Short hair Francis

Uh oh! Have we actually met before


I actually had to recheck my photos and apparently my KA J HKG-PEK in Apr and this HKG-SIN both had cold cuts for starters. I'm not usually on a lot of CX short-haul to know myself unfortunately

Thank you very much, you guys and gals encouragment gives me the most motivation in right the best TR possible

SHF in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

mkjr

not likely....although who knows with growing up in YVR and living now in YYZ and spending too much time in markham... doubt it though.

United747

Very Amazing TR can't wait for the rest.

Delta747

Short hair Francis

All flights finally flown, now only if I get time to sit down to work on the pics

Short hair Francis

Part 9 – Grand Hyatt Singapore


Arrive into Singapore, a speedy immigration process and I was at the baggage claim. Less than a 5 min wait, the bags were coming out in which business and first class priority bags came out together. I guess CX doesn’t separate the two for short haul flights. I decided to deposit checked bags at SIN as I was planning to use subway for this part of trip. Now why I would do this, well since BNE, SYD, HNL and all SFO will all require taxis for between airport and hotel. I decided to cut some corners elsewhere which happen to SIN because subways are cheap here.

Due to the amount of waiting time and initial figuring out how to use the ticketing machine, combined with other delays, it took us close to an hour to get to Orchard and Scotts where the Grand Hyatt was.

Grand Hyatt Singapore




Grand Deluxe Room





Check-in was speedy and we’re shown to the rear elevator to the original, Park Twin Room. As my parents found the room to be way too small, we ended up paying additional money to get to the Grand Deluxe room in the front tower. This again took additional time along with some speedy research that was required; We didn’t ended up leaving the hotel until 6pm. We headed to Chinatown where we found a small shop offering Chinese fish soup/noodles which was adequate. Along with some small showers, we ended up staying a short time at Chinatown before me and my mom headed to the ION Richard while my dad returned to the room to get some rest.

ION Richard


Chinatown



After some time for shopping, I bid good-bye to go see Ivan who is a friend from High School who has recently moved to Singapore for a term of school. He took me to one of the taller building on Orchard to get a good view of Singapore. We also got to talk about some memories from high school and as well as other things; one of which was travel, which was why do you fly so much? During high school it was road trips around the Pacific Northwest with my rents, now they are flying. Well old habits don’t change sometimes After a drink I eventually bid good bye to my friend as I had another flight the night after, the A380 and I need some rest and extra time to plan my next day.

A night outlook of Singapore which was taken by Ivan
[img] “http://i.imgur.com/HTk74.jpg”[/img]

In the morning, we first headed to Raffles Place through the MRT to go to Merlion Park. Surprisingly my mom led me there since my parents were in SIN last Nov while my last visit was 14 yrs ago. This was well as the opportunity to ride the Airbus 380, allowed me to force in an night in SIN. Rats! There is bike race in Singapore so 1/2 of downtown was basically under lockdown. This complicates things was attractions that usually take 5 mins to get to are now more like 15-20 mins.

Merlion Park



Singapore Flyer Wheel with the youth Olympic flame


Marina Bay Sands


Cavenagh Bridge


Raffle’s Statue


Part 9 Continues below

Short hair Francis

The only request by my parents was that while we’re in Singapore was that we visit the Marine Bay Sands since that was not open the last time they were here. Unfortunately due to our little problem stated above, it took 45 mins via a taxi to get to it. And after going into the site, we found the hotel, and the casino was completed while the mall itself is not even remotely done. I know its weird us as Asian doesn’t gamble, heck my friends don’t believe me and they see me all the time, but we had no interest in the casino. So this had me very annoyed as it took up alot of time on our stay for this detour. Soon afterwards, we needed some rest so we back to the ION Richards for some Starbucks then hotel for our carry-on to the airport.

Singapore Changi International Airport



The subway back to the airport was mightly speedier as we know the procedure and it ended up taking 40 mins. My parents also requested me to change our flight between Melbourne and Brisbane to one hour earlier so I took care of that. Unfortunately, that took close to 45 mins to do which is not bad to get a ticket reissue in such a short time. After a short immigration clearance, my luck for int’l First lounge continues as I got my parents again into the Qantas/BA First lounge.

Singapore Qantas/British Airways First Class Lounge











The lounge was bigger than I thought, had a reasonable amount of food from small appetizer to salad, to some light hot snacks which was nice. I also had a use of the shower which my parents declined. They don’t quite use those facilities which I don’t know why but whatever. With about 1hr 45 min before departure, we made our way back to the concourse in which my parents went for some shopping while I lounge-hop to the CX Skyview Lounge. The lady standing outside the counter wasn’t sure if Qantas were part of Oneworld . The lady in red quickly corrected her. Well no doubt, unless I was lounge hopping for pics, I wouldn’t have bother as the QF/BA shared lounge was a better quality than CX lounge. The CX lounge were like other CX Business Class lounge like ones I experienced before in PVG, PEK, NRT and KUL.

Singapore Cathay Pacific Skyview Lounge





With about an hour to go, I left and made my way to gate C23 for my Airbus 380 flight.

