We are now back home after just over 4 weeks away. Here is just a quick post with a few thoughts and observations from our journey home.
We left Glasgow on Monday evening. We had decided to take an extra ‘box’ back with us so had purchased an extra baggage allowance from the British Airways website. This was excellent value, and I recommend you take a look if you are thinking of taking extra baggage next time you fly. The box weighed in at 19kg, so the £32 or so it cost to get it to Singapore was well worth it. The shipping company had quoted us £170 to get it sent to Brunei air freight! We then planned to just pay the excess baggage (even though it is £5 per kg) with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Brunei the next day. More on this in a bit.
I was disappointed not to get a small salad meal that BA used to do on the Glasgow – London route at this time of day. It must be another of their cost cutting exercises. We landed at Heathrow on time but the captain informed us that “for a reason only known to air traffic control they have parked us at an international gate rather than domestic gate”. So what, you might think. Well the implication was that if we used the air bridge then we would have to go through customs and passport control (not needed for domestic) so we had to go down a set of stairs and use a bus to the terminal. No major problem, it just made us walk more and slowed us down in getting to the Terminal transfer bus for our transfer to Terminal 3. (Note. this was also very annoying. BA have most of their traffic go through T5 but Singapore is one of the few flights BA operate from Terminal 3, meaning a change of terminal for us.)
We made the connection in plenty of time though, despite securities best efforts to slow us down as much as possible, and were soon on board the aircraft.
Once on board, it was very hot. Boarding took quite a while as we later learnt there wasn’t a spare seat on the plane; full load to Singapore. We pushed back from the gate just a few minutes late and were fairly quickly (for Heathrow standards) in the air. It stayed quite warm at the back of the plane for quite a while – over an hour. A couple of passengers clearly thought this was totally unacceptable and kicked up a bit of a fuss to the stewardess. The stewardess later returned with the captain to basically say “Sorry about the temperature but live with it!”
Dinner was soon served – we both had the Chiang Mai Gai (Chiang Mai Chicken). It was tasty for airline food and washed down well with some wine. Time for a movie then to get some sleep.
I slept fairly well – probably for around 7 hours although awoke with a headache. I got some paracetamol from the stewardess then had to fill out a form, presumably to say I wouldn’t hold them liable if I now died from the paracetamol.
We were just under two hours from landing now and making our way across the Bay of Bengal. We had taken a slightly more southerly path than I had expected. Great Circle Mapper suggested we should have flown over Northern Pakistan however our route had taken us directly over Karachi according to the in flight moving map.
I still wasn’t feeling 100% and so passed on the breakfast which didn’t look (or apparently taste) very appetising! We were now about an hour and a half from landing and making our way down the Malacca Strait at 37000 feet. Looking out the window we saw quite a large airport down below to our left. I half heartedly suggested it was Kuala Lumpur airport. Then, thinking about it a bit more, realised it could well be KL so took a closer look. Sure enough the landmark that would confirm if it was KL airport could be seen. The Sepang F1 circuit right on the airport perimeter looked a lot smaller from this height, more like a go-carting track than the circuit Mark Webber went round in a fastest lap of 1 minute 37 and a bit seconds at this years Malaysian Grand Prix. It was interesting spotting this from so high.
Before too much longer we were coming into land in Singapore. The local time was 5pm, although having just woken up from a 7 hour sleep a couple hours ago it felt like early morning. We were quickly off the aircraft and after passing through immigration, receiving the first stamp in our new passports, we proceeded straight to the baggage carousel to collect our two bags and the box.
It was very busy at the carousel, the BA 747 we flew on (G-BNLL) carries 351 when full which it was for our flight. Our bags took a while to come round but eventually, as the crowds started to disappear, we collected our two bags. We waited a while longer for the box until one of the baggage staff approached us asking for our name as some passengers baggage did not make the connection at Heathrow. Sure enough our box was one of them. Great.
