clued up. Communication was an issue and problems weren’t easily solved. An example being the high tea we were due to have in the lobby lounge. Ordered at around 5pm it was still not with us by 6pm so we had to leave and go back to the room as it was the little ‘uns bath time then bed time. We (eventually) arranged to get the food sent to the room but once it finally arrived there were no plates or cutlery! I should add that it was nice food, and quite well presented, just a shame that we couldn’t enjoy it as planned. To their credit, they eventually apologised properly and it was not billed to us.

The resort had 5 or 6 restaurants / eateries on site but it wasn’t until the penultimate day of our stay we found one we thought was suitable for our needs. The location of this restaurant was good, on the beach front, and the menu was mainly Italian. It was well priced and food quality was good although was in line with the common Asian problem of sweetening all western sauces.

I don’t mean for this post to be a rant about the resort, it comes more from a frustration of seeing how much potential the places has given the location and facilities yet let down by customer service and food option not being 5*. As readers of my last post will now, it’s the little things that make a big difference in quality in hotels. Had there been a few more simple yet quality items (such as decent coffee) available at breakfast then the experience would have been a whole lot more enjoyable.

The resort did have a shuttle bus service every 2 hours to and from KK which also stopped at 1Borneo. We utilized this twice during our stay and it worked out quite well. The charge is RM24 per return journey and it takes a little longer than a taxi – around 1 hour into KK. It was good to have it on offer though and was useful. I managed to get a game of golf one afternoon on the attached course. There was plenty of wildlife on and around the course.

Enjoying the island life!

Spot the beautiful kingfisher.

Picturesque course.

Trying hard not to create too many divots!

It was still a good place to relax and I am pleased we gave it a chance I think in conclusion though I would try out some of the competition before going back.

A quick and convenient get-away

Wow, it’s been ages since I last blogged! Lots has happened since but I just haven’t had the commitment to come and blog about it! So to get back on the blogging straight and narrow this blog is a quick trip report of one of my favourite quick get-aways from Brunei. (This was partly inspired by being asked a couple of times lately what this trip is like).

Brunei is great; peaceful, fairly quiet and easy going. But sometimes it’ s nice to leave the place, usually to feel like you are away from the place you work.  As Brunei and the community is so small, it is easy for work to spill over into other parts of your life, whether meeting people when out and about or just ending up talking about work when you socialise seeing as most social circles include colleagues. So for a quick and convenient get away we enjoy a trip to Miri, more specifically to the Miri Marriott Resport and Spa.

The Miri Marriott Resort and Spa – a favourite getaway!

It’s luxurious, spacious, comfortable and not near work. It takes about 2 and a half hours drive to get there from home (including the boarder crossing) so it really feels like you have ‘gone away’. The food is excellent and it is easy to relax – helped by how welcoming, friendly and professional the staff are there.

Our stays are made more economical through membership with Club Marriott (which is separate from Marriott Rewards, but perhaps more on that later). For an annual membership fee a booklet of vouchers are provided for discounted rates on rooms – including free nights. Additionally, discounts on dining are available. If you stay there more than two stays a year it is certainly worth it – so a no brainer for us!

On this occasion we decided to just visit for one night. The advantage of doing this on a Saturday night on a regular weekend is that we can leave Brunei quite early and get there for lunch, making the most of the afternoon and then check out late the following day making the most of both days. There’s no problem heading down for two nights on a Friday, it just means you lose most of your Friday.

We arrived around mid-day and checked if our room was available yet (which it usually is as they are very good at having our room ready if they know when we are arriving). We dropped our bags off in our room then went straight to restaurant for lunch. Through one of my membership cards we are entitled to 50% off when two of us dine (the little one is already free of course which continues until she is 6, I think). The normal lunch buffet price is RM 68++, or around £16 per person. During our last few visits I have noticed a shift in the food on offer from large quantities to smaller ones but I think this has increased the quality. There is always a fine selection of salads, western main dishes, BBQ/Grilled meat and then also Asian dishes. Pictures below.

