October 12 - Thursday
Singapore
Auckland, New Zealand
We slept in a bit. Check out time wasn't until noon and we were in that room until the last minute still trying to shave off a little more weight from our luggage. The bike boxes said they were about 17kgs that didn't leave us much at all in the way of our third bag to check.
"Aren't you allowed one carry-on bag and a purse?" - J
"Yeah." - S
The tops of our backpacks could convert to a fanny pack if you took the waist belt off and switched the straps around - so that's what we did. They were big which was good and we were so overpacking those carry on bags and now the fannypacks as well - everything was just bulging at the seams.
I strapped the worlds largest fanny pack on:
"Look, if I turn the pack around you'll see what I look like if I was nine months pregnant." - S
My shirt wouldn't even stretch over the pack.
"Can we look anymore like a tourist? This is awful." - S
Jon had swung his fannypack jauntily over his shoulder but mine was just too heavy leaving no choice but to strap it around my waist.
We had a couple hours to kill before we were picked up for the airport so we walked around the food stalls again going directly to the pancake, sugar, peanut, corn lady and getting two to carry around. Then we went to another counter and had some mushroom steamed dumplings with "ketchup"/brown sauce stuff and sweet chili sauce which were really tastey. We walked around the outdoor market across the street. There were many boothes selling saris. They were so colorful, ornate and just plain beautiful. I wanted to look at them longer and would have if the booth owners weren't going for the hard sell. Up and down the aisles. It was mid day and the heat was on - and the humidity. With about an hour before pick up we headed back to our hotel and the air conditioned lobby and read the paper, chatted and planned before our cab driver arrived.
Boy did we get an earful about living in Singapore, how expensive it is, the fines and jail times for breaking the law. The driver pointed out that the removeable plant pots dividing the highway can be taken away in case of emergency and the freeway can be used as an alternate landing strip. We also learned about the housing market and some of the differences between Malaysians and Chinese, what women look for in a potential husband, the cost of schooling for kids and on and on...
Singapore has a nice airport. We went right up to the check in counter and held our breath. First went the bike boxes which turned out to weigh ovedr 18kgs each leaving us less than 2kgs for our backpacks, hiking poles, sleeping bags and bike helmets. This was starting to look expensive as each pound over was suppose to cost an additional $25 but we had heard that if you checked in early the overage was more likely to be over looked as opposed to closer to departure when they're keeping a closer eye on total weight for the flight.
Our total came to just over 49kgs which is nine kgs over the limit but we were lucky in that we weren't charged extra. Yeah!
With a huge sigh of relief we wheeled away our bulging carry on bags. We had several hours to kill and made the usual rounds of duty free stores and gift shops, scoped out the restaurants as we would be needing dinner some time before the flight. We stopped for coffee and soy ice cream for Jon, did some people watching and stared at the security guards who, I must say have the lame-est hats we'd would know - we've seen more than our share of armed guards at major airport and train terminals! They're the same type of hat as the Canadian Mounties only they're set at this really 'jaunty' angle which makes it very difficult to take these guys seriously despite their large semi-automatic weapon held across their chest, handgun holstered at their hip and large 10-12 inch blade dagger strapped to their belt.
They had a gym in the airport which Jon checked out. Ten bucks to use with shower - we figured it was worth it and we had the time. It was closed. We decided to to a little brisk walking to help pass the time. As we walked we passed a free electronic foot massager, stopped and turned around, parked our cart, took off our shoes and fired up the machine. It was not on a timer so we could have sat there forever.
"This is cool. It kinda hurts but it also feels good." - S
"They have them for sale in the duty free store near immigration." - J
"Oh yeah? How much?" - S
"I don't know, let's go check it out." - J
We did because we had time. $644 - I would seriously consider buying this. Our feet felt really good afterwards.
Finally, it was time to board the plane to go to Sydney which would take around seven hours. We were flying Qantas and immediately was not impressed. The seats were obivously (even) closer together than other economy flights we've been on the pillows looked used which of course they are but it was like they hadn't even tried to refresh them from the last long haul flight, merely putting them in the designated preflight position in the chair. It was going to be a long flight.
No really, it was. I sat in the middle of three seats. Jon on my right and a woman our age at the window. We got buckled in and ready for take off.
The movies were nearly the same as the last few flights we'd taken in recent days and weeks. I didn't have the attention span to do much reading or writing, the bathroom smelled like pee and they ran out of the menu selection for the first meal. Air travel was really starting to get old. A little travel weary I ate my pasta which was perfectly fine and simply used another bathroom that didn't smell.
Are we there yet?
Well, kind of.
We had about a two hour layover in Sydney. Just long enough to completely wake you up but not long enough to get comfortable again or nap. It was around 0600, Aussi time, the sun was shining brightly, it was going to be a nice day.
Our plane was late in arriving and had a delayed departure because of toilet issues.
I hadn't eaten the last meal on the long haul flight. It was a lemon shortbread cookie, orange juice (I drank that) and a greasy pastry donut thing plopped onto my tray and handed over to me by the flight attendant. Jon ate a few bites. Needless to say we were really hungry by the time we got on the last leg of our journey and felt like total crap because there hadn't been a good night's sleep in our lives for several days.
Finally, finally we got to Auckland, New Zealand. I've been waiting to come back to this country since I left from my last visit three years ago! Even better was the fact that I wouldn't have to get on another plane for months! It was all I could do not to start pushing people up the aisle and out the door!
