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"First flight since St. Petersburg"
When I went to the airport around 1 PM, Matt joined me. My plane left around 8 PM, his the next morning. He was spending the night at the airport, just like I was intending to do the day before. When we arrived we went to the information desk to collect out free Wi-Fi passwords. It amazed us that there was only one information counter in every terminal. The buildings were huge, and you had to go to the center of the ground floor to find the information counter. Our next need turned out to be even more difficult to fill. We were both low on battery, but needed to do work on our computers, and started the search for some power outlets. It turned out that Starbucks was the only place where travelers could find electricity, except some charging station where you could leave your cell phone or computer in a locker with chargers. This is just one of the slightly obscure services they provide at the Changi Airport. My airline had an early check-in counter, so I could pass on through the security and go to the waiting areas on the inside to find electricity. Matt's airline did not have an early check-in, and he could not get through without his boarding card. This meant that he had to spend all night in the check-in area, with almost no outlets, and not much to do. On the inside there was a lot of outlets, more options when it came to foods and even an entertainment floor. They have hotels in the airport that offer rates by the hours, and if you stay at the hotel, you can use the swimming pool for free. Outside of the hotel and spa entrances they have a lot of free entertainment for all passengers. This includes a movie theatre, music booths where you can choose among many CDs, computers with Internet, and even a LAN gaming room. Some Asian kids were playing FIFA 2008. All of this was free, and I tested it all, but what was the best about this airport was that they have free massage chairs all over the place.
I had some really good food at the airport, and as I was eating a mushroom stroganoff soup, a camera crew from Norwegian TV2 walked by. I could tell since they carried a microphone with the logo on it. They were in Singapore to follow the Norwegian minister of commerce, Trond Giske on some event in Singapore. They were flying to Kuala Lumpur, and a couple days later I realized that they must have been there to film the Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon Magnus and his wife when they had audience with the Malay royal family.
When I was getting on the plane to Sydney I met some interesting people. However, what I remember the most from the flight from Singapore to Sydney was the cabin crew. The flight was connecting in KL, but both flights were Malaysia Airways. The cabin crew were all very good looking, with very stiff posture and perfect hair. The men did not have one hair out of place, and the women had the hair so tight tied up in some kind of a bundle that no hairpins were showing. It looked like they had an alien head where all the hair just disappeared into a hole at the top. The women were all wearing really high heals too, and despite their young age, that must have been exhausting to wear on long flights.
I was seated at the emergency exit, and I did not even have to ask for it. They ground staff saw my height, and wanted to be nice, I believed. Then it turned out I got the seat in the plane with the least legroom. How all of this happened was that my seat was situated right behind the casing for the emergency raft. The large plane was fully booked, so there was nowhere else to sit. Later on, however, I realized that the seat was a very good one. I could use the box and the window to rest my legs. This allowed me to almost lie down when I reclined the seat, and the overnight flight was about to be a good sleep. I know that if this had happened on a flight out of Norway, I would have been upset by the little legroom, but I have become very accepting of inconveniences after traveling for as long on a low budget as I have done by now. I saw the seat, sat down, and after a few minutes I got comfortable with my legs elevated.
Asia accounts for about 60 % of the world's population, and the middle class is growing very fast. Air travel has not yet caught on to the Asian masses, both because of habits of traveling by train, and the fact that most of the people are vey poor. Now though, as the middle class is growing, and the Asian economies are expecting boosts from the increasingly shift of power form the west to the east, I assume the demand for tickets will take off, to use a full on cliché. I have heard that both in China and India, they have ordered so many airplanes that the large manufacturers as Boeing and Airbus are having problems with serving them enough airplanes. Over the passed six years, Air Asia, a low-cost airline operated out of Malaysia has been pumping cheap tickets out to the Asian population. Now they are offering flights to Europe and the Americas as well. I believe there will be more stories like this one in the years to come, and if I were rich, that would be something to get in on. I have a couple worries about the whole industry however. Even if airplanes are being built, people are flying more and low-cost airlines will pop up everywhere, the airports are not being built fast enough, and I am pretty sure that not every low-cost airline will keep as good of a accident record as RyanAir. The question of how fast the industry can grow should also be limited by environmental concerns, but somehow, I don't think that is going to happen. Maybe fuel costs will alter the industry a little, but in the end I believe that Asia will spread their wings and fly.
One funny thing I have realized when flying, is that no matter what airline, from what country I departure, and from what vineyard the wine they serve on airplanes comes from, it all tastes the same. Airplane wine never goes with the food they serve, and it is always someone on the plane who spills a glass of the red wine.
I arrived in Sydney in the morning, local time. Australia is four hours ahead of Thailand, but no matter how I look at it I cannot believe that there are that many hours separating them. Time zones are confusing. Going through customs they took my fresh ginger, but I expected them too, and luckily they did not take anything else that I had hidden in the backpack. I found an ATM and got some Australian Dollars out. As I put the money away I dropped a $50 bill, and walked off. Ten seconds later a man came running after me, telling me that I dropped the money, and he gave it back. I am so glad there are nice people out there. This hospitality was just a warning of what was to come. I got on the train to Central, looking down on the famous Opera House from the famous Harbor Bridge, changed trains and headed out half an hour north to Roseville, where Jiby, the guy I met in Ha Long Bay lives.
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