Beijing, China (GMT +8) to Singapore (GMT +8)

Inflight over China (GMT +8)

We just took off from Beijing International airport 30mins ago, 30mins later than expected, at 0915. Late departure primarily due to number of flights wanting to take off at the same time.

Terminal E, Beijing International

I'm on a Singapore Airlines B777-200, Flight #803. Not sure exactly which model but it has quite a few more rows than the Continental version I flew over in from the US. I was in the last row, 45, on that flight. This plane has about 57 rows. We're currently at 10,363m (~32,000'), heading basically south towards Singapore at 866km/hr. Total time to Singapore from Beijing on this flight: 5+45.

My ride to Singapore - B777-200, Gate E11

I wanted to get my thoughts and impressions of my experiences so far this day in writing.

Awoke at ~4am this morning. Mostly 'cause I didn't want to oversleep and miss my 6am car to the airport. Powered up the work laptop and caught up on the day's e-mail from the US. Noticed I'd received a nice Veteran's Day voicemail from my buddy, Big Dog, and queued him up along with another handful of calls I wanted to make on this Friday. I still had a little packing to do, not much, but some.

I've finally figured out how to use this Corporate AT&T calling card. :-)  Called AMEX in the States first - they are on Austin, TX, time - to ask a few questions about my flight to Singapore and booking flights in general while I'm in theatre. My flight today was booked under my US traveling name, ThomasS Lansdale, and I was concerned about the fact that that name did not exactly match my passport name: Thomas Steven Lansdale. AMEX said I'd probably be alright - I was :-) - and that my passport name should have been pulled up in the system based on my profile which specifically calls out my full name so, odd that it did not. Next, I asked AMEX about travel in theatre and whether I should book my own flights. They highly recommended I continue to use their services - which I will happily do so - during their normal working hours, 9am-6pm EDT. They obviously support after hours/emergency calls but, we pay an extra fee for that... god forbid I use that extravagance on this ~3month adventure! :-0  I'll be doing some jumping around from my home base in Singapore around Malaysia these next 3 weeks before I jet back to the States for Key West.

Called Rosie next just to hear her voice and say hi. She was in the middle of another busy day but, was going out to meet her friend Kaye Thursday evening for dinner. Encouraged her to have fun and be safe. With daylight savings time now in the US, I'm now +13hrs ahead. Called my Dad in Mississippi to thank him for his service to our country while in the Navy on this Veteran's Day and tell him how proud I am of him... unfortunately, I only got my folks' answering machine and could only leave him a voicemail.

Finally, I called 'Big Dog' on his cell. He picked up, we exchanged some quick greetings and I let him go. He was in a conference room with a bunch of folks staring at him talking to me on his cell. :-) We'll catch up later.

Side note: Yesterday, I exchanged e-mails with my friend Chuck, former Army communications officer and fellow Prudential colleague, about Veteran's Day. He was just leaving a company sponsored Veteran's event in NYC and we reminisced about how we, two guys, were the ones that started the whole recognition program for Vets at the Prudential when I was with that company. I also IM'd another dear friend, my Stepford wife, Roxanne just to say hi and to find out how she was doing - just fine and so was her immediate family, Al and Nick. Roxanne is still with Pru but had moved from HR to a Sales/Marketing roll with the company. Al's still working with IBM and Nick was looking at colleges/universities.

By 0530 I was dressed, packed and down in the lobby checking out. I'd ordered livery service to the airport for 0600. While I was waiting, I strolled over to the adjacent Kerry Centre Office building to see if Starbucks was open, it was not, and walked back to the lobby. As I got back, the driver and concierge were loading my bags into a BMW for the ride, it was 0540. At this hour of the morning with only very light traffic, got to the airport in 25mins and stepped out of the car at 0605. The driver had called ahead and a young man was there to help me with my bags to Singapore Airlines check in... nice touch.

Walked into the terminal... and like Shanghai, Beijing's new terminal is HUUUUGE! The main terminal is under this gigantic puffy looking dome and it's sprawling - impressive.

