The journey took about 40 minutes, so we were early- 07:40. One of the QANTAS assistants helped us check in. They are always there, just after you figure out what to do, and then insist on doing it for you. From check-in we went to bag-drop. The bags gave the bag-drop machine a bit of a shock, and it demanded that we put a HEAVY label on each bag. It also refused to recognise Robyn's bag label the first time but after processing it twice (again with assistance from an employee), the conveyor belt hauled it away. The next step was security, with nothing unusual there; except that the machine detected the decorative metallic rings on Robyn's top. It took a minute to work out what set the alarm off, but nobody got arrested.
After that we were free to walk through duty-free shopping to the departures hall.
The plane was due to take off at 11:05 so we had plenty of time to kill. I read a book and had a coffee. Robyn browsed the shops but didn't buy anything. After an age, they called us for boarding. We got a window and an aisle seat together, which was nice of QANTAS. The journey on an Airbus A330-300 was long at 8 Hours 20 Minutes. The seating was just a bit cramped, but bearable. Of course there were movies and TV shows to watch. Also, the crew gave us snacks, and lunch to break up the journey. The plane landed on time at 5:25 PM.
Immigration and customs were OK. One thing we did notice is that we used our passports for nearly everything; more than on previous trips.
The Taxis are hidden in the basement of Terminal 2 at this airport, and it took us half an hour to find them. Signage in the terminals is not very clear in giving directions. eventually, we arrived the rank and piled everything into a little Hyundai hatch. One of the big bags had to go on the front seat, because only one bag would fit in the rear. Still, it only had to be restrained one during the trip. The fare was about $40 Singaporean, which wasn't bad for that time of day. It delivered us to the Parkview at 7:00 PM.
Booking in presented no problems and soon we were looking for dinner. There were literally dozens of restuarants within a few blocks of our hotel. They offered such delicacies as Kung Fu Frog, Chicken in pig's stomach, slippery sausages, chilli lala, spicy bullfrog pot, home made alkaline egg, and many more !
We ordered sweet and sour chicken, egg rice, dumplings (which are the same as Japanese gyoza), noodles with beef and a lemon/lime cold drink. Pretty safe. It was all nice but we ordered too much; the noodles didn't get eaten as they were a bit oily. The whole meal cost us $47; cheap for what we ordered.
Finally, the tired travellers staggered two blocks back to the hotel and went to bed.
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