Saturday, November 1, 2008

Passage to Singapore

1 day prior to boarding the flight, I fell sick. At night I had stomach cramps, with a gassy-kind of feeling. The previous day, I had invited some friends over to home for a dosa-party. After having such a wonderful time it seemed aweful to feel sick. Throught the day, I had a sleepy-head and a general feeling of fatigue. The doc prescribed some dygine and other medication for a gassy stomach. But the fatigued feeling was strange: I had never felt this way before.

However, we managed to finish packing by midnight. I was feeling much better on the morning of the flight, but mom and dad were apprehensive about me flying. They wanted to postpone my departure to at least Monday morning, fearing I had contracted Jaundice. But since I insisted, they agreed to take the chance, and off I went.

Drive to the Mumbai Intnl airport was smooth with very easy traffic. The lady at the immigration counter seemed to be a bit on the slow side: she was clearing me off with the wrong papers. I showed her my appointment letter from NUS instead of the Employment pass approval letter from the ministry of manpower. I realized this and volunteered to the proper letter. She even asked me if I’ve got a “CDC”. A “CDC” is a license required of Seamen!

S’pore airlines was repeatedly paging for “Mr. Quay Fletcher”. It went “This is a paging request for Mr. Quay Fletcher. Please report to our ground staff at Terminal 6”. A couple of announcements later, they managed to corrupt it to “This is a paging request for Mr. Great Pleasure. Please report to our ground staff at Terminal 6”.

The in-flight entertainment was jerky. They had a good number of interesting movies I had been meaning to watch, but each one that I tried got stuck in the middle. I managed to catch a few glimpses of Mama Mia, but decided to listen to some music instead. The food on board was average, bearing much resemblance to Indian Airlines except for the drinks. They were serving a couple of fruit juices along with Chardonnay and beer. A gujju-looking fellow was repeatedly asking for Chardonnay refills. He managed to get three before being told off by the staff. He was also repeatedly gesticulating to his family seated on the adjacent columns by pointing his fingers towards his mouth in a to-and-fro motion (presumably for food), immediately after take-off.

Upon arrival at Changi airport, I took my time to explore: its often voted as the world’s best airport. They had free internet terminals, huge shopping areas, a butterfly garden, noise-free areas to sleep, visitor information booths, “skytrains” connecting the three terminals, lots of restaurants… The whole place was a gigantic and glittering glass and steel structure, made lively and beautiful by pieces of gardens and art.

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