Chicken and beef satay – a great ‘local’ way to start the weekend!

After lunch we went back to our room as it was soon the little ones nap time (another reason we time our departure from Brunei to arrive around lunchtime. She sleeps in the car on the way down, is awake for a while, we have lunch before she is too sleepy then after a play she is ready for her nap again). This time, through a room upgrade we were in the main building. The hotel consists of the main building then about 8 or 10 blocks spread out in two wings from the main building. These rooms are very nice and are classed as Garden or Pool rooms depending on their location and all have balconies. The Garden rooms are the cheapest on offer, then pool rooms (which are the same price as main hotel rooms on the front of the building which do not have a balcony). The next category is rooms on the back of the main building over looking the pool that do have a balcony. The balcony is also a little bigger than the Garden and Pool rooms. It was one of these that we were staying in for this visit.

King rooms have a large double bed, a sofa, desk, chair and coffee table as well as a table and two chairs on the balcony. The bathroom was spacious and there was a big wardrobe to hang up clothes along with a safe for locking valuables. The room also has a fridge, stocked with a variety of drinks (including beer and wine) for purchase. All rooms have flat screen TV’s (not sure of the size, but more than big enough). The TV sits on a cabinet that has 3 large draws. The room is all carpeted, different from the Garden and Pool rooms which are either part carpet part tile (upstairs) or fully tiled (downstairs). I must admit, I prefer the fully carpeted room – it was also great for the little one as she was crawling around lots, so much kinder to her knees! The room is probably the same size as the Garden and Pool rooms, perhaps slightly bigger. The real winner is the balcony as it has a fantastic view over the resort pool and out to the South China Sea as well as being a little bigger.

Comfy king size bed and modern decor

Sofa & coffee table (comfy for lounging on while using the wifi).

Desk and chair if you require wired internet

Overview of the room towards the balcony

Safe, slippers and robe that are provided in each room

Tiled and clean bathroom

Towels and mirror

Shower and bath – perhaps one of the few aspects that could do with an upgrade

One of the best features of the room, an excellent balcony over looking the South China Sea

We spent the time relaxing in the pool, enjoying the fine food in the restaurant and watching the sun set from the balcony. A good way to refresh and make the most of a weekend!

Relax!

Golfing in Brunei

Today is Monday of the week long half term holiday at school here in Brunei. Well needed rest and relaxation is helped by the knowledge that a long summer holiday is just round the corner after a short stint of four weeks once we go back to work. The end of a long year is finally in sight. This holiday we have decided to stay in Brunei rather than going away like we normally do. We thought it would be nice to have a few BBQ’s and socialise with friends after a busy time at work as well as make use of the Yacht Club relaxing by the pool.

I have also pencilled in a few games of golf before my annual membership expires at the end of the month. Today was the first game – and what a great way to start the holidays. Rather than writing a long post about golf here in Brunei, I thought I would just write a short amount and then provide you with a number of pictures to give you a flavour of what it is like out on the course here.

I got to the course (Pantai Mentiri Golf Club) just after 8am and planned to play this first game on my own this morning to help me get back into the swing of things. I rented a buggy (B$10 or £5) as although you can carry your clubs here the heat really drains you over 18 holes even early in the morning and I hoped I would be able to nip round and be home soon after 11.

Sure enough, it was fairly quiet and those that I did catch up waved me through. On the occasions I did get held up before getting waved through I managed to snap the following pictures.

View of the clubhouse from the fairway on the 4th

About to head down the 6th

View onto Brunei Bay by the tee box on the 6th

The bunker and the bay by the green on the 7th

View down the 8th fairway

Parked in the shade while waiting for the pair in front to finish off their putts

Palm trees line the fairway on the 8th

View over the water from the 9th tee back towards the club house

It was an enjoyable morning on the golf course yet I was surprised at how quickly I made it round all 18 holes. I was even home by 10.30! What a lovely start to the holiday.

