travelling with the doctor

A few weeks ago Dr Malc & I went back to the Philippines to spend some time with family and friends, and also to attend Joelle & Marc's wedding.

Dr Malc had some last minute changes to his schedule and had to take a different flight route, so I left for Manila by myself. As per usual, I arrived 2 hours early at the airport, queued, and finished check-in procedures after 1 hour. I then joined the hoard of passengers at the pre-departure lobby waiting for our slightly delayed flight.

I was travelling via Singapore on Singair's new A380, which offered a bit more comfort than most others airlines's economy class. I had a 3-hour lay-over in Changi airport spent checking out the duty-free stores while waiting for the pre-departure area to open.

The entire journey was uneventful, a lot of waiting around and getting stuck at the back of the plane.

* * *

Malc & I caught the same flight on the way home, and travelling with Dr Malc was an entirely different experience

Dr Malc has one of those frequent flyer cards that lets him cut the queue so check-in in Manila was a 5 minute experience. Then, the card also allowed him to hang-out at the lounge with plush leather seats and free drinks and nibblies. Hmmmm, I could get used to this.

On the lay-over, we spend a few hours at the gargantous Singair lounge at the new Changi Terminal 3. Afer a couple of rounds of the free snack and drink bar, I had a nice shower and got ready for the overnight flight back to Sydney.

And then the piece de resistance, the A380 Business class, the seats were so wide 2 people could sit in it comfortably and, when required the stewardess (or steward) will gladly turn the seat into a fully flat bed with a nice fat pillow and thick blanket.

And on to the food, the dinner service started with salad nicoise with a generous heap of smoked salmon. I quite like smoked salmon so I took my time enjoying this fresh-flavoured dish.



Then came my "book-the-chef" order of nasi lemak- curry, egg and pickles with coconut rice. This dish was an absolute joy, the chef did not skimp on the chilli and the flavours of curry, chilli and fish paste happily mixed in my mouth.

Dessert was a Ben & Jerry's chocolate ice cream.

After dinner was cleared, I enjoyed my fully flat bed and had a comfortable and undisturbed sleep.