Timeout, Inflight Break: Our brunch is being served 1hr into the flight. The Stewardess's, as they are called on this airline, have passed out small pamphlets that describe the meal we will be served (I'll take one if I can). They are very fast doling out the meals which consisted of:
- Your choice of chicken or Chinese for main course, I choose the chicken with potatoes, carrots and snow peas in a tasty brown sauce,
- Sides included a shrimp salad, wedge of cheese with some Chinese crackers, a roll with butter and a sealed cup of spring water,
- metal utensils, paper napkin and salt/pepper,
- drinks are complimentary and I had coffee (my first of the day) and red wine... was very good. I would have taken pictures of the layout of the over sized tray but, the camera's in the overhead. Freckles is my only witness.
- dessert was a Nestle all chocolate drumstick.
As I type this they're coming around for second offerings of drinks. I'll go back to water and coffee.  Outstanding inflight service! I'm impressed.

Back to the blog....

Got to the check-in counter - they have a line specifically for internet check-in, which I did the day before - and queued up behind an Asian family of 5 and a baby, made 6, with what seemed like bags that went on forever! I may have gotten to the airport quickly but, I felt like I needed the cushion for events such as these. :-) As my wait continued, the BusinessFirst lane cleared and I was invited there to check in.

Loaded my 2 bags onto the conveyor/weight machine and immediately hit a problem... turns out that for an economy traveler on Singapore Airlines, your checked free luggage allowance is only 20kgs - that's like 1 big bag in the US - I was at 37kgs for 2. Seemed reasonable to me. A supervisor was called over who could speak better English to tell me that I would have to pay an excessive luggage weight fee for the 17kgs I was over. I enlightened him to the fact that I was a Continental OnePass SilverElite flyer as part of the Star Alliance Program and he said he could take 7kgs off the 17kgs overage down to 10kgs. Well, that 10kgs would still cost me 800rmb ($125US)!! Wow, that's alot. Not much I could do, so I whipped out my AMEX card only to be told that I had to take this bill to the Singapore Counter located near the D32 check-in counter to pay?? OK, that's really different. I was at the E check-in counters. Wasn't too far away and headed over. There was 1 young lady behind the counter.  I said nee-how and passed over my documents and AMEX card. 5mins later I was walking back to the E counters with my proof of payment. They took a copy, gave me my boarding pass for Terminal E, Gate 11E, Seat 41H aisle, and off I went to look for the train to Terminal E.

Before taking the escalator down to the train, you pass through light security that just looks to make sure you have a boarding pass - no problem. Walked to the escalator and stepped on behind a couple that was obviously American and took up a conversation with them. They were nice, from San Francisco and on their way home after a week in Beijing. They'd been here several times before and made my first journey through this new terminal less daunting for me. Didn't get their names but found out that both the husband and wife had been training, ground and flight school, future Chinese civil aviators for a number of years now and made a good living doing it. Once every 6 months or so, they came to China for meetings and headed back to the States where the primary instruction was delivered in how to fly. Very cool. :-)

Anyway got onto a train that takes everyone on a relatively long ride to Terminal E. Speaks to how big and sprawling this new terminal is.  We debarked at Terminal E and everyone hurries to the customs line. I followed my anonymous American friends and queued up. As I'm reading the Simon boards, they say 'Please have your boarding pass, passport and, departure documents available'... Departure documents! I couldn't remember if I had kept that piece of the 2 part document you have to fill out prior to landing in China, from 2 weeks ago - the other half was an arrival document.  Dug into my blue folder and, there it was... phew, I was relieved. Not sure why I was sweating it? Pretty sure they have a procedure for Westerners who have lost/misplaced/thrown away that little stub of a piece of paper.