If you want to know more about golfing in Brunei and live here, read about the ISB Golf Society that I run.

Pakistani food – desi style

We visited our ‘local’ Pakistani restaurant today for lunch and as it is one of my favourite restaurants here in Brunei I thought I would blog about it.

Seri Damai (which I think means Peaceful Place in Malay, but correct me if I am wrong) is located in Kuilap. A smallish restaurant at the end of a row of shop houses that looks no different from many Malay restaurants in Brunei.

Seri Damai in Kuilap

Since we last visited they have done up the menu and changed some staff. The menu is good – a fine selection of various traditional Pakistani dishes but not so extensive that you get lost in the choice.

Authentic Pakistani Cuisine (in the Abode of Peace)

A fine selection to choose from

Plain Lassi

Their plain lassi is a must for a beverage to accompany your curry. There are flavoured ones but I usually opt for the plain one (which can be taken sweet or salty).

Today we ordered; chicken ginger, aloo gohbi, beef sheek kebabs, roghni naan and tandoori roti. All orders arrive with a small side dish of raita (yoghurt chutney) and chaana masala (chickpeas in gravey).

The food took about 15 – 20 minutes to arrive (exactly as stated on the menu!).

The freshly cooked bread is always excellent here. The chicken has such a rich flavour and the yoghurt base for the sauce compliments the fiery spices used with the ginger. There were a generous number of thin chicken strips and the coriander finished the dish off nicely – as it does in most Pakistani dishes.

Chicken Ginger and Aloo Gobi

We enjoy aloo gobi when we eat out as it is not something we cook at home. The sweetness of the cauliflower makes it an excellent side vegetable dish.

Beef Sheek Kebabs

The beef kebabs were cooked well too. Although they were nicely spiced they could have had a few more finely chopped green chillies added. They work well as left overs too, heated up in a panini press!

Freshly (and perfectly) cooked

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal in the simplistic décor of the restaurant with posters of a few famous Pakistani landmarks scattered around the walls.  We must make more of an effort to head there for a meal more often! I would recommend paying a visit to Seri Damai if you are looking for a different type of curry than the usual Indian based ones offered here at places such as Le Taj, Sagar or Tandori.com.

Delicious!

So, do you like Pakistani food? Where’s your favourite restaurant? Have you been to Seri Damai? If you live in Brunei, where do you like to go for a curry? Let me know your thoughts!

PlaneSimple

Dining at Home

Living as expats in this part of the world we are fortunate enough to be able to employ a maid. Although the main reason for doing so is to look after family member #3 when she comes along in December, we have enjoyed getting used to having someone ‘live in’ and complete the chores and prepare some great meals.

This blog post is going to showcase this coming week’s meals prepared by our hard working maid, May. Usually May cooks 4 or 5 evenings in the week. She is happy to follow recipes out of books (in fact, I think she prefers doing this) so it is great fun browsing through cook books as though they are menus!

We have pencilled in the following meals for this week – subject to change of course; Pork stir-fry, Bindi (Ladyfiger / Okra) Curry and Lemon Chicken with Broccoli.

Let me know what you think or if you have any recipes you think we would enjoy!

[Pictures to be updated each evening this coming week. Make sure you keep coming back and checking the blog!]

Monday - Stir-fry pork with Chinese greens, broccoli and celery.

Tuesday night - 'Bindi' Curry (Okra / Ladyfinger) with chapati

 

Wednesday - Broccoli Lemon Chicken

The Broccoli Lemon Chicken was followed by carrot cake that May had made during the day – a nice surprise!

Carrot Cake!

-PlaneSimple

Ahoy there!

So last night we attended a reception dinner on board Pakistan Navy Ship ‘Saif’. It was great fun – although a little nervy at the start.

We arrived up at Muara port with time to spare before the 7pm start – given that we had never been into the docks before to board a ship in Muara! We had to park the car outside the first gate entrance to the docks and then proceed on foot to the ship – a task that would have been avoided had we been privileged enough to have diplomatic plates!