So we made our way to the lost and found, as instructed, to sort it all out. The bag was not lost it just didn’t make the connection so was still sitting in London. The process to sort it all out took quite a while but eventually we left the lost and found office with £35 compensation (since the box also contained a few clothes!). Seeing the box was no essential the compensation was quite good, although the bit that really delighted us was the fact that the box would be forwarded to Brunei at BA’s expense!! Since the box was coming on the following days flight it would arrive in Singapore after we had caught our flight to Brunei. As a result the box would be forwarded on to Brunei after it arrived and we would be able to collect it in a few days at the airport in Brunei. Result: excess baggage charges with Singapore Airlines avoided. Just as well the haggis and cheese from Scotland was in one of the bags and not the box!!
We decided given our heavy bags and weary bodies we would use the compensation money on taxis rather than using the MRT. We got dropped off at the hotel although the taxi driver parked up a the wrong branch, fortunately the branch we were booked in at was 100 metres along the road. After freshening up we went for a walk to find some dinner.
Neither of us slept well that night – waking up in the middle of the night for 3 or 4 hours. After a fried egg breakfast we checked out and headed back to the airport. The check in attendant was not bothered we were a few kilograms over our allowance (BA allow 23kgs while SQ allow just 20kgs). We had an uneventful time at the airport where we stocked up on a few supplies from the duty free and also visited the sunflower garden in terminal 2. We made our way to the gate ready to board the flight.
This next bit will help to give you an idea of what a small community Brunei is. We met two different families that my wife taught at school last year and I met one family I taught. There can’t be many international flights you can take where you bump into three different sets of children you teach!
It was my first time in Singapore Airlines. Having heard so many raving reviews about them I was looking forward to trying them out – even though it was just a 1 hour 45 minute hop across to Brunei. They were very good overall; comfy seats, bright cabin, friendly and welcoming staff. The food was a little disappointing and I probably should have chosen the chicken with noodles rather than the fish. Still, the Singapore Slings made up for it!
We arrived on time into Brunei and made our way towards the gate. However, just as we were approaching the gate we made a big U-turn and came to a stop in the middle of the tarmac. Everyone jumped up – as they always do when the aircraft comes to a halt. Then the captain came on and said “Please take a seat again for a moment as we are parked up at the VIP apron to allow some of the royal family to disembark from the aircraft”! Perhaps that why there seemed to be a large number of cabin crew! It tells you a lot about Royal Brunei Airlines when the royal family choose to fly with Singapore Airlines rather than one of the two daily RBA flights! This particular 777-200 had first class seats, where the royals were seated. I wonder if this three-class configuration is always used on the Brunei route or if the two class configuration is usually used and this was an equipment upgrade for the VIPs?
We then got towed round to the gate and were able to disembark from the aircraft ourselves. After getting a temporary special pass to enter Brunei, due to our new passports, we were able to quickly collect our luggage. We then had to visit the Lost and Found so that they could then contact Singapore and ask for the bags to be sent to Brunei. After filling out our yellow forms we left the airport and were soon back home.
It is good to be back. It has taken a while to get over the jet lag though – last night was the first night of four that I felt I had slept fairly well. Many people say that flying from West to East is harder to get over than flying East to West. That may be true, I don’t know, but I do think what time you arrive at your destination makes a bit difference. If you fly long haul – like the 13 hours we did – you are going to (at least try) sleep at some point. If you then arrive in the morning at your destination you need to try and stay awake and then sleep at sleeping time (and just have a slighly early night if you are really knackered). If however you arrive in the afternoon it makes it difficult as you have just woken up from a sleep so feel it should be morning and won’t be ready to sleep again properly in a few hours time when it is actually bed time. This is what has happened to us. We arrived in Singapore at 5pm having just slept for 7 hours. Try going to bed to sleep for another 8 hours or so a few hours later. So we’ve been waking up in the middle of the night for a few hours and not being able to get back to sleep. Now that it is Saturday, hopefully we’re over the most of it.
Just to finish the blog with the box. It was put on the RBA flight a few hours after arriving in Singapore (after we had departed) on Wednesday so we were able to collect it from the airport on Thursday morning. Not bad hey?! About time we got the rub of the green for a long journey!
This was going to be just a quick information blog on our journey home but has ended up being rather lengthy. Sorry about that but I do hope you have found it to be an interesting read. Feel free to comment and let me know about any of your journey stories. Do you like flying long haul? How do you beat jet lag? Ever been stung for a huge amount of excess baggage? Have you ever flown with a VIP on board?
-PlaneSimple
PlaneSimple Thoughts 