Next Part
Part 10 – The Big Bird, Qantas Business Class SIN-MEL onboard the Airbus 380

Short hair Francis

I'm sorry for such a huge delay in posting the remaining parts of the TR. It's been a very busy start to fall term of University unfortunately and upcoming travel schedule remains kinda of heavy as well

SFO777

Francis, thanks for the great pics of Singapore as we'll be there on Tuesday. One of the things on my list as well was the Marina Sands. Sounds like you didn't get to the roof top deck. Was that accessible and available to visit?

El_Chiflero

Singapore looks awesome. I love my tropical weather and it looks like Singapore combines the weather with my love of huge urban Sprawls. Great report Francis!

Short hair Francis

That was accessible but with the overcast weather and 15-20 USD per person fee, we had no reason to go for it. My friend Ivan did take a photo which I couldn't upload, try copy & paste that pic and take a look. I personally liked where he took me up to one of the shopping malls on Orchard Road for that great night viewpoint. The best part about that it's free

Glad you liked it! Now I need to upload more pics

vecta

Great report.
Looking forward to your experience with the QF380 and associated travels within .au

sobore

I like that fountain at Merlion Park! ^ A bit too big for the yard though.

Short hair Francis

Part 10 – The Big Bird, Qantas Business Class SIN-MEL onboard the Airbus 380

Aug 21, 2010 – Saturday
QF 10 SIN-MEL 7:45pm – 4:50am (388/J)

I made my way into the SIN gate security, the passport checker enquired if I know 2 person which has the same last name as me. Hmm, I told them my parents to not rush as I was going in earlier because I wanted to get some pics done.

Qantas Airbus 380-800





Qantas Airways 10
Singapore – Melbourne
7:45pm – 4:50am, 7 hr 5 min flight
Business Class, Seat 12B>12E
Food – Dinner, Continental Breakfast
Equipment – Airbus 380-800


For anyone calling gate lice an issue in the US, the boarding for QF 10 was certainly very problematic. A long line-up started as the wheelchairs were taken to the plane. I immediately got into the line and even passed 5 people on the jetway Yay! I got my 380 J cabin shot, well the front one anyway. I found the J seat to be of a very good design, I ended up taking 12E while my parents had 12A and 12B. I also fiddled with the seats for a short amount of time while on the ground.

Qantas Airways Airbus 380-800 Business Class Cabin


Qantas 388 Business Class Seat




Our section leader, Ian came to offer a PDB immediately as well as offer some basic 380 info, the flight crew noted that travel during this time of the year is a bit more bumpy and also offer a checklist for the continental breakfast that will be served later. After some tarmac delays between push back and take-off. The climb and turning off the seatbelt sign was relatively quick, quicker than most of my recent flights anyway. Haha, apparently it wasn’t just me that needed the lavatory as around half the front J cabin got up to right after the sign was turn off.

Qantas Airbus 380-800 Entertainment System


I also tested the entertainment system and it was really good, not CX good but a very slight notch below. Do note that this depends in terms of personal preferences. I rarely watch movie but I still note if the airline are offering fresh newer movie or ones that are made in the 70’s. Other than that, I also noted the functionality of the system. The only letdown for me was that the system was unavailable to pick out individual songs from the radio side to put into the playlist. The album music side was very good although they had an older, 1-2 yr old songs in the system while Cathay seems to put in new albums at a way faster rate. That being said, for my type of music which is a mix of pop, rock and R&B. I still generated a very good playlist.

Service was started relatively quickly as the crew came and offered pajamas and amenity kit after takeoff and then other service began.

QF 10 Dinner

Appetizer
Green Leaf Salad with Asparagus and Feta Cheese
Bread Basket

Main Course
Herb Crusted Sea Bass with Slow Cooked Fennel and Sauteed Spinach

Big bowl of Chicken, Coconut, Lemongrass Broth

Beef Rendang with Fragrant Rice and Malay Style

Dessert
Selection of Seasonal Cheese and Dried Fruit

Chocolate Date Cake with Creme Anglaise

Sliced Fresh Fruit

Paton’s Macadamia Chocolates

Salad


Main Course


Fruit and Cheese Cart


After the service was finished, I started to work on the other parts of the trip report which I was slightly behind on working on. I also got a chance to get a pic of the stairs between first and business class cabin as well as the plane lounge for premium passengers. I didn’t noticed anyone using the lounge which is a bit harder for a short long-haul flight. I also replaced the battery since my previous ones were out of juice for my Bose but unfortunately I threw out the wrong battery which forced me to use the Qantas headsets which was all right.

QF 10 Refreshment
Fresh Whole Fruit
Luken & May Biscuits
Chocolate Bars

Front Stairs connecting First and Business Class


Business Class Mini-Bar


Qantas Airbus 380-800 First/Business Lounge


Ian later on to take me around for see the rest of the Airbus 380 except for first class. I didn’t take any photos as we’re midflight and despite being a higher cabin, I didn’t think it would be appropriate bug other guests on the plane. He showed me premium economy which was a reasonable small cabin but was also the nosiest. We used the rear stairs to go down to economy where despite a very good recline; I found the seats incredibly tight. On the big plane, it seems the economy plane would never end Back to upstairs, we’re 30 mins away from breakfast so I got nice little nap.