We were not the first guests to board the ship but there were not many when we arrived. The guard at the bottom of the ‘ramp’ (with rifle) saluted us before we walked up to be greeted by the captain, Deputy High Commissioner (that I had met earlier in the week to arrange details of the walkathon) and the commander, Asad Ali (who we later had a lengthy conversation with, more to follow). Two of the sailors then escorted us to rear of the ship (presumably where the helicopter normally sits) where there was a tent covering and the table was set up for a buffet dinner (you can make this area out in the picture shown).

PNS Saif 253

This was the most awkward part of the evening. We first met the High Commissioner and his wife. We chatted more with his wife and she was interested to know we had lived in Murree, where her and her husband were from! It was awkward as diplomat after diplomat arrived on board and were were not always certain of who to chat to and the ettiquette required!

Eventually when there were probably around 150 – 200 on board, the ceremony began as the captain introduced the purpose of the evening. The ship has recently been aquired by the Pakistan Navy having been manufactured in Shanghai, China. The first port of call for the new ship was Muara, Brunei. The ship arrived on Friday morning and departs on Sunday night or Monday morning. The ship will then make it’s way back to Karachi, Pakistan, calling at Thailand, Indonesia and The Maldives along the way. It is due to arrive in Karachi in a months time, on 4 November.

A cake was cut by one of the high up defence personnel from the Brunei Armed Forces and the High Commissioner of Pakistan. Then we all tucked in to the wonderful array of Pakistani food on offer which included; channa curry, chicken korma, biryani, lamb, fried chicken, salad, paratha, raita and various other odds and ends! All very delicious.

As the evening went on we chatted with the sailors who were keen to ask questions about where we were from and why we are in Brunei. They also seemed to appreciate the interest we showed in their ‘mission’ and taking the boat back to Pakistan. Naturally we regularly discussed the fact we had both lived in Pakistan. The crew were also impressed and excited at my ability to talk Urdu (almost a party trick really)!

Commander Asad Ali was one of those who was delighted to talk about out time in Pakistan, esspecially since he had been educated at Lawrence College – a nearby local private school to MCS where we were! We used to play football and basketball against them.

We were very impressed with the friendliness and hospitality shown by the crew and had a most enjoyable evening. Even when the rain started we were kept fairly dry and at the end of the evening a minibus was provided to shuttle us back to the entrance where we had parked earlier that evening.

Today we attended the Walkathon, discussed in my previous blog, run by the Pakistani High Commission to help raise awarness, and funds, for the flood victims in Pakistan. It was nice to see some of the sailors we had met the previous evening and again they were most friendly in coming up and saying ‘hi’ while thanking us for attending the evening before. Of course, we considered the pleasure to be ours as we really had enjoyed the evening after the initial awkwardness of feeling slightly out of place!

Have you ever attended a fancy ‘do’ where you have felt out of place? What about attending a reception on a ship? Do comment and let me know!

PlaneSimple

Pakistan Update

A quick update / comment on the ongoing crisis in Pakistan. It is good to see that a reasonable amount of focus remains on the country with updates regularly on the news.

Yesterday the UN launched their largest ever natural disaster appeal – seeking over 2 billion US dollars. There appears to be more and more acknowledgement that funding commitments need to be for the long term not the immediate crisis. The $2 billion target will be spent over the next 12 months and is more than 4 times the initial request of $460 million.

In my last blog post I highlighted a number of facts and figures to try and give some sort of illustration of how huge a disaster the flooding is. This increase in the appeal amount from the UN – again I highlight that this is more than any other UN appeal – shows the severity of the impact these floods have had in Pakistan.

Although news outlets continuing to keep Pakistan in the headlines and helping to raise the profile of what is happening is encouraging, it is not always done in the correct tone. Just as I started writing this post this morning, BBC World News listed what features were on today’s programme. I quote:

Later in the programme we will be continuing our journey down the river Indus…

It was said in an ‘adventure TV show’ tone and it is important to remember viewers are not watching a TV show, this is real life. Admittedly, it is nearly impossible to imagine the scale of 20 million people being directly affected by the flooding. However, is important to guard against getting sucked in to watching the news reports from Pakistan as entertainment.

