Wednesday, November 26, 2008

En Route: 19+ Hours from SFO to Singapore

Ravi and I boarded quite smoothly at SFO for our midnight flight to Singapore. Most flights to India from SFO depart late in the night so there were few lines. At the departure gate the most striking feature was the large number of elderly Indians seated in wheelchairs, lined up to board the plane before all other passengers. After 10 or so wheelchair bound elderly passengers boarded, another pattern emerged; 15-20 families with young children (several babies would subsequently find seats next to me and cry the whole flight) lined up for pre-boarding. It was quite a contrast to the typical New York or LA domestic flights to which I'm more accustomed.

Traveling Economy Class on Singapore Air is not bad at all. In fact Travel & Leisure, among other publications consistently rank Singapore Air as a top International Carrier. TV screens behind every seat, with audio/video/gaming options have been standard ever since my earlier memory of flying Singapore as a young boy. The quality of food is good and there are great snacks and cocktails available at any time. I'm thinking of living largely as a vegetarian on this trip, so I kicked off our in flight meals with the tasty "Indian Vegetarian" option. I got about 5 hours of sleep, otherwise I mostly read thru my India and SE Asia Lonely Planet guides.

After a 1.5 hour layover in Hong Kong we continued on to Singapore. Ravi and I each sipped our own refreshing  "Singapore Sling", the only cocktail either of us consumed on the whole 19 hour journey. The last, and perhaps most important point to note with Singapore Air's service is that essentially all the hostesses are demure, extremely polite, and beautiful, and they all wear a traditional one piece Singaporean dress. Also essential to my sanity on what was a very pleasant 19 hour flight (can't stress the duration enough, folks) was the awesome selection of in flight entertainment including such titles as Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Wall-E, Entourage, so forth and so on.

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