Days 26-28. 11-13Oct. Grand Prix and travel to Australia
Up and another shower! And to Brekky. The others have commented on how disengaged the restaurant staff are and very slow to refill what is there. Think the hotel touts itself as a higher level than it is, but a couple of the front reception staff are nice.
We caught the hotel shuttle again, but a lot earlier today - not sure why imagine cruising have made their shuttle at such far out times to the track area and back, lucky for the hotel one. Although it’s 1st in 1st served basis, you can’t book a seat and the lady driver made our group all wait in the heat outside until the exact time, even though she was already sitting in the van waiting?! Anyhoo, got there and got the important bit in the heat after wandering around - the beers! 🍻 bought some for others there- freaking expensive exercise with track prices & our poor dollar value! But they were nice and cold (we later found put you could buy 6 beers for $30, further away under the bridge instead $120 for 5😳🤷♀️.)
Was a long evening on those little hard plastic seats tonight, I saw a lot of people who were western builds were actually not sitting in the seats, instead opting for the big grass area with a screen they could watch, more comfortably.
We watched the sprint race and then qualifying, there were quite long gaps between the races but also the porsche asia cup race - apparently they pay to race that race here. It was throaty sounding and exciting, as they all race together.
After that the band ‘the killers’ came out and played. They were really good, the lead singer was so drenched in sweat though! We left a little before they ended as the public transport finishes here at 12:30am, so you don’t want to be caught out in such a huge crowd trying to get out of the track, so Gray got us and Dave and Sandra out the right gate and down the escalators to the right place to get home, then the 195 bus back. The hotel is right next to Ikea, so the bright blue is easy to spot from the bus.
Day 27, 12 October final Grand Prix Day
Woke up feeling a bit busted today after sitting so many hours on those small seats last night, so took our time, had breakfast and then decided to go to the botanical gardens which had the orchid house in them. The gardens are free and it was $3sgd, if you’re over 60, into the orchid area. Very warm today so walked slowly around. They are such beautiful flowers, was surprised though that they were all mini size – no big orchids like we see at home. They had ones that they had growing with themes like 'royalty'. There was one for the Queen, Princess Diana etc. Had a good wander around and then got an uber back to the hotel - around $20sgd each way.
Mooched around and cooled back down! We went downstairs for dinner to a Japanese BBQ restaurant, where you were given a choice of very thin meats & you bbq them at the table yourselves, served with finely shredded cabbage and rice. The meat was so tender and very light. Then we caught the bus and train to the track with Sandra and Dave. We went for a wander when we got in there, It has the feeling of race day about it! Went and grabbed some beers together and just enjoyed the atmosphere – one of the group had found the cheaper beers down by the waterfront yesterday and Sandra bought us some tonight, so we sat and enjoyed them. 🙂. Wandered back to our seats – everyone turned up today so it was really crammed in. Later on once it had got to about lap 30, I actually went and lay down on the grass behind the grandstand with an awful lot of people! who also weren’t comfortable in those seats I’d say. If you were bigger you literally wouldn’t fit in them. But they have a lovely big screen so watched the race until nearly the end when Max Verstappen pulled out a win! I was lying there watching and then heard someone sat to snore – what the?! The heat has made me really sleepy which is bizarre given I’m not a good sleeper usually!
After the race we all waited for Lana Del Rey who was the closing music act. She was 1/2hr late coming out for some reason, but my goodness she has an ethereal, beautiful voice! She’s sang note perfect as well and sang two big hits of hers first, which is good not having to wait until the end. Although we all thought she was an unusual choice for closing out the big party atmosphere, being that she is very lyrical and the music was slow. Maybe having the killers last would have kept that party atmosphere going, but I still really enjoyed her.
We made our way out before the end so we could get on the trains – they finish at 12:30am again surprisingly, so you could get stuck and not be able to get back. And uber' s are a complete sellout so you need to be able to get the train/bus. The 4 of us got back to the hotel and into nice cold showers and bed – we are so sore from sitting in those seats for 3 days! Totally worth it though 😊.