The school I work at raised B$1000 (Brunei dollars) from a non-uniform day and have kindly agreed to add this to funds I am raising through hosting a Pakistani dinner evening. Interest has been quite high and I hope to have about 35 people for dinner next Friday. A local Pakistani restaurant we frequent here in Brunei will be catering. So far we are a little short of raising B$1000 from the evening. The student council at school are also organising an event – a quiz night – from which the proceeds will also be added to the schools donation. I am confident that the B$2000+ will make a difference to the people of Pakistan who have had their lives torn apart.

The Pakistani High Commission here in Brunei are also keen to organise fund raising events and have asked the school for their participation. They plan to hold a ‘walkathon’ at the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah National Satium. I am hopeful that some of our students can participate in the event to help raise awareness of the plight of the Pakistani people. It is good to see the High Commission here organising something.

During my research for this blog I thought I would read up about the National Stadium. It opened in 1983, the date for the opening event was to coincide with His Majesties father’s 70th birthday. A UK league football team was invited over to play the Brunei National football team for the opening event. That team was…. Sheffield United! What are the chances of that?! Being a lifelong Blades fan I was of course both amazed and delighted! Naturally, I must let you know the score of that game, Blades went on to win 1-0. Apparently the first team returned to Brunei in 1993 and won 4-1. Perhaps they need another visit here for pre-season trianing in the hot and humid conditions, given their current form!

Evidence of the first ever match at the National Stadium with the Blades and the Sultan (who I met last weekend) in attendance!

A further comment on the UN’s ambition to raise over $2 billion to finish with. I still think there is a reluctance to donate money to Pakistan’s flood victims due to the fear of corruption. In many ways this is understandable. One must only look across the border to Afghanistan to see how easily corrupt practices are allowed to go on. Still, I remain confident that through the right channels it is possible to give so that it positively impacts the floods victims.

Have you done anything to try and help? What are your thoughts about the UN’s appeal? Can an ordinary person like you or me make a difference to a flood victim in Pakistan? Please let em know your thoughts and comments!

PlaneSimple

The cats have declared war…

Okay, so further to my last blog about the neighbouring cats I now have to declare war on the species (except for perhaps Charlotte and Simon’s cats, they’re okay at the moment).

Just a quick blog on the reasons to declare war on cats. I was at the yacht club enjoying dinner this evening. Lovely evening, by the waters of Brunei Bay, peaceful and great food. Until, completely unprovoked, a cat jumped up and scratched my hand! If it had been an accident and no harm done I’d have perhaps forgiven the cat. However it drew blood!

So that’s it. These creatures have got away with it long enough, and now we are on the war path.

Good luck cats…. you’ll need it.

-PlaneSimple

PS. I am pleased to report that the recent poll conducted by this blog, resulted in NO VOTES FOR LETTING THEM BE. Perhaps people wouldn’t be so upset if the species became extinct!

BSB Brunei to Glasgow UK Trip Report

This is a trip report for our journey to the UK. I’ve not done a trip report online before but have read some interesting ones so thought the blog would be a good place to start my first one. It is quite long but hopefully an enjoyable read!

The route we took was BWN – SIN – LHR – GLA (see here for airport codes) using both SQ and BA (and here for airline codes). We chose the route and airlines for two reasons. Firstly, to avoid the BI flight from Brunei which makes a stop in DXB along the way. BI are slightly unpredictable in the level of service – neither of our personal TV screens worked on our last flight with them. Secondly, price. The above routing worked out about B$200 cheaper than the BI flight which would have only taken us to London.

