FLYING HOME

My trip to Moscow was short and sweet. It was time to go home. Journey from the Hotel Metropol to the airport took an hour, even though the traffic was quite clear.


The weather was about 5 deg.


The airport security screening started at the main entrance. They do not let you enter the airport without first getting all your bags screened and walking through a metal detector. I understand this was needed to enhance security. This airport had suffered from major incidents before.

As I had been seated in the car for a rather long time, I needed the toilet. The toilets were easy to find, following the large signs. However, the toilet was down a rather long flight of stairs, and pax had to lug their luggage down and back up. Not very user-friendly, in my opinion.

Anyway, the airport was rather crowded. Finding the SQ check-in counter wasn't too difficult. There was a short line for Business Class check in but no line at the First Class counter. So the check-in staff ushered me over to the First class counter to check in.


Check in was smooth. I got my boarding pass, which looked like this. Notice, they printed that I was invited to the International Business Lounge. On top of that, they would give you a voucher for the lounge. You need the voucher and boarding pass to get into the lounge, which I will show you later.


Once check-in was done, I headed straight to the restricted area. You had to look carefully to go to the area that your flight was departing from, in my case, it was the A gates. Business class passengers were ushered to a separate security section, which was labelled for diplomats and APEC. But I think most of us were travelling in Business or First. Queues were short and I got through security quite quickly, to my relief.

Finding the business lounge was easy. I got in without any problems. The lounge was quite spacious. I spent a bit of time there, clearing some work, and taking a light lunch before the flight. I tried the red wine, which was pretty good.


The lounge had just one shower, but I wasn't planning to shower today. It also had a kids' area as well as a business center, both of which nobody used. Most pax were just seated, eating, drinking, working.. basically doing their own thing.

Food selection was ok, I guess, for a lounge in Europe. This is what I got to eat.


The views from the window was not bad and I spent quite a bit of time plane watching! Here is a shot of the Singapore Airlines plane that would bring me home. She had just arrived from Houston.


This green coloured S7 plane was about to depart.


Here are videos of the plane watching I did from the lounge. This was El Al, Israeli Airline, pushing back from the gate. This would be the same gate that the Singapore Airlines plane would use. In fact, in this video, you can see the SQ Boeing 777-300ER already waiting at the tarmac, for this plane to depart.

And now the Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER jet taxis in, led by an airport car. I am thinking of home, as the soundtrack would tell you.

In this video, the Azerbaijan Airlines plane had just arrived. No aero-bridge for this plane. Passengers disembarked from front and rear doors, to a waiting airport bus. I have never been to Azerbaijan, though I have heard that Baku is a beautiful place.

Finally, here is the review video I made of the Moscow Domodevodo International Business Lounge. Check out the video to see how the lounge looks like and the food on offer.

Next, my flight home.

The lounge made announcements for passengers to board their respective flights. I found the announcements useful. Once the announcement was made for my flight, I picked up my bags and headed to the gate. I noticed that other pax were doing the same. By this time, the lounge was more crowded.


By the time I got to the gate, the plane was already boarding. But I wasn't late, by any means. For my video flight review, I broke it into two parts as follows.

Part 1 - boarding, taxi and take-off.

Part 2 - meal service (lunch and breakfast before landing) and landing into Singapore Changi

Now for some pictures. Boarding was quick and easy, and I got my seat in a jiffy. Looking at the menu as if I understood Russian.


The cabin crew came around to offer drinks and I opted for the champagne. A little bubbly to celebrate a successful trip and the fact that I was going home.


An Emirates airlines Boeing 777-300ER pulled into the gate next to us, just as we were pushing back.


I usually choose the Singapore Sling for my drink after take-off, but this time round I felt like having a gin and tonic, which I did. Here was my gin and tonic, served with warm nuts. Delicious.
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Lunch was served. This was the first course, Smoked salmon, some salad. I am not a big fan of smoked salmon, so I ate the salad.


For my main, I ended up having some chicken with penne pasta. It wasn't too bad. Note that Book the Cook was not available for flights out of Moscow so I couldn't use this service.


Dessert was a very nice slice of opera cake. I chose this over the ice-cream.


And some cheese to finish.


I think the Business Class cabin was 100% full. Not sure about Economy. After lunch, it was time to get some sleep. The total flight time was 9 hours and 50 minutes. I probably got about 4-5 hours of sleep, which wasn't too bad. I automatically woke up before breakfast was served, though I noticed some pax looked pretty tired and they were really fast asleep, even throughout breakfast.

For my hot breakfast item, I chose the beef brisket noodles. Tasted like what I would get in Hong Kong.


Service was smooth and efficient and soon it was time to prepare for landing. The plane was early. From my window, I could see the glittering lights of Singapore. Awesome. Tiny Singapore.


Landing was smooth. I made another video of the landing, this time putting in a National Day SG50 song. Yeah, Go Singapore!