We flew Singapore Airlines from SFO to Bengaluru. We were happy with the good service and nice airplane, but it was still a long trip! After flying with Singapore Airlines, it will be hard to go back to United. Right from checked-in, the employees were pleasant and helpful. The meals on the flight were good, for airplane food. We especially enjoyed the huge movie selection, with individual TV screens. We finally watched “Blindside,” which we both really liked.
Our first flight was 14 hours from SFO to Hong Kong. We watched a few movies and slept intermittently, but we both were pretty tired when we landed in Hong Kong. The one hour lay-over was just enough time to de-board, walk back around toward the boarding gate, freshen up, use the free WiFi for half an hour, and re-board the plane. Then it was a 4 hour flight to Singapore. We arrived around noon local time, and had an 8 hour lay-over, so we had enough time to leave the airport. It was nice to get outside and stretch our legs. From the airport we took the metro to Raffles Place station and walked a short distance to Lau Pa Sat market place for lunch. The market place is covered by an iron octagonal roof and open on the sides, so the only cooling is by fans on full blast. We had eaten there when we visited Singapore for a couple days almost a year ago. It was exciting to be back, and there were so many restaurants to choose from, but the heat was hard to adjust to. We much prefer hot weather, but after just making it through the winter, the 32 degrees Celsius weather needed some getting used to. We finished off our meal with a frozen ice kachang, which offered a bit of relief from the heat.
After lunch we made our way back to the airport. We were able to get passwords to use free WiFi from the Information desk. Then around 5pm we headed through security and towards our gate. Singapore Changi airport is rated as one of the best airports in the world, and we could see why. It is landscaped inside with various little garden areas, including an orchid garden. It also had a lush tropical area with lots of plants and water falls and ponds. When we were almost to our gate we saw a big waiting room and went to find a place to sit. Not only were there normal airport chairs, there were also reclined chairs in the Oasis area. We were amused at first and decided to test them out, but pretty soon the soothing music and sound of waterfalls had lulled us to sleep. We were able to take an hour nap before boarding our 8pm flight. Reclining chairs where you can take a nap are just what every airport aught to have. Such a great idea!
We had planned to work on our itinerary on our next 4 hour flight, but I was so tired I fell asleep before the plane was even moving. When we finally landed in Bengaluru, India, it was 10pm local time. We made our way through immigration half asleep. When we got out to the baggage claim area I was surprised that the airport wasn’t very crazy. Perhaps because it was already late, it was pretty calm and deserted. We found the queue for metered taxis, and about 40 minutes later we were at Sumanjay Homestay.
The ride from the airport was 600 rupees, which is what we were expecting. Our room here at Sumanjay Homestay is okay. It has a big bed, it’s own bathroom, and a fan. The first night we didn’t realize there were different settings for the fan, so it was quite loud, but maybe that just helped drown out other noises, since it got loud in the morning once we turned the fan off. We were pleasantly surprised at how quiet the area was when we went to sleep, ‘though, since we had been expecting the city to be loud. The room comes with breakfast and there is a computer with internet that you can use for 15 Rupees per hour. We opted for using an Ethernet cable to get internet access all day for 50 Rupees for the day. But the Ethernet connection is in another guest room, so hopefully no one rents that room while we’re here. Anyway, we made it safely to Bengaluru, and tomorrow the exploring will begin.