From East to West

Today is the last day we will be in Asia. Our 13 hour flight to London leaves at 9am. After spending the previous evening packing and configuring our six bags (!), our pre-arranged driver was ready to take us to the airport. The drive from Orchard Road to Changi International is about 20 minutes with no traffic, and at 6am there is none.

Singapore Airlines has just opened a new terminal at the airport, with its own First class facility. Not really like the Lufthansa private terminal, but more a private check-in and immigration area which opens up into the main terminal area. As our Mercedes pulled up on the red carpet, six handlers’ bum rushed the car taking our luggage, welcoming us and escorting us to the check-in lounge. If you are anything but relaxed, or feel less than a VIP super star, they will have failed their job. After being seated in a plush chair or couch, just hand over your passports and they do the rest with no questions.

Singapore’s airport, like Orchard Road is filled with only duty free shops of the highest caliber. Everyone leaving Singapore, no matter how long the flight, is leaving the country. No Duane Reade’s, CVS, or junk shops here. Unless you are looking for fine chocolates, a Hermes scarf or Mont Blanc pen tax free, keep moving. For us this meant moving to the Silver Kris First Class Lounge.

The new lounge, opened less than a year ago, is much like the Lufthansa Private Terminal in design. There is a dining area, (since we arrived for a morning flight, a chef was preparing omelets) with the usual fare we had become accustomed to, fine cheeses, smoked salmon, Asian breakfast items etc., many different lounge areas and showers. The one thing I did notice is that electrical sockets are located sparsely throughout the lounge, a misstep indeed. After a delicious breakfast and some blogging our flight was ready for boarding, and we headed to our gate for the security check.

The security check here is done at the individual gate and is thorough. The security checker kept stopping and rummaging through bags to find even the smallest violation. Every country we had flown into or out of on our entire trip accepted our carry on luggage and all its items, not Singapore. A small manicure set scissors with maybe a 1 inch head was considered in violation. Instead of the usual options, A: Go back and check it, or B: dump it, we were escorted to a table for option C: the offending item was cataloged and tagged where it was waiting for us on arrival at our destination. Oh so civilized. Boarding was called quickly and we were on our way down our private First Class jet bridge for 13 hours of the usual pampering.

Our flight to London Heathrow had 8 out of 12 seats occupied, and since this would be the last time in who knows when, I treated myself to 6 hours of Dom living and caviar wishes before getting some much needed sleep! 13 hours passed by quickly (it will do that if the meal services and snacking take up more than 4 hours) and we made our way to an on time arrival in London on a sunny crisp fall day.

Upon arrival into London, we were allowed access to the FastTrack lane for immigration and by the time we arrived at the baggage carousel our bags were waiting for us. Hotels close to the airport property have some kind of agreement with the airport authority, so instead of individual airport shuttles, there is a pay service called the Hoppa which drops off at all the surrounding area hotels. The Renaissance, which looks outdated from the outside, has a great view of the runway for any plane enthusiasts like me, but we opted to stay at the Sheraton making our Starwood Hotel stays 4 for 4 on this trip. The Sheraton has been nicely renovated and probably had the most comfortable beds and showers we had experienced on our trip. Our arrival at 3:30 was nicely timed for a brief evening jaunt into the city. The airport is not close to the city. Your best option is the London Underground, at around $15 for a day pass it takes about 45 minutes to get into central London.

Since Mom hadn’t been to London in many years, we decided to make a stop at Harrods to take in the scenes and see what items they had available at the Arcade. For those who have never been to Harrods, it’s a cross between every luxury store imaginable combined with the Macys on 34th street in New York, combined with designs and architecture from a museum. Even the food for sale is fashionable. It is a destination in and of itself when visiting London. Not finding any deals on anything we actually wanted, we moved on to Piccadilly Circus and hung around with the hip West End crowd on this brisk Wednesday evening. Making sure to leave plenty of time to get back to the hotel and a decent nights sleep, we made our way back to the tube and prepared for our final day traveling in First Class style, and our arrival back to the U.S.