Flying Home

Monday was the longest “day” I’ve ever seen. I got up around 6am (Singapore time, 3pm Sunday in Calgary). I got the final things packed, said my goodbyes to Andrew and hopped a cab to the Changi Airport. The airport, rated best in the world, is large, open, and looks great.

They are even up on pop-culture; all of their Christmas displays were based on Angry Birds.

The airport offers free movies and free city tours for those with layovers. Also all of the check in staff are airport employees (not individual airline employees) so you get good quality service no matter which airline you are flying. Again I was back on the A380 on the upper deck, in the same seat as the way out.

You know that a lot of people fly through Singapore, when there were four Singapore Airlines’ A380s (including mine), and a Quantas one there. There are only 78 currently in service. The nice thing about having a window seat on the upper deck is that you get an  extra cubby hold up against the window.

The food on Singapore air is incredible. Not only do you get a choice of a Japanese meal or International fare, but the quality is excellent. This was the Japanese lunch.

And they even served ice cream for dessert. We got to Tokyo just before sunset at 5pm Tokyo time (4pm in Singapore, 1am Monday in Calgary).

I had an 90 minute layover there as they refueled and changed crews. I bolted through security and motored through the terminal to see what shops were there (I was way more awake than when stopping through on the way out).

I swung past McDonald’s, but had no idea what I would be buying and there was a very long lineup.

There was a great little shop that had some awesome origami displays there.

I bought a couple small things there. My change was in Yen, so I found a vending machine that was selling ice cream and tried to get the most obscure thing I could see. I bought something that was blue with black spots on it, later finding out it was mint chocolate-chip.

 

There it was back on the flight leaving just before 7pm and headed off to LA. The flight lasts about 10 hours, and we got in a bit early at 11am (still on Monday, thanks to the International Date Line).

It was raining pretty good in LA when we landed. It was a tight turn around to clear customs, get baggage, walk two terminals over, and get checked in at the Air Canada counter, but I made it work.

   

The little Embraer E90 felt so tiny compared to the A380 I was on. I finally landed in Calgary at just after 6pm, finishing up 24 hours of flights and layovers and a very long day.