Leg 1:

05/07/2010

SQ181 (operated by s Silk Air)

Aircraft: A320 (registration 9V-SLD)

Scheduled Departure: 1220

Actual Departure: 1217

Scheduled Arrival: 1430

Actual Arrival: 1413

Seat: 8A

Enjoying breakfast / morning tea after check-in

We hadn’t checked in online before arriving at the airport but had chosen our seats. After being dropped off at the airport and checking in, we went for a coffee and bite to eat before going through security. Brunei airport is not the most bustling airport in the world so there is little to say about pre-boarding. This has its advantages though – where else in the world can you park immediately in front of the arrivals hall? Also, there are no many airports in the world that you would specifically go to just to eat lunch, as we have done before!

First impressions of the aircraft were very good, the cabin interior was bright and staff very welcoming, as you would expect. Once seated, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of legroom and comfy seats. You don’t often get generous legroom on short flights.

Bright and welcoming cabin

This A320-232 is the third oldest of the 11 A320’s that Silk Air operate but is still less than 10 years old. Silk Air currently operate 18 aircraft.

We pushed back from the gate a few minutes prior to our 1220 departure and after waiting for a BI 767 to take off (to Perth I think) we taxied up the runway in the opposite direction to which we were about to take off. The picture shows the view down the runway. I also have a video of the take off which is great as it shows the school, down town Bandar, Kampong Ayer and the Istana (palace). Unfortunately I cannot upload personal videos onto the blog (unless you readers start paying me so I can afford the upgrade!). Perhaps at some stage I will upload it to youtube then embedded it into the blog. Let me know if you would like to see it please!

View down the runway

Soon after takeoff we were served lunch – a choice of chicken or fish. We both had the sweet and sour fish as the idea of airline mashed potatoes that came with the chicken didn’t really appeal. The food was good, as shown in the picture, although a bit of a disappointment that the pineapple in the fruit salad was tinned. Not something that is excusable when the airline is based in South East Asia. We both washed the meal down with the white wine on offer.

The captain had informed us of a flight time of just 1 hour 40 minutes, so by the time the meal was finished there was just time for another drink before landing while watching the overhead screens showing a “Just for Laughs” comedy episode. I had hoped to have a Singapore Sling on the flight – as Singapore Airways are well known for.

G&T always goes down well!

However, this was not available on this flight – perhaps because the flight was operated by Silk Air rather than SQ metal. So I had to settle for a G&T instead! It’s a tough life.

Simple but tasty. Sweet & Sour Fish.

We soon began the decent into Changi airport and pulled up to the gate 17 minutes early. All in all a good flight – much better than I imagine the BI offering would have been.

Upon arrival at Changi, we passed through immigration and had our passports stamped before making our way from Terminal 2 across to Terminal 1 where our flight would depart from later that evening. We went straight to the BA check-in counters to enquire about checking our bags in early (still about 8 hours to departure) as we had already checked in online the night before. This was no problem and our bag was taken by the grumpy but not feeling well check-in agent who tagged the bag right through to Glasgow. We decided to leave both our hand luggage bags at the left luggage area to save us lugging them round Singapore for the afternoon. This was again straight forward and very reasonably priced – just $6.

Next we travelled into the city by MTR for the afternoon and early evening. A review of impressions of Singapore in an afternoon will follow in a later blog post, but here are a few pictures.

Leg 2:

05/07/2010

BA12

Aircraft: B747-400 (registration G-BNLE)

Scheduled Departure: 2255

Actual Departure: 2255

Scheduled Arrival: 0505

Actual Arrival: 0446

Seat: 52H

We arrived back at the airport about 4 hours prior to departure as we fancied a good look round the airport having heard so much about it. We had hoped to view the sunflower and orchid garden that Changi has on offer but were disappointed to learn that this was after security in Terminal 2. Instead the garden for Terminal 1 was a cactus garden which we decided to give a miss. Perhaps we will see the sunflowers and orchids on the return to Brunei instead.

