Trip to Singapore

At last!!  My visa has been granted and we need to leave the country to collect it, and the arrival stamp required for the next step in the process....which means a trip to Singapore. :)

Since company policy is to provide business class only for flights longer than 4 hours, we're back to the real world of economy...boo!  This will also be our first experience of the national airline!

The first observation is that we're not allowed to simply check-in!  No, we must first go visit the guy putting plastic ties around each suitcase - are they admitting they handle the bags so badly that they're liable to burst open without the strap? hmm.

The second attempt to check-in goes smoothly.

So what's the plane like?  Well, the seats are uncomfortable in a similar fashion to those of Virgin Australia.  However, they seem to be narrower (my shoulders seemed to overhang the seat and I'm hardly a 'big' build) and are very much closer together.  The seat in front is close enough to make reading a magazine difficult because the size of the average magazine is greater that the distance between your belly and the seat in front.  And if the person in front reclines, you're forced to lick the back of the headrest!

Then there's the food.  We both took the tuna quiche option thinking 'how wrong can you go with tuna?'.   Well......
Mine *looked* ok actually - a cubic lump of  eggy stuff with bits of tuna in it.  Shell's, however, had been steamed in its container and as a result of the condensation, kinda melted a bit - it looked like lumpy vomit!  Complete with the requisite chunks of carrot!
Perhaps 'tuna' quiche was a bit of a mis-representation.  The 'hints' of tuna could not compensate for unappetising taste of the 'quiche' - I think we each had maybe 2 or 3 forks worth before we gave up and accepted we would land hungry.

So not the best start to the trip, and certainly not a high rating recommendation for the national airline.  Maybe things will improve when we land.....

Or not.

Immigration is quick and painless and we go to collect the suitcase.  After we grabbed our case, we're interrupted by an lady offical asking to see our baggage tag.  OK, no problem - I guess this is to ensure you collected the right case....except she took the tag, said thanks, and disappeared.  She didn't seem to compare the tag to the one attached to the case at all...odd.

We next decided to stop off for a coffee.  Being Singapore, we can expect fast efficient service right?

No.

There were at least five waiting staff in the airport cafe, and maybe two other tables of customers - call it eight individual customers, MAX.
We waited for about 30 minutes!  Unbelievable!  Whilst we're waiting I took a shot of the three staff hanging around doing absolutely nothing:

To add insult to injury, when the coffee arrived, it was crap.  Especially disappointing considering their napkins: