Singapore

Location: Singapore
Distance travelled – 11.408 km/7,089 miles

Singapore is hot. I mean, really hot. I mean, think of getting into a car that's been sitting in the sun all afternoon. Then combine it was the humidity of a steam room and you're beginning to get there. This, is a hot place.

But lots of places are cold because they're air conditioned so you alternate between being too cold and too hot. I wonder if you'd ever get used to the heat. One thing's sure, I won't in only 3 days. Spending most of your life in Scotland is not good preparation for Singapore. I consider it hot when it gets above about 20ºC (or about 70ºF in old money).

Anyway, here are two photos of an A380, which is a truly huge aircraft. It doesn't look all that big because of the proportions. It's longer than a 747, but because it's so much fatter you don't see it as much.

The first pic is of the aircraft at Heathrow:

And the second is in Singapore:


If you look closely you can see that the aircraft is named after "Hudson Fysh" who was one of the founders of Qantas. Never let it be said that you didn't learn anything here.

After we landed, one of the stewardesses gave me a quick tour of the upper deck. It's not quite as wide as the lower level, but it houses premium economy and business class as well as the business lounge. Premium economy is like normal economy but the seats are a little bigger and they're a little further apart. The service is better as well - more like business class.

Business class itself reminded me of the pods that the people lived in in the film "The Matrix". They had low walls round them and could fold flat into a bed. You get a lounge as well in business, but the real place to be is first class. They describe them as "suites" which is a little generous but I can see what they're getting at. There are two seats per suite with a dining table in between. One of the seats is the normal (well, normal for first class) airline seat and the other is for "guests". I don't know how you get to be a guest but if I'm ever invited, I'll be there! Then when the passenger is ready to sleep the seat not only folds flat, but there's a mattress with fitted sheets for the bed as well. That said, the cheapest first class fare for London to Singapore is around £2250 which is quite a bit more than I'm paying to go all round the world. You get what you pay for, I suppose.

One of the air-conditioned spaces I mentioned before is the MRT (the metro network). This is the airport metro station. Have you ever seen a metro station that looked like this?