Saturday, 10 October 2009

The slackest...

Well, I think I must be the slackest blogger ever...

Here I am, it's 8.11am, I'm sitting at Sydney Airport having flown over from Singapore, been here since 6am, waiting for my 9.50 flight to Wellington and then, officially, it will be all over.

Oh no!

I really should go back over my blog and see what I have written about - and then fill in the gaps.

I suspect it will be easier if anyone is reading this to just get hhold of me in a few hours and say - Hey Cookie, let's catch up, you can tell me all the goss about your trip, bore me with photos and we'll drink fantastic coffee (god, I miss great coffee - although McCafe has opened in Frankfurt, I was there last Monday, it had been open for 4 days and they served flat whites. I kid you not - probably the only place in all of Europe where you can actually get a flat white - and where it's on the coffee list! Why? I asked and they said that McCafe is Australian owned - hence the flat whites. I also have it on good authority - ie the manager, I was having a chat with her, that the Costas down in the waterfront shopping centre in Portsmouth is going to add flatwhites to it's menu next year. Hush hush though apparently!).

I have just spent 10 minutes pissing about trying to upload a photo - I'm sure there is an easy way; I just can't find it!

Anyway, so here I am sitting at Sydney Airport waiting for my flight and for the hols to be over - and in many ways, back to the real world.

So, what was Singapore like? I really liked it. It's very clean, the food is just fantastic (everything from super cheap to crazy expensive), the people really nice, really restrictive laws (OMG, if I had actually had sex....).

I stayed at the Intercontinental - totally totally OTT! Love it! The room was huge, the bathroom amazing, the bed big enough for 4! Although, I wonder if it's really worth it given that I was either asleep (or awake at 3am) or not there. But still....

Did quite a few of the touristy things - the merlion, the river trip on a bumboat, the Asian Civilisation Museum, saw Raffles (but didn't go in - I've never drunk alone, and figured I didn't really need to go and buy an incredibly expensive pink drink!). I subsequently found out that the Singapore Slings are $28 (or was it $27), they're pre-made and it's all about the tourists!

Hung out in Little India a bit - really liked it there. Bugis where the hotel is - great location - transpires that Singapore is really quite small. The MRT is really easy to use (although there is one station that has two levels of trains - and some escalators go between levels and some from the bottom level all the way to the exit level (ie the top - 3rd - level). Did I spend 5 minutes going up and down trying to get to the middle level - yes....

I did a pile of shopping - there isn't any fake stuff in Singapore really but shopping for Africa - so to speak. Checked out Sim Lam Square - hundreds of electronic stores. And yes, the IPhone 3G-s is available, the official supplied - SingTel - won't sell you one (either out of stock or, if in stock, they only sell it on a plane). The slightly more "dodgy" shops (although I'm not sure if there are any truly dodgy shops in Singapore) will sell you one for about $1000 Singapore - but god knows about whether they're real or not - the cab driver on the way to the airport showed me his "Chinese Official" mini-IPhone - dual sim even. Given the hassles I've had with chinese crap dual sim cellphones, I'm leaning towards spend the money, buy official...

You can also pick up a PS3 slim for about $500 - only draw back is that the warranty is local - anything goes wrong, you're poked in NZ.

I went to Gluttony Lane and sat outside and ate (OMG, have I eaten!).

I went to China Town and did the nightwalking tour - I can now tell you all about prostitution in Singapore and oral sex - it was a great little tour - one guy mysteriously asked for a taxi at the end of the tour, the tour guide said come with her back to the main part of China Town and he took off in the other direction back towards the brothels we'd just been shown.... Lol!

Met Megan and Daniel on the walking tour - Megan is a med student from Wales who was in Wellington (yah!) for 2 months working at A&E at Wgtn Hospital - and to make it an even smaller world, she was also staying at the Intercontinental! Daniel is an Aussie who went to the UK for his OE and had to leave cause his visa ran out. So, the three of us, after the tour had some kai, a little shopping and then a drink and dessert back at the hotel.

It's always the coolest when you randomly meet excellent people as you bop around the planet.

Quickly - the kai we had was in noodle house that the tour guide showed us - the chef made the noodles in front of us (the take the dough, pull, twist, pull twist etc until noodles type of noodles) and then cooked and served - all for a whole $4.50 a dish! The shopping was "odd" as we finished eating about 10/10.30 and all the stalls in ChinaTown were closing up - maybe it's the down season?

The last day, back to ChinaTown - it's very cool there, hung out at the hotel, packed (about 41 kilos - ouch!) and then out to the airport and off to Sydney.

The business class check in at Singapore Airport is really nice - you have a separate room, and you sit down like you're checking into a hotel rather than a plane! But the security is at the plane - not customs. So, you get through customs quickly but then stand with over 300 people trying to get through security into the holding pen for the plane - not very good at all!!

The entertainment system on the plane wasn't working - but it's very nice in the top deck, overate but figured might as well make the most of it, lots and lots of leg room, chatted with a really nice woman who'd just been to fashion week in Paris (she works for an APC mag here in Sydney - Madison or something), and generally just snoozed. Then they got the entertainment system going so I did the only sensible thing - watched Ice Age - the Dinasaurs! Lol - didn't sleep but had tea and biscuits, ordered everything on the breakfast menu and had a shower in Sydney (god, the shower - just divine!). It's not a bad flight - only about 8 hours - the long sector is Asia to the UK.

Was business class worth it - hard to say really. Was it expensive - hell yes. Was the leg room great - hell yes. Is the service nice, the food good etc - hell yes. With stop overs is it worth it - not sure.

Well, there is bound to be lots and lots more stories and thoughts and things - travel is always full of it - but it's not long until my plane so I'm going to pack up and maybe go for a stretch before it's all over.

Best thing - easily the nephews in London - they are just so cool!

Worst thing - spending a day barfing in London (sorry Lee!).

But there we go.....

Another day, another adventure!

Yah! :)

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

Bye Bye Europe...

The quickest of entries - and yes I know I'm behind - and yes quite a bit has happened since I last updated (somewhere I've started the entry which I was typing on Eurostar - seems soooo long ago!).

But here I am, sitting at Frankfurt airport, it's 11.06pm, I'm in the Cathy Pacific lounge, it's nearly time to go through security and get ready for the plane - and so Europe will come to an end.

The best thing - easily my nephews, they are simply the coolest!

But it's been great seeing new things, eating so much and, especially, catching up with friends - it's the people who really make a place!

Yah!

But now it's looking like a 12 hour journey to Singapore - not that I'm complaining - it is business class - and I have been having a magical time (and yes, if you're interested, the visa bill is sitting at over $13,000 - ouchie!) - and it's just been sooooo cool!

See you all soon - next time I touch down it'll be another country and 6 time zones away - wow!

Byeeeee Europe and the UK!!!

:)