Slept well but woke up around 6 with a bit of a headache, Song said she’s got a cold. Not a good start. Pottered around a bit and read the news then down to breakfast which was included. Everyone else in the hotel had decided to get breakfast at the same time and there were no tables so we had to wander around till we found someone leaving, managing to barge over an elderly couple who also saw it.
When I’m at home I have a slice of toast for breakfast, but when on holiday I usually go all in. Especially when the magic words “breakfast is included” are heard.
Unfortunately there wasn’t much I liked the look of; mainly Asian stuff like congee, noodles and curry (for breakfast??). So I ended up having just toast. And some pastries. And some fruit. And an orange juice. And some waffles. I usually avoid the hotel coffee, but I tried theirs and it was ok. Not Melbourne ok but not as bad as a lot of the hotels I’ve tried. There was a Starbucks next door so thought I could go there if desperate.
Suitably stuffed, decided to go for a walk and brave the humidity. It wasn’t too bad at first, we walked down Joo Chiat Road, a heritage area. There were some nice old colonial buildings, as well as an unusual amount of pet places – pet hotels, grooming shops, pet spas and other pet stores. Weird.
The sun came out and it started to get hot and sticky so we went to the shopping centre next door to the hotel to cool down.
The flight wasn’t until 14:00 so had plenty of time.
Got a taxi to the airport at about 11:00, took about 15 minutes, through passport control quickly again and then had a little wander before going to the lounge since we’re going business class, where I had a gin and tonic which is what I always have to signify I’m on holiday. I also had a tuna sandwich and 3 goyoza. There was lots of food on offer but I had a decent breakfast plus we’d be given lunch shortly after takeoff so thought I’d show a modicum of restraint. I even resisted the ice cream.
Song decided to go for a walk and didn’t come back till the plane was boarding so we had to rush to the gate, plus Changi airport has security at the gate so we had to go through that, then finally on the plane, settled in for the 13.5 hour flight. Lunch was served a couple of hours after takeoff, we had a seared tuna loin to start, we both had Barramundi that we’d pre ordered and I had a glass of merlot. I had vanilla ice cream and fruit for dessert and Song had crème brûlée. I don’t want to bang on about it, but when you’ve flown business you don’t want to go back to economy.
Managed a bit of sleep before getting woken up for dinner – not sure why it was served now, we still had 6 hours before we landed. Prawn salad to start, we’d pre ordered lobster and there was sticky date pudding for dessert. I also had a gin and tonic for good measure.
Watched some tv I’d downloaded – Drive to Survive mainly, and read a bit.
Paris airport was pretty quiet, travelling midweek doesn’t seem to be popular. Got an Uber to the hotel, he followed the directions on the app and it took us down some dodgy looking roads but we got there in about 30 minutes. They gave us a bigger room than we booked, lots of room with a king sized bed.Didn’t sleep much on the plane on purpose so we’d adjust to local time, went to sleep.
Tomorrow is wandering around Paris.