Eventually get to the customs agent and he stamps the heck out of your boarding documents and passport and you pass through. Walk about 50 paces to another light security checker who, once again, stamps the heck out of your boarding pass and you pass through to security... finally. Once there you only have to take out your laptop(s) and pass the rest through, no undressing. I walked through with my wallet on me, Freckles in a pocket, an apple in the other pocket and I was done. :-) Much easier here to get through security. Of course, I don't want to think about what you may go through if things go poorly for whatever reason here in China! :-)

Just hangin' at the Pizza Hut

Terminal E is also quite large and decorated throughout the terminal with distinctively Chinese artifacts, some of which I took photos of, and a lot of fairly upscale looking shopping venues. I bought nothing mostly because I'm already lugging about as much as I can comfortably do with. I did go into a Pizza Hut and ordered some breakfast about 1hr before we departed. You wouldn't find Pizza Hut open for breakfast in the US :-). You could order 1 of 2 selections; one for 30rmb and, the other for 35rmb. I ordered the 35rmb and got some scrambled eggs with way undercooked bacon and wheat toast that wasn't toasted and a large glass of OJ. Drank the OJ, had a slice of wheat bread, rustled up some salt/pepper to put on my eggs and ate those.

While sitting in Pizza Hut, I asked a woman sitting at another table to take a photo of me. She didn't speak English, appeared to be from somewhere in Europe and obliged me with a couple of photos. Very kind of her to indulge me.

Strolled over to Gate 11E. Boarding began at about 0815. I couldn't make out everything that was said about boarding but, people just started queueing up at either the BusinessFirst(BF) line or Economy line. Singapore Airlines never called out seating row numbers. You just get in one of the lines and march in after they take your boarding pass. First time I've experienced boarding like this... worked out fine.

Freckles hanging with me on Singapore Flt#803

Side note:  This B777-200 is, now that I think about what I've blogged so far, set-up in 2 Class configuration: BusinessFirst and Economy. The economy section seats 3x3x3 all the way back. Didn't notice how the BF area was set up and, can accommodate up to 323 passengers. We're not completely packed today, which is nice. Singapore Airlines was the first airline to adopt and buy the Airbus A380, the mega-plane. They were the first commercial airline to fly this truly jumbo plane. Overall, Singapore flys the following aircraft and has 109 in their fleet with an average age of 6yrs old as of November 1, 2010:
- A380-800:  11 aircraft, 8 on order
- A340-500:  5 aircraft
- A330-300:  19 aircraft
- B747-400:  8 aircraft
- B777-300:  31 aircraft
- B777-200:  35 aircraft

The row I'm in 41 on the right side of the jet and directly over the wing, has an open seat between me and the guy in the window seat - thank goodness. He sounds western as in US but, I'm not sure. He's coughing quite a bit and tends not to cover his mouth... hope I don't catch something!

OK, it's 1135, we have ~3+30 to go, doing 796km/hr still at 10,363m and, we're approaching overflight of Hong Kong from the north. Time for me to shut down and pick up at the Fairmont Hotel in Singapore.

More later....

Singapore(GMT +8)
1730, Fairmont Hotel downtown

It's later, same day... uneventful flight and landed at Changi International airport right at 1515. Everything moved quite quickly. Picked up my luggage, took out $250 Singapore with my Continental MC, jumped in a taxi at 1600 and got to the hotel about 20mins later -  payed about $25Singapura for the ride, threw in a tip to $30SG.

Part of iconic skyline of Singapore from my taxi

Just wanted to mention that on the flight down we actually flew over Vietnam! Never thought I'd actually use Vietnam in a sentence about me... passed Da Nang, the base my father helped build, to the East on our way past Cambodia and landed coming from the west into Changi over a bay packed full of ginormous tankers, freighters and container ships. Pretty cool. Temp went from very cold in Beijing to 31 degrees Celsius here in Singapore (~88 degrees Fahrenheit).

My room - sitting area + TV

My room - King bed

My room - table dresser

My room - working desk

I'm feeling a bit beat even though we're on the same time zone. I'm in a complimentary upgrade room due to the way my rooms got booked - I came a day early and had 2 rates on file. Up on the 15th floor, room 1503 and what a view! Awesome! I'm staying in this evening, will do some room service and spend the better part of tomorrow, Saturday, hoofing around the city and just sightseeing. I'll do a bit of that on Sunday but, I really need to get ready for Monday here.

View looking down from my southern facing balcony

Latest addition to Singapore's downtown skyline

Freckles on the balcony enjoying the 88 degree heat

Done for this long day.