(backdated post)
Friday morning: time to head for Europe! Thankfully not an early morning flight – they are not my favourite.
I finished packing then caught a train to Footscray to collect my travelling companion, then (for reasons of speed and convenience) we caught an Uber to the airport.
They recommend arriving 2-3 hours early for an international flight. As with every other time I go to the airport, there was congestion on the departures level access road. Apart from near-constant construction activity, I’ve read somewhere that traffic congestion at MEL is a consequence of the design, which has all the terminals within walking distance of each other. It’s very handy, but means everyone converges on one area.
But of course it’s also a consequence of over-reliance on motor vehicles for access.
Bag drop, security and passport control were straightforward, and we navigated the duty-free maze.
Oh wait, do I need a new camera? In preparation for the trip I’d decided I could not justify taking my DSLR. Based on last year, too much weight/bulk for too little use. I’d been tempted to buy a smaller camera. The Canon SX740 HS is a compact but powerful camera which was in JB’s tiny duty-free shop for $610. But no, I didn’t really need it, and what put me off most was that it’s a model that dates back to 2019, and is about to be replaced (which is why at most places it’s out of stock).
Oddly, one shop in the International Departures area has the front of a Melbourne W-class tram on display. And looking closely at it, it appears not to be a mock-up, but a genuine section of a real tram.
Anyway, rather than retail therapy, we parked up in a coffee shop to kill time until boarding.
SQ0228: dep Melbourne 16:40 (UTC+11), arr Singapore 21:30 (UTC+8) = scheduled flight time 7 hours 50 mins
After take-off and a bit of reading, I got onto the entertainment system and watched the first few episodes of The Pitt, which I’ve been meaning to watch for a while. It’s HBO, and what they lack in sex and violence they make up for in detailed gory surgical procedures.
Aeroplane Wi-Fi also helped pass the time.
The flight from Melbourne to Singapore is almost 8 hours. I’m not going to claim I normally have a bladder of steel, but on this occasion I did manage to avoid using the aeroplane toilet. They’re not my favourite thing.
For our next flight we had about 2 hours to get from terminal 1 to terminal 3 . Changi Airport like Melbourne is also theoretically walkable between terminals… but it’s on a much larger scale. We started walking… and walked and walked… oh still another 20+ minutes to walk? Yeah okay so maybe we’ll get the skytrain (inter-terminal connection).
After arrival in Singapore, Telstra kept sending me messages acknowledging that I was overseas, but seemed unable to take my money to pay for a roaming pack. No matter – Changi Airport has free Wi-Fi. (And it turned out I didn’t really need to pay for additional roaming. More about that in a later post.)
We sat around waiting, watching many uniformed staff going to/from the gates. For the most part at Changi, each gate has its own security screening.
On the one hand this seems odd given we’d already passed screening in Melbourne. But I can see the logic when you’re running a major international hub, and the quality of screening may vary according to where passengers are coming from, due to the size and capabilities of the originating airports.
One other cool thing I noticed in the airport: this vending machine selling model Singapore buses and MTR trains. Yes, I was tempted.
SQ0312: dep Singapore 23:55 (UTC+8), arr London Gatwick 06:25 (UTC+1) = scheduled 13 hours 30 mins
On this second leg I finally cracked and used the plane toilet a couple of times. First one in the middle seemed relatively spacious. Went back, got a side toilet. Just as cramped as I remember.
Apart from one more episode of The Pitt, I managed to get some sleep.
That said, the best sleep had been on the first flight when I didn’t really intend it, and on the second before the evening food arrived. After that, it was there, but fitful.
We flew on through the night. Phase one of the holiday had begun.
4 replies on “The 36 hour long day”
Why on earth didn’t you get an e-sim? Or did you?
I recently spent a month in Denmark, Germany and the UK. I got an e-sim from Simify (an Australian company) 30 day validity/30gb data for just $22. It’s data only, but also had roaming with Amaysim activated with my usual SIM. The combination worked flawlessly my entire trip and I even got spotted my laptop to it, because it was always faster than wifi.
The Amaysim roaming was just $20.
@Andrew P, I did get an e-Sim, but it was for Europe only, so I’ll write about that in the next post.
That is the model camera I bought in 2019. It now sits unused. It is excellent for long distance photos, but otherwise, I think my phone does a better job. The camera is also quite heavy, too heavy for a pocket.