Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
TUESDAY 14th MAY 2012
LONDON HERE WE COME!
Met Den and Sue for brekky at 9am after an average nights sleep due to an extremely hard mattress! The room at The Park is modern and well equipped, but pretty small and as is the custom in a lot of Singapore hotels the beds are way too hard!
Never mind the hotel is in a superb location, with great entertainment and eateries close by and it is a short and cheap taxi ride to all shopping and attractions.
After a delightful breakfast we decided to have a look at a couple of nearby hotels with a view to finding different accommodation for our stay on the return leg of our trip! The hard beds turned us off The Park a bit and so we walked along the river to the Swissotel Merchant Court which always gets good reviews, only to discover that you get absolutely NO discounts for a walk up approach! In fact the staff told us it was way better to book on line - sign of the times I suppose - and the rates for what is a very old hotel were ridiculous! Same went for the Novotel Clarke Quay, although that seemed newer! We did use there very nice Macs to suss out a few other hotels on Expedia and settled on the rather up market Swissotel The Stamford in Raffles Place! They had 20% off for a two night stay which made the rate very reasonable for what looked like large modern rooms! Time will tell! We decided it may have been a bit cheeky to use the computer there to book, so decided to make a booking back at The Park when we do our flight check in!
It was again pretty hot outside so we caught a taxi over to the Marina Bay Sands for a look at this amazing new complex. Taxis are one of the few things in Singapore that is cheap - the fifteen minute ride in heavy traffic cost $7 for the four of us!!! - and we were suitably impressed with the luxurious surrounds at The Sands when we arrived! We wandered through the trendy shopping malls before paying SD$20 to ride the 57 floors to the Skydeck and it's amazing views of Singapore and Marina Bay! It was a real thrill to stand on the top of this unique building after seeing it in various stages of construction over the last few years! The views were unreal - we were way higher than the huge Singapore Flyer wheel - and got some great photos! Would have loved to have been able to get into the infinity pool and garden area, but this is reserved for hotel guests only!
By this time it was after 1.30pm and as we had a 3pm checkout at the hotel, we headed back for a shower and a rest - made our hotel booking and partly checked in for our flight! I say partly because Den and Sue's boarding passes printed but ours wouldn't - some error or other!
We still had about four hours to kill before heading to the airport (late flights are ALWAYS a pain in the bum) so we taxied in to Raffles Place and sussed out the hotel we had booked and were suitably impressed! Very flash and right amongst a huge shopping mall! The Sues were very happy!
Spent a fair while there and then headed back to have a quiet drink in a nice bar across from The Park before getting a cab to Changi Airport, where we had a lengthy wait while Qantas found Sue and my flight ticket which had apparently disappeared into cyber space! Nice one Qantas! Luckily our seat reservations were still valid and after about twenty five minutes they issued us a paper ticket and we could proceed into the departure side of the airport!
There is nothing more boring than waiting for a flight, especially when you have to be there 3 hours before the flight departs, and so it was the same this time! Couldn't get any free wifi anywhere so couldn't pass the time computing (Why is it so hard for hotels, airports etc. to provide what is now a vital service for their customers?) and the time passed very slowly until we headed for our departure gate, finally catching up with Taz as she joined us for the London flight!
We boarded our A380 and duly got seated in our "home for the next thirteen hours", making ourselves as comfy as is possible in the very cramped conditions! After a long day we were all pretty tired and after downing the supper served we all tried to get some shut eye! I must admit to dozing/sleeping/resting for about seven hours which was bloody good and awoke feeling much refreshed and relieved that there was only three hours of the flight left! The others variously did the same or watched movies, but twelve hours fifty minutes is a bloody long time to sit and we were all VERY relieved when the hosties served brekky and London was in sight!
Can't wait to sample Premium Economy on the way home - the extra legroom etc will be greatly appreciated!
We duly arrived at Heathrow on time and we are all very excited to be in England!
- comments