QF 10 Continental Breakfast

Choice of drink
Orange Juice, Apple Juice, Mango Energiser Drink

Choice of Baked Goods
Toast, Croissant, Banana and Pecan Muffin

Choice of Jam
Strawberry Jam, Honey, Vegemite, Orange Marmalade

Choice of Fruit
Fruit Salad or Fruit Salad with Honey Yogurt

Toasted Muesli
With Full Cream or Low Fat Milk

Beverage of your Choice
Bodum or Decaffeinated Coffee
English Breakfast, Jasmine Green, Chamomile or Peppermint Tea
Free Cream or Low Fat Milk
Sugar or Low Calorie Sweetener
Hot Chocolate

Or an Express Breakfast
Warm Banana and Pecan Muffin with choice of hot beverage

Breakfast was of the continental variety with a choice sheet that passenger fill on departure.


Tray Service Continental Breakfast


With only bread and yogurt for this short little breakfast without consuming refreshments en-route, of course I had second dibs And after breakfast, I went back to a little nap and soon the plane began its descent into Melbourne Tullamarine Airport. Australian immigration was speedy with little questioning with the officer say “have a fun time at the Gold Coast”.

Next Part
Part 11 – The Big Mistake in the trip

Short hair Francis

Part 11 – My big mistake in the trip


After passing through Australian quarantine, we were at the MEL arrival hall and in need for some heavier clothing. Going back up to departure level, someone thought it was funny to turn off the long ramp escalators and with no elevator insight, we had to push our luggage up the escalator
The rechecking of bags was also quick but I found security to be rather awkward as the Aussie required computers out, plastic baggies but didn’t need shoes off, jackets off, or even a boarding pass/id check. Hmm, I’ve never seen security like this!!!

Melbourne Qantas Club/Business Class Lounge







The QF Business Class dedicated lounge was alright with some hot and cold food, complimentary internet and a shower resembling a shower from high school. Due to the shorten connection time, we soon made our way to the gate for our flight.

Aug 22, 2010 – Sunday
QF 604 MEL-BNE 7:05am – 9:05am (763/J)

Qantas Airways Boeing 767-300




Qantas Airways 604
Melbourne – Brisbane
7:05am – 9:15am
Business Class, Seat 4B
Food – Breakfast
Equipment – Boeing 767-300 (Domestic)

Qantas Airways Boeing 767-300 Domestic Business Cabin



Qantas 763 Domestic Business Seat



I made my way onto the plane, settled into the seats. I originally had QF 608 which was to be flown by a 738, but since I noticed it got changed to a 734 in SIN. I went with this flight instead. Since I noticed an power outlet on the J seat, I decide to get my computer charger for the flight.

I originally named this section “My big Mistake in the trip” because my mom wanted to go to the Great Barrier Reef. What I didn’t realize was that the Reef was in Cairns, not Brisbane, stupid rookie mistake on my part. However when I went to get my computer charger, it wasn’t there!!! Now I already left/got stolen my camera on a flight earlier in the year, my parents were certainly not impressed. Now how did predicted my own fatal error??? Since I was so stress about it among other things, I slept the whole flight from take-off to descent, so sorry no details for this flight.

Out to baggage claim, I also checked my checked luggage since we did transfer some items in MEL, no help, got a number from the baggage office in BNE which was a direct line to the lost baggage office in MEL. Hmm, only open from Mon 9:30am – 2:30pm, geez! Defeated, made our way to the Hertz counter for a rental car, a Mercedes C200 for the drive to Gold Coast and after 45 mins, we’re at the resort, Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove.

Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove



Club Twin Room



HR Sanctuary Cove Regency Club



Pool Area



The resort itself was a little old but we found this as a nice retreat from the hectic partying of Surfer’s Paradise. The room itself had a small issue in which the bathroom door couldn’t lock, but housekeeping was able to fix it for us After some rest and some swimming, we made our way to Surfer’s Paradise for some pics of the beachside. On the way back, my dad unfortunately forgot to yield to a person crossing the street and the person hit our car! Damn Aussie, it’s one thing to forgot to yield to pedestrians but do you really have to hit someone’s car? Man, has Australia been very unwelcoming so far in terms of luck, I say yes.

Surfer’s Paradise




We made our way back to the resort, got the bell desk to drive us out to the village for dinner then retreated back to the room for some much needed rest.

The morning breakfast was reasonably good and with rain, we had to call for another golf cart to drive us out to the car. And we soon headed back to Brisbane.

Next Part
Part 12 – A short hop on Qantas Business BNE-SYD

Short hair Francis

Update

As said in the my other co-written TR with jfkeze and El Chiflero, my hard-drive had recently crashed along with an unexpected heavy travel schedule from late Sep - Mid Oct have horribly derailed the speed in which I wanted to complete this TR, so I'm sorry for this delay.

hopefully someone is still reading this