Singapore--Day 1

Instrument of torture for 14 hours

Sapphire Princess

 Remember all the times your kids have asked “Are we there yet?” That was me on the airplane. What a miserable time: the plane left at 12:05 AM (that's five minutes past midnight) from San Francisco. Since I had been up on Tuesday the 6^th all day, then caught the airport bus for a 2 ½ hour trip to SFO, then waited to check in, by the time I got on the plane I had already been up and going for 17 hours. Tanis had it even worse than me, as she had to fly to SFO from Bellingham WA.

Tanis and I ate chicken udon at the airport, so I was not hungry, but Singapore served a meal at 1:30 in the morning. I totally skipped this, as I was covered with a blanket and trying to sleep. Trying is the operative word, as “sleep on a plane” is an oxymoron. Miserable and could not get comfortable, and the seats only reclined about two inches, really. My head kept falling forward and that would wake me up. Unending flight where I had to suppress the desire to scream. Nighttime to whole way too, until Hong Kong, 14 hours later. After about and hour or so in Hong Kong it was back on the same plane and off to Singapore.

We had to take all of our stuff off the plane and walk to a security check so we could get back on the plane. Reminded me of the trip to Croatia and Poland with Surani and Patrick in Frankfort Airport. Interesting that we passed through a checkpoint from one place to another were our temperatures were remotely taken. Really on the look out for bird flu, swine flu and Ebola in Hong Kong. Toilets in the airport are pristine...cleanest toilet I have even seen.

Queue

Back on the plane for another four hours to Singapore. We are at 36 hours now without proper sleep. I was extremely happy to see a man with a card in Singapore with our names on it. This was the transfer to the ship that we paid for, and it was worth every penny, as he took our luggage, put us in the private car, and drove us to the port.

Safety drill

Checking in for the ship was somewhat painful, as there were long queues. It was also hot and humid...81 degrees and about 100% humidity. We finally got on the ship about 3 PM and discovered that we had been upgraded from a room with an obstructed view to a room six levels up with a balcony. Wow, what an upgrade. By now we were at 39 hours, so we laid down just to stretch our backs, and thus fell asleep, missed the sailing, and woke when were were already at sea.

Bed made every day, pj's folded :-)

Our luggage finally showed up after the safety drill, we went to dinner, came back and went straight to bed, not to sleep well, because our internal clocks are so screwed up, but at least to lay flat!