Selamat Datang!

Things rather happen in a funny way sometimes....

We had tried visiting Singapore in 2010 but could not make it due to unforeseen developments. But earlier this year, Neeti joined a course which required her to visit Singapore for a week.

I too decided to join her. Since we had time, I meticulously planned everything out... from hotel and airline bookings to places of interest that I would end up visiting alone while Neeti's course is on... And yes, who the hell can forget food...

So last Friday, Neeti left for Singapore and I was alone - no one to fight with, no one to argue with, but that space gave me time to put finishing touches to my plan....

And then the D-Day dawned. I was well equipped to take on Singapore la!
Umbrella, extra camera batteries, power bank, iPad, green tea bags - all went into my bag and after a rather hearty khichdi which Mom made, I headed for Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport, Mumbai. Now you may well think what the hell I was doing with khichdi - well, you may take the liberty of calling it the lull before the gastronomical storm!

This was my first visit to the new terminal and I was quite impressed. The Terminal was decked up in colours of the national flag and it looked magnificent. The interiors were also lavish and rich. Check-in, security and immigration were smooth. I headed to the Clipper Lounge - courtesy my Priority Pass card. Despite the wonderful structure that the T2 is, somehow I felt little attention had been to the lounge. It was plain, simple sad....

In some time, I was bored, so I headed out to the gate. I was traveling on Singapore Airlines' Airbus A380 registered as 9V-SKA. There she was - docked at Gate 70 - she looked majestic, but I can't get to love her, adore her as much as the Boeing 747-400. The A380 lacks the sex-appeal that the 747 has...

Now the 9V-SKA was the first A380 to come into the commercial service and the 3rd A380 to be built... For me this was my maiden flight on a A380 and flying on 9V-SKA made it a bit more special and I was looking forward to it... And the icing on the cake - I was on the upper deck - it couldn't have gotten better than that!

On the flight, I was armed with my "inflight entertainment" - Straits Times, International New York Times, my favourite numbers on the IFE - Kenny Rogers, Adele, Dolly Parton and Yanni and the flight map on... My iPad was loaded with the latest issues of the Economist as a back-up...

Straits Times gave an excellent insight into how Singapore was celebrating its 49th National Day, and it was obvious that Lee Hsien Loong is quite a people's prime minister... And there was a nice article on how optimistic Singapore was on the Tata-SIA joint venture airline, Vistara.

The Straits Times also carried article on Ms. Kuik Shiao-Yin, a social entrepreneur who had been appointed to the parliament of Singapore. I first read about her when reading on eating joints in Singapore - I came across an interesting find - a restaurant called Food For Thought in the Botanic Gardens, which I hope to visit during my trip here. It does make a difference when people like Kuik find their way to the legislature

Meal service started. In came my special meal - seafood meal - large fillets of fish, pan-fried, with crunchy broccoli, mushrooms and potato medallions on the side, alongwith cold pesto pasta salad. A delectable blueberry mousse was for dessert. After enjoying every morsel, I asked for two cups of warm green tea - the tea was exquisite and flavourful, probably the best, the most refreshing green tea I ever had....

I slept for a bit and then we were woken up - we just crossed Kuala Lumpur, we were overflying the Straits of Malacca - a region soaked in history - a history of migrations, of piracy, of the spice trade and much much more....

In some time we were on finals into Changi - the sky was overcast and there was woefully little to see out of the window... Landing was smooth. But I found Changi's T2 a bit too crowded and sweaty - I must say T3 at Delhi and our T2 at Mumbai are a tad better in that sense... That made me happy - at least here India scored over what's considered the best in the world...

Immigration was smooth - the immigration officer, an ethnic Malay, only had one question - "How do I pronounce your name?"

After collecting my bags, buying an MRT pass and hooking on SingTel network with a local SIM, I took a cab into the city, towards my hotel at Bellestier Road. Near Tampines, we encountered "slow" traffic at about 60 kmph, and my cabbie an ethnic Chinese was agitated on driving into a "traffic jam". I was amused - I thought to myself "Mumbai aakey dekh, beta, kaisi watt lagti hai!"

I covered 17 kilometers in 20 minutes to reach my hotel. At the lobby I was told I would get my room only at 2PM - it was 10AM then. After a great deal of pleading, Ivan at the front desk agreed for checkin at 12PM.

This is Singapore, I thought to myself - super efficient but super inflexible... That's how Singapore welcomed me with Selamat Detang!