0 
leaving on a jet plane
This was probably the first time we’ve flown on the dreamliner of your youth, a 747. Someone generous (Tom) sprung for first class. Our seats are along the first, second, third are fourth windows from the tip of the nose.
[travelers note: from time to time we’ll includes tidbits of information we’d have liked to have known or have learned along the way. Here’s the first one.
When booking UA mileage plus miles check the entire chart of availability. In some cases business or first class seats are available for less than the class below. Also, we booked our flight fairly last minute and had no problem with finding availability.
If you’re planning travel to the places we’ve been, just send any questions and we’ll answer as best we can.]
We were surprised to see that having booked window seats, we wouldn’t be flying side-by-side. No idle chit-chat for us then. The pods were pretty luxe and private, with fully reclining seats that became beds with linens, big pillows and duvets. There were plugs for just about everything including USB and an electrical outlet capable of at least 24W output (for laptops).
The food was predictably meh, but there was a lot of it. This was just the first part of the meal. After this came some sushi and tempura and at the end was a scoop of the worst vanilla ice cream.
Breakfast was altogether a better meal. Tom was happy with the potato and spinach frittata.
Still crossing the Pacific is a long and arduous trip, even in such exalted seats. Crossing over to Tokyo took 11 hours and then down to Singapore was another 6. We certainly were glad of the humor in the spotless Changi airport:
It took about 26 hours from the time we left our house to arriving at our hotel, the Naumi Liora in Singapore. Built into a row of Chinese shophouses, the hotel has small, but very comfortable rooms. We were thankful for a real bed without jet noise our first night abroad.
[travelers note: we normally do most of our hotel booking on Agoda, which we’ve found to have great rates on unique smaller hotels. We’ve noticed that Tripadvisor now has an excellent rate comparison tools. The taxi (MRT was closed when we came in) cost about SD$30/US$21.]
Here we go
wandering about in Chinatown (part 1)