Day 28–13 October. Leaving Singapore for Australia.
I organised a late checkout today at 12 pm, although when I checked our paperwork from imagine cruising, it had departure at 12pm anyway rather than the usual 11am. We tidied up our packing, had a final breakfast and said goodbye to Sandra and Dave from Adelaide, then caught an uber to Changi Airport. We have 6 hours to kill before we fly out today so thought we were going to the famous 'Jewel' there and have a look around T1 terminal, as there is just so much to see. There were actually about 6 or 7 levels just in this terminal alone – it is so massive, no wonder it is voted best in the world.
The massive indoor waterfall is an impressive feat of engineering and spans over about 4 stories! We wandered around looked in shops, then went down into the lower levels where they have food hall after. Wanted to find a pearl tea place – finally found one and had a pomegranate flavour with brown sugar peas and Graeme had a biscoff tiramisu drink, was more like a meal ha ha! Wandered around for awhile longer then walked over to T3 – there are km's of travelators, or you can get the train.
We had lots of time so we walked. We were still too early to check in, so sat and waited awhile and then once Vietnam airlines opened, we put our bags through and went into the lounge. It was at capacity when we arrived and couldn’t see any seats, so I went back to the desk and asked the lady to help us find a couple – easy way to do it, put it back onto them! She indicated to us a room that was separate called the executive lounge and it was so much cooler in there & the furnishings more up-market. Still weren’t any seats, as they were roped off areas that were massive with just two seat seats on each side. So she opened up one of those for us, which was a score! Killed some time in there and then through to boarding. We have a shorter 2 1/2 hour flight from Singapore back to Ho Chi Minh/Saigon and then a very short connection of 1hour, before getting on our 7 1/2 hour flight to Sydney.
This is where it all started to unravel a bit as our flight was 45 minutes late departing, meaning we would be landing when we should be boarding the next flight and that was 2 floors and 2 lots of screening away. Unfortunately, having been fighting the groups respiratory bug which had obviously affected my eustachian tubes, I had the worst vertigo attack I’ve ever had and it lasted for that entire 2 1/2 hr flight. It was sheer willpower that I didn’t throw up as I was spinning visually the entire time and broke out my big sweat from the nausea. Then when we landed they had no stairs for us, so they off-loaded onto the tarmac, making us later again! Luckily because we were at the front of the plane, they had a small bus just for our section. I had another vertigo attack on the tarmac, so was trying to stay upright and rush off the bus and up to the terminal, while I couldn’t see properly. Was very unpleasant.
Got through the first screening as a few of the guys off our flight told us to go first, then when we came to our gate, the queue to go through the 2nd screening was at least 200 m long! It had two big flights going through that gate, but luckily after about 15mins, they called out for the Sydney flight and we got to go up earlier. It was all way too close for comfort and even though we were booked right through on 1 ticket with Vietnam - so they would’ve looked after us if we couldn’t make the flight, it was just too close for comfort, to missing the flight home.
Our 2nd flight was an overnight one, and I still didn’t eat as I was feeling so ill from the vertigo. The cabin was extremely warm, but they were happy to turn it down when asked. Didn’t get any sleep overnight unfortunately, although Graeme got about 4 hrs. Staying awake after taking a sleeping pill and having vertigo – not the best combination! So was glad when we landed and worked out perfectly with Danni arriving to pick us up at the express area. So lovely to see her after the wedding– now a married woman ha ha! Back to their place and we were able to just relax the rest of the day and catch up together, as Dan has just got back from working a 14hr overnight flight from Vancouver, the day before.
The effects of the vertigo stayed with me for a long time and my cold got worse with the change in air temperature and I was coughing a lot. Think I will need to start on antibiotics maybe, as I sound like a 40 year smoker!
Flight No 2