There were a large number of shops on offer in Terminal 1. We enjoyed some of the Chinese pork on offer at one of the food stalls and I also enjoyed a few tasters from the alcohol section of the duty free shop – including a 25 year old Glenlivet.

I freshened up and changed into another set of clothes before boarding the plane. I hadn’t flown on a ‘Jumbo’ for a long time – at least 12 years. It was a little depressing entering the plane walking past the elegant Club World (business) section with lie-flat beds, then through the World Traveller Plus (premium economy) section with wider seats and extra recline before finally entering the end section of the plane for the tightly packed World Traveller cattle class seats! One day the upgrade will come!

This 747-436 is BA’s oldest operating 747 at 20.8 years old. It is also the 3rd oldest aircraft in their fleet. Interestingly (well, I think so anyway!) this particular aircraft was involved in a minor scrape while at stand 430 at London Heathrow airport on 22 November 2006. Having arrived from San Paulo a stair vehicle was positioned at door number 2 but when the hydraulic stabilisation jacks were extended the stair head punched a hole in the fuselage to wing fairing. ‘Relatively’ easily fixed I would imagine.

We had purposely checked in online the night before as soon as online check-in had opened (24 hours prior to departure) so as to reserve one of only 6 pairs of seats in the World Traveller section of the plane. Although these seats are at the back of the plane, where you are subject to more sideways movement and a bit of disruption due to the proximity of the lavatories, they are great when travelling as a couple as you don’t have to worry about disturbing or being disturbed by another traveller seated next to you. I was a little disappointed with the leg room but probably just because it was less than the previous flight.

We were soon introduced to ‘Sally Butcher’ the head of cabin crew for the flight and her, shall we say, unique accent. We pushed back from the gate exactly on schedule and taxied along to the end of runway 02L. The take off roll began and we were soon airborne banking right to head over KL and Penang.

I chose to watch ‘Shutter Island’ on the AVOD system. The film didn’t quite live up to what I had expected but was still enjoyable to watch. The pre dinner drinks run came round and we both had the white wine. Dinner arrived shortly after the start of the film. The choice was chicken or beef – the exact words from Sally Butcher on the PA system. I was a little disappointed with the meal announcement – no menu card and not description on the type of meal, just chicken or beef shouted over the PA system.

Beef in blackbean sauce with noodles.

As it turned out, chicken was western style and beef was oriental with black bean sauce and noodles and was my choice. I chose the red wine to go with the beef this time. My wife had the chicken. The salad was coleslaw with a vinaigrette dressing instead of mayo based. The dessert was a lychee based jelly pudding which tasted better than it sounds! In line with the disappointment of the abrupt meal announcement and lack of menu card, the offering on the meal tray was also a little disappointing – no cheese and biscuits or even a wee chocolate to go with the coffee. These are probably cut backs to help the airline save money but does mean that BA are offering less than many other airlines now.

After the meal and film were finished the eye patch went on and I tried to get some sleep. Although I woke up a few times from the lavatories being used and turbulence I was able to sleep fairly well (as far as is possible with such little recline) for 6 or 7 hours. The turbulence came and went throughout the night and although was heavy enough to wake you up was not too bad, just quite frequent.

Even though it was far from waking up ‘UK time’ I eventually decided to freshen up and watch another film before the breakfast came out. I chose to watch ‘Green Zone’ another film about the war in Iraq with Matt Damon playing a US soldier struggling to deal with being told to find WMD in Iraq after the invasion and being sent on a wild goose chase. It raised some interesting points and I enjoyed it more than my previous choice earlier in the flight.

Overtaking an unknown plane.

Just prior to the breakfast run, I opened the window blind next to me to see us over taking (very slowly) another plane. It was only just beginning to get light so was hard to see what type of plane or which airline but it was enjoyable to see the contrails shoot out behind and see another plane so close while cruising along at 38000 feet. Apologies for the poor quality but I feel a picture is merited!

The first of two English breakfasts!

Breakfast came with a choice of ‘English’ or ‘Omelette’. We both chose the English washed down with some surprisingly tasty coffee. It was very disappointing that although getting butter to go with the croissant there was no jam or marmalade on the tray.

