#2 Short Stop in Singapore

Thursday, October 19, 2006
- In flight to Ahmedabad

Singapore was shrouded in a tropical haze preventing any aerial view of the city as we dropped onto the runway in the giant Boeing 747. We taxied to a stop and were thrilled to be able to stand up again and walk. We even avoided the moving sidewalk (which they call a Travellator) to exercise our legs a little in the airport.

It was before noon (Thursday) in Singapore and about 9:00 PM (Wednesday) at home. I passed an area offering free internet service as we came out of the gate area. There you can log on to the internet, send and receive email, whatever, for 15 minutes. San Francisco airport could learn something from them. I quickly composed an email to let my wife and family know that I had safely arrived in Singapore and hit the send button. I logged out and caught up with Brian Henry in a line at the Ambassador Transit Hotel on the second level. The Singapore airport is like a small city with all types of services and business under the same roof. There are the normal food fare places, duty free shops with chocolates, perfumes, and liquors, as well as the currency exchange offices and places to apply for sales tax (GST) refunds for items purchased in the country. In addition to the expected amenities, there are designer shops such as Ralph Lauren and Coach, technology stores with all the latest gismos and gadgets, and just about anything else you might need. There was a gym, exercise rooms, hair salons, massage sessions, movies, and even a 7-Eleven convenience store.

The hotel rents rooms for your layover in the Singapore airport. You can take a nap or spend the night, have a clean private bathroom and shower, and a secure place to lock up your baggage if you want to go shopping or dining. Initially, when we arrived, the hotel was fully booked. However, Brian being the world traveler had called ahead and placed his name on a waitlist for accommodations. We were instructed to come back after 1:00 PM so with 45 minutes to kill we strolled around through the mall area. Brian was drawn into the Mont Blanc store like a bee to honey. He spent a few minutes salivating over a beautiful writing instrument with a floating diamond in the cap. It was only $1800.00. I’m not sure if that was Singapore or US dollars. It really didn’t matter. I drifted over to the electronic gizmos store. For the same money I could get a 20 gig hard drive camcorder complete with DVD burner attachment! I didn’t buy either.

When we checked back at the hotel we were in luck! They had a room available. We dropped off our carryon bags and headed out for some fine Singapore dining. Earlier we had spied a new Burger King on the second level! It will probably be over a week before we get to enjoy a beef hamburger, complete with fries and Diet Coke. The burger and fries tasted virtually identical to that found in the States. The diet Coke was disgusting! Of course, (Diet) Dr. Pepper is my drink of choice. I suppose I’ll be fasting Dr. Pepper for the duration of this trip.

Brian’s hairspray was confiscated in San Francisco. With some of the new security restrictions you are only allowed up to a four ounce size of any gels, creams, liquids, or hairsprays. His super-sized VO5 just didn’t fit the permitted profile. They did give him a complimentary Ziploc bag (the legal quart size) to contain the contraband specific items for the next security inspection. In a panic Brian had found a small pump of Tresemé hairspray in one of the shops in San Francisco. Now, he is concerned about running out before the week is up in India. The 7-Eleven store did not have hairspray. They had assorted gels, lotions, and potions, but no Henry style aerosol hairspray. They recommended a store down the way in the airport named Watson’s.

We found Watson’s without too much difficulty on the lower level toward the other end of the mall area. Sure enough they had all kinds of health and beauty aids for harried travelers (no pun intended!). When we inquired about hairspray, the kindly efficient sales staff (she must have been on commission) directed us to the shelf behind her. Just the thing, she said as she pulled the hairspray off the shelf. Available in either aerosol or pump it had only the best ingredients, natural stuff, not those damaging chemicals! I rolled the can over in my hand and choked over the 33.00 price tag. Hey, it was only about 20 USD. As Brian considered the merits of her sales pitch I strolled around the shelf to find the small travel size, propane laden, chemically-chocked-full can of hair damaging aerosol in the convenient and legal small size. Brian agreed that was the best way to go in view of the fact that he might lose a larger one again on our return to the domestic domain of Homeland Security.
Brian went on back to the hotel to freshen up while I shopped for a tee shirt to change into after showering. There was a tourist shop with novelty tees advertising the virtues of Singapore. I found a color that would match my travel clothes, paid the inflated price, and made my way back to the hotel. We were able to sleep for a while in a quiet darkened room in preparation for the five hour flight this evening to Ahmedabad.

My biological clock told me it was too early to be getting up after a two hour nap, but locally it was 6:00 in the afternoon as we checked out and made our way to the gate area. The Singapore Airlines flight (SQ442) departed out of E20 at 8:15 PM. Everything went on schedule.

The biggest difference I observed in the flights earlier today and this one is the people. People of Oriental ethnicity dominated the flights into Hong Kong and Singapore. Now, obviously, the majority is Asian Indian. Catering to the tastes and culture, the airline adjusted the menu to reflect food fare from India. The Hindu influence was immediately seen in the menu selections. Most meat items disappeared on this menu. I suppose the Lamb masala was there for the Muslims. I couldn’t identify either selection so I asked for the vegetarian offering. It included rice with some stuff on the side containing green peas. On the other side some other stuff featured kidney beans. The salad was basically garbanzo beans with something spicy. The taste of curry was evident as well as some other unknown spices. This will be an adjustment to my taste buds. No doubt this will help me understand how international students feel coming to America and adjusting to Mexican food!

There is something to be said about the irony of riding an American made plane with a Singapore flight crew, eating Indian food, listening to Dave Brubeck’s jazz hits on my stereo headphones, typing on a portable laptop computer made in China, flying 38,000 feet in the air, and traveling at over 500 miles per hour. The aircraft we are flying now is a Boeing 777. It’s a wide body aircraft, just not as large as the 747. There are two aisles but only nine seats across in this one. Everything seems a little closer as well. Brian and I got aisle seats across from each other in the 40th row. To my left is an Indian man from Malaysia. He and his family are traveling to India for a holiday. For the next few days there is a great India festival of some kind (later I found out it is Dawali, a Hindu festival) and following that is a Muslim celebration. He encouraged me to see some of the temples. That seems to be their biggest attraction and source of inspiration. I hope to have some more inspiration of my own so I don’t bore you with the mundane recording of my travel monologue.

We are supposed to arrive after 11:00 PM and we are to meet an associate at the airport to transport us to our hotel. I’ll post this when I can and keep writing for later postings. Once we leave the city I probably will not have internet access for a few days. Thanks for reading along and keeping up with our India adventure!