flights & fiction . . .

Days 0 – 1

Our intense travel day began bright and early at home in the UK, with last minute packing and tidying of bedrooms. It felt weird for me to say goodbye to my bedroom for 3.5 months – I can’t even begin to imagine how strange it must have been for Frances as she said a more permanent goodbye.

This journey has been many years in the making for my sister and I, and it will culminate in many a tear at the airport in Sydney come July, where I head homewards while Frances stays Down Under to start her next adventure.

That is some time away, thankfully. Ahead of us lies 108 days of backpacking across South East Asia and Australia together, and it all started on Tuesday morning.

After a long goodbye to the dog, we set off to the airport with The Parents; we got there in plenty of time (thank god for quiet motorways and how close Heathrow is situated to us!), so grabbed a quick breakfast before saying goodbye to Mum and Dad at the security gates. Though tears were shed on both parts, there was a genuine thrill of excitement (and anxiety on my behalf) about what was to come. For once, Frances had a speedy run through security, and we had time for a few drinks at Spoons before boarding the first flight, destination: Doha Airport.

This flight was actually so nice – we were blessed with aisle seats with no one either sides of us at all, so plenty of space to stretch out and enjoy. With Sunrise on the Reaping duly loaded onto our Kindles, and Frances’ trusty book of Sudokus in hand, neither of us bothered with the in-flight entertainment (no regrets) nor did we sleep (slight regrets). Food? Delicious. Drinks? Provided and consumed. Hotel? Not Trivago.

Before too long (6 hours), we had landed in Doha Airport. There was slight confusion on our part as to whether our big bags were being taken automatically onto our next flight without our intervention but after brief reassurance from a gentleman (who did in fact work for Qatar Airways thankfully), we did not have to face going through immigration and instead went straight into the departures section.

I considered using the word ‘lounge’ to describe this area, but that simply does not even begin to convey the size of Doha Airport. There were 5 different regions of this airport (and of course, our gate was the furthest away). There were more designer stores here than Bond Street in London, and a number of slightly disturbing massive art displays dotted around the place. We caught the internal train (!!!) from section A to section C and alighted there – not quite realising it was Section C and not Section E like we needed.

In retrospect, we were glad of this little faux pas as otherwise we would have missed the star of the show: a literal rainforest WITHIN the airport. Complete with a cute raised walkway through the trees, there was a huge area of rainforest plants and trees, paths that weaved all around, and so many people tucked into carpeted sections having a pleasant nap.

It was so much fun in Section C. By our gate, however, there was less foliage to bewilder us, and we settled down to thug out 3 hours on no sleep nearby. I think this is where slight delirium set in, but we survived enough to board the second flight of the journey, destination: Singapore.

Here, it became apparent the delirium was in full force. Everything we said to each other was simply the funniest thing we’d ever heard, and I’m sure the other sleepy passengers were not impressed with our giggles, though they were certainly suppressed as much as possible. The lady sat next to Frances caused us great enjoyment as we side-watched her films alongside her (a weirdly varied change from Venom: The Last Dance, to the Super Mario Bros Movie, to The Croods: A New Age…). I was personally welcomed by name to the flight by an attendant – never had that princess treatment before, greatly enjoyed! Less enjoyed but still hysteria-inducing was the pleasant gentleman in front of Frances who decided to recline his chair the literal moment he sat down, including during take off (!). We dubbed him our Lovely German Friend, on account that he was German, and was not Lovely nor our Friend.

Still, eventually, sleep overcame us in short bursts which was greatly needed. I was unfortunately woken at one point by Lovely German Friend’s wife stepping on my toes, but apart from that, we did sleep enough on the 7 hour flight.

Finally, we had arrived in Singapore – the furthest South East of the globe either of us had ever travelled to before.

A very efficient and speedy border control meant that within only a few minutes of debarking from the plane, we were stood in front of baggage control and desperately praying our kind informant in Qatar was indeed correct and our bags would appear. After an intense, over-heating, and exhausted wait, you can imagine our joy at seeing our two backpacks appear on the belt, meaning we were now free to leave the airport and explore Singapore for the first time.

Armed with Singaporean dollars and the beauty that is Grab downloaded, we got a taxi to our hostel.

Our first impressions of Singapore was just how green the city was. Everywhere we looked on the drive, there was greenery, purposeful and well-maintained.

Even in the city centre, there are large areas of plants and trees which are also accompanied by constant anti-mosquito spray, ensuring it is very rare to be bitten while in Singapore (a fact we learnt from a lovely Grab driver later that day!).

The hostel, Dream Lodge @ Farrer Park, we chose for its good reviews and relatively cheap price – Singapore accommodation is very expensive, and so we opted for paying £23 a night per person, in a decent location, with an 8.9 rating on Hostelworld. It is a nice hostel, clean and well-maintained, but not particularly social in either the rooms or the common area downstairs. Still, we had the capsule beds next to each other and lots of room to store our bags in the lockers.

After a shower, a nap, and general refresh, we were ready to see the sights!

I may have told Frances a little white lie – that we were only 20/30 minutes away from the marina, where we were heading to seeing the light show at the Garden on the Bay. So we set off on foot into the city centre.

Some 45 minutes later, as Google Maps led us on a twisted route towards our destination, Frances eventually expressed concern at just where I was navigating us and – though I was following the most direct route! – promptly took over navigation for the rest of our time here in Singapore. We did finally arrive at the Marina Bay in time to see the lovely light show at the Garden by the Bay.

From our vantage point, we had a wonderful view across the park of the huge sculptures all lit up against the night’s sky and had great fun people watching as well. The entire place was absolutely buzzing with tourists and locals alike – runners, cyclists, even rollerbladers made their way through the park and along the riverside. It really was amazing to take it all in. We both agreed that, despite clearly being a capitalist strength with towering highrise offices all around, there was definitely something whimsical about Singapore – and we both very much enjoy finding the whimsy in life!

Keen to grab food and a drink before we returned to the hostel, we went to a place aptly named Makansutra Gluttons Bay – Makansutra means “eating lessons” and “Gluttons” was us at the options of dumplings on offer! With many fried Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) and gyoza-esque dumplings acquired, plus drinks, for less than £13 we truly had an affordable yet delicious feast for our first night in Singapore.

To save our weary legs not used to travelling (yet!) we booked ourselves a Grab home and were treated to a wonderful guide in our driver (thank you Tony!) who talked us through the different customs and rules in Singapore, as well as life here in the city, and left us with one piece of strict advice to follow: do not go to the casino here.

Assuring him we would absolutely not go to the casinos (neither in our own plans to do so, nor our budget’s allowance!), we returned to Dream Lodge and luckily did not have to fight jetlag for too long before we quite literally passed out, ready for our many plans the next day.