This summer our travel took us back to Singapore and Malaysia. Our journey began on the early morning of June 9, when we boarded China Eastern Airlines from Vancouver, Canada to Singapore. The flight departed Vancouver at 2:30 am and we spent 12 hours in the air before landing in Shanghai, China. Other than the rather cramped seating (typical of most airlines nowadays) the flight and service was good. We chose China Eastern because we wanted to visit my brother on the way back to Vancouver. We booked our flight about four months in advance and the round trip fare was US$600 per person.
On landing in Shanghai, we has a four hour layover before our connecting flight to Singapore. We took advantage of the long concourse to do some walking and having some dim-sum at one of the airport’s food outlets.
Our flight to Singapore was uneventful and we took in a movie starring Anthony Hopkins – The Human Stain – based on the novel by Philip Roth. After a total journey time of 22 hours, we landed in Singapore at 4 pm on Sunday, June 10. Singapore is approximately twelve hours ahead of US Eastern time. Disembarkation was very smooth and efficient and within forty minutes we were in a taxi on the way to our homestay.
Our homestay in Singapore was a studio apartment about a ten minute walk from Holland Village. The location offered us privacy, convenience, and comfort. It cost us about US$45 a night, a bargain for what we got in facilities and location.
We unpacked for our five day stay and walked to the Holland Village market for our evening meal of a pint of Guiness and Singapore Char Kway Teow (a delicious concoction of stir fried flat noodles and various condiments). The drinks and meal for the two of us cost US$12.
After our meal and a walk around the area we headed back to our homestay for the night. We were tired and in bed by 9 pm. We knew however that it would take a couple of days to adjust to the time change.
In the upcoming posts of our trip, there will be quite a few pictures of food. Singapore and Malaysia has some of the best foods in the world and there were times in the past when we actually planned our trips around the food we would eat.
Educhirp 