Transit Hotel and The Amazing A380...
Friday, July 11, 2008
The Singapore airport transit hotel was perfect - the room was simple but it had everything needed - a shower being the most important item, at that stage I would have paid double for the privilege. We walked into the room and I was very happy to see not a single window so when the lights were turned off it was like being in a bunker - warm, dry and dead silent. There's also a pool upstairs in the outside world, complete with poolside bar. If only we'd realised, we would have brought out togs in our cabin baggage. In saying that though, all we really wanted was to be horizontal for a bit, so after a quick feed, we slept... and slept. We both got over 3 hours, which was a miracle in my book. I even managed to get through three terminals and only spending 16 Singapore dollars although I had to keep reminding myself that I just didn't need this or that, I'm still proud of myself.
It's interesting that you can forget so easily just how grueling the experience of travelling to the other side of the world really is. Every part of your body screams out in different ways but definitely telling you that this really isn't a good idea! In some ways this is the reason that I was so excited about going on the A380. Certainly from the advertising it is the way forward - a whole new era of traveling, But here I am sitting in one, it's all a bit surreal. This is the most revered aircraft ever and to tell you the truth I'm left wondering how it is that they could have got it so wrong. Gazing at it through the window in the terminal was quite awe inspiring - just how do they get it in the air, questioned again when taking off, for a long time it lazily cruised down the runway in no particular hurry but it did manage to accelerate and get itself in the air. Once in there air it has this general feeling that had the engines give up for even a second we would be in trouble, the turbulance was astonishing and I was immediately reminded of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Addams trying to explain how it is that a space ship stays in the air - simply put it hung in the air the same way that bricks dont.
Inside I expected gleaming chrome side panels, ambient lighting, plush leather seats or even leather seats like the airbuses that we get to Australia, big screen TVs and smiles all the way with finding more little things that they had thought of to help the weary traveler. Unfortunately this really just isn't the case. We came off a Boeing 777-200 and it had enough room that I could stretch my legs under the seat - not so for the A380, the seats look far too warn to have been brand new for this plane - same too for a lot of the paneling in the interior. Don't get me wrong, this is still a very nice plane but they had a blank canvas - this is meant to be a combination of all that they have learnt from the years of jet travel. But there are stupid design flaws, the racks that you put your luggage in are flat not angled back so when you open it after takeoff there really is a high change of something falling out. The isles are unbelievably narrow and somehow they had managed to get the toilets even smaller, I could keep going but it will get boring...
The entertainment system is however very good there is a full workstation at every chair - word processor, spreadsheet programme even a pdf reader - it reminded me a lot of the linux that came on this laptop you can even watch media stored on a USB device, or plug in your keyboard - although I never tried this as silly me I just didn't have a keyboard in my back pocket nor did I have a USB dongle with a movie on it handy.
So there you go all in all i is a bit of a disappointment - I'm sure its not in the suites or even business class but for us economy travelers theirs a big NO CHANGE HERE sticker slapped on the side. I do have to say that the staff were brilliant, Sarah had problems with the food that was sorted very quickly and she ended up with so much food she didn't know what to do with it (so she ate it all - she's a hungry Mummy to be!). When I finished a beer I was asked if I wanted another - I even had to turn a couple down (Sarah was shocked!). The food was brilliant and not just air food, and at the end of the day the flight was effortless, we did get to the other end not feeling to bad and even ready to tackle the London traffic!
Labels: Singapore
posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm,
