From Rome to Singapore!
And the joy of Singapore Airlines
We flew from Rome to Singapore in the middle of December 2023.
I’m not gonna lie: Part of the reason we went to Singapore (instead of straight to Malaysia) was because I wanted to fly Singapore Airlines. We were able to go direct from Rome to Singapore and that was super appealing so that we didn’t have to deal with a layover somewhere. I even splurged for the economy plus seats so we’d have extra legroom. It wasn’t a cheap flight, but if we were going to be on a plane for 12 hours, I was determined not to feel like a complete sardine.
Well. Singapore Airlines is next level. I’ve never flown Emirates, Japan Airlines, or the other handful of top global air carriers, but for now I can hands down say that Singapore Air is my favorite global airline. Whereas discount air carriers nickel and dime you and make you feel like a second-class citizen, Singapore Airlines is the opposite. You practically feel like royalty even in economy. Okay, royalty is stretching it, but it’s a much nicer experience.
My favorite attention to detail was the cup holders. I mean, so simple and yet genius. That way you don’t have to have your whole tray table down to hold a cup of water. I mean, why can’t all airlines offer this?! The selection of music, shows, and movies was excellent. The seats were comfortable. And can we talk about the food? It was actually good! There were two choices for dinner and breakfast, both hot, with various components.
The ride was smooth (pockets of turbulence aside); it was a pretty big plane.
We flew over parts of the world I had never been anywhere near before, which was amazing. We all dozed some, but as usual I didn’t get any quality sleep. And then we arrived at the crack of dawn Singapore time! Truly, it was about 5:40 am local time and who knows what hour of the night in Rome. We actually weren’t supposed to have been able to land before 6:00am (maybe due to noise ordinances?) but they cleared us early.
I knew the Singapore airport was renowned; I’d seen all sorts of photos. And I had every intention of exploring it, but we felt like zombies and no one (except me) was up for any kind of airport adventure. The most I got out of everyone was a walk through the butterfly area, but that lasted just a few minutes. Sigh.
So we moved onto immigration. Fortunately, it was ridiculously seamless and easy; everything was automated, with biometrics and all. It was cool and creepy at the same time.
And then we had to figure out how to kill about 9 hours of time because we couldn’t check into our hotel room until afternoon. Sometimes I’ll book a hotel room starting the night before so that we can check in immediately if we arrive on an early morning flight, but prices in Singapore are $$$, so I couldn’t justify the cost. We started with coffee because that was a necessity. I was starting to get that floaty, out-of-body experience that comes with extreme sleep deprivation. Unfortunately, the only coffee seemingly available was the local kind, which is made with condensed milk. It wasn’t my preference, but it wasn’t a time to be choosy.
We sat there at a table with our brains functioning at half speed (and that’s being generous). I worked out that I should contact the hotel to see if we could drop our luggage off, which would free us up to wander. But I didn’t know how to contact the hotel other than through the Booking.com app and who knew when the response would come? Perhaps in several hours, which wasn’t terribly useful. (We later learned to work these things out prior to our arrival, but at this point we were still figuring out ways to make travel work for us.) We could take a chance and just show up and ask, but if the answer was no, then we’d be stuck. So I needed to call.
Sounds easy, right? Yeah, about that. We have US numbers and hadn’t figured out how to use eSIMs yet. Well, no time like the sleep-deprived present. We installed Airalo and purchased data, which we then activated. Only that’s when we learned that eSIMS are data only; there’s no phone number attached to them, so you can’t make a local call. You can if you use WhatsApp and the place you’re trying to call is on WhatsApp, but guess what? That was not an option for our current situation.
So we had eSIMs and local data, but still no way to contact the hotel and we were losing brain cells by the minute. It finally dawned on me (get it, “dawn,” LOL) to find an information desk. Took me two tries to find it, but I did and voila, they were willing to connect me via their phone to the hotel. And the hotel said that we could not only drop our bags by, but also that one of our rooms could be made available early at no additional charge and that we were welcome to use the pool, too.
It felt like winning the travel lottery, LOL. Off I went to share the good news with the family. Now we just had to get an Uber and go to the hotel. Of course, if you’ve ever flown anywhere and then tried to find the ride share area, you know it’s not always the most straightforward journey, but we figured it out, several of us whining the whole way. Ahem.
The car pulled up and I realized, for the first time, that they drive on the other side of the road in Singapore! 🤯🤯🤯 No, this had never crossed my mind before. No, I hadn’t consciously (or at least recently) thought about Singapore having been a British colony and, even if I had, I wouldn’t have connected the dots that this meant they drive on the left-hand side of the road. And so, guess what? This was my first time riding in the front seat on the left-hand side as a passenger! (We hadn’t been to the UK at this point.) It. Was. Wild. Like trying to write with your non-dominant hand. And then the driver pulled away and I was sitting on the other side and we were driving on the other side and everything felt like Opposite Day, LOL! It was the most surreal, trippy experience, for sure amplified by my sleep deprivation.
But also? This is one of the many reasons why travel is so amazing. It gives you these visceral experiences that create lasting memories.