The World Traveller cabin 1hr 40 min prior to touchdown.

The empty trays were soon cleared up and we soon began our very steady and calm decent (perhaps due to being such an early arrival) over the channel and down into London. Our path went right over the centre of London with great views of Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Before we knew it the nearly 13 hour flight had come to and end and we had touched down on runway 27R at Heathrow. It was a quick taxi to the gate at Terminal 3 before we disembarked and went in search of the transfer bus to Terminal 5.

The bus ride was much more straight forward and quicker than I had feared and all was going well. Then we got to the immigration line and I though ‘here we go, now it will be more hassle and slow us down’. To the first gentleman’s credit, we were greeted with a smile and the first step was no problem. However, then came the next desk, for the security photo they now do at Terminal 5 in Heathrow. The lady demanded my passport and boarding pass then promptly threw, yes threw, the passport back on the desk towards me. Once she had taken the photo she rushed me on. No manners what so ever and how disappointing that visitors to the UK are greeted with this. It wasn’t to get any better either as the security queues were very lengthy. It took us over half an hour to proceed through the queue and make it past security.

Leg 3:

06/07/2010

BA1472

Aircraft: A320 (registration G-BUSI)

Scheduled Departure: 0710

Actual Departure: 0708

Scheduled Arrival: 0830

Actual Arrival: 0830

Seat: 1A (no not First Class unfortunately as domestic flights are all Economy!)

Boarding for the flight began promptly which I think was due to having to be bussed to the aircraft which was parked at remote stand 524. We must have been the first flight of the day for G-BUSI.

The second oldest BA A320 about to take us to GLA.

This A320-211 is BA’s 8th oldest aircraft – we seem to have been put on BA’s old aircraft for this journey! It was delivered on 24 March 1990. It is the second oldest A320 BA operate.

We pushed back a couple of minutes early and then made our way down the taxi way the length of the airport to the end of runway 27L.

Final preparations on G-BUSI prior to pushback.

We didn’t have to wait long before turning onto the runway as is so often the case at London’s busiest airport. The flight was quite uneventful give than actual flying time is just an hour. Very soon after being airborne the cabin crew began to serve breakfast. BA domestic flights before 10 am serve a hot breakfast – our second of the morning. This was also an English breakfast but slightly different. This time there were cherry tomatoes and a different of sausage and egg. Quite tasty and more enjoyable given that this time there was marmalade to go with the roll! It was also nice to drink out of proper coffee cups rather than the paper ones we had been given on the previous flight.

The second English breakfast of the morning!

We quickly began our descent into Glasgow but couldn’t see much of the ground until a few minutes before landing due to the heavy cloud cover – it looked very cold! We pulled up at the gate right on time at half past eight in the morning – a full 29 and a half hours after leaving the house in Brunei!

It took us a while to get our bag but only since it had come in on a different carousel to most peoples due to it being an international bag rather than domestic bag having transited through Heathrow. And then we were met by some friends who had kindly agreed to collect us.

Overall the journey was a good one. The connections worked out well and were all right on time or early. It was enjoyable to spend the afternoon in Singapore to have a quick look round and to wear ourselves out ready to sleep on the long flight back to UK. I would much rather do it that way and board tired rather than do the 7 or so hour hop to the Middle East, change aircraft and then another 7 or so hour hop to London. It is very difficult to get a good sleep pattern on such flights due to the meal service etc. So this is definitely a route that I will consider again. As far as service goes, the flight operated by Silk Air was great but the BA service although quite good did not quite have the finishing touches I would expect of an airline of BA’s calibre.

Now here we are back in Scotland. The UK seems to have a fully air conditioned system where the entire country has air con outside – it is just a shame that it is turned down as low as it is at the Empire!

As always, I would appreciate your thoughts and comments on the trip report. Was it worth reading? Should I do one for the return leg?

-PlaneSimple