Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
In Singapore, when you meet someone in a casual but work-related setting, you're often asked if you've eaten breakfast or lunch. Another common question is, have you been anywhere lately? As a regional hub, people are always coming or going. As it happens, I recently took a short trip to Hong Kong. The Singapore-Hong Kong flight is one that I've taken many times. It's a reasonably short flight with two world-class airports on either end.
Singapore's Changi Airport has no flight announcements that distract you in the departure hall, only relaxing music filling the space. Passengers are expected to make their way to the gate without sonic reminders. Once you reach the gate, after passing through security, the announcements begin. We would now like to invite Business Class passengers and Singapore Airlines PPS Club
After the boarding gate announcements, it's time to walk down the jet bridge, where the cabin crew will guide you to your seat. Everyone boards and stows their cabin bags, and then the announcements resume. Many seasoned travellers tune these out.
Some announcements are operational, instructing the crew to perform specific tasks. Paging for all ground staff to disembark. Paging for all ground staff to disembark. Thank you. Others focus on customer service. Together with the entire crew, we'll be making sure the travel looked after. Flight time today looking at approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes, and we can expect a bit of light to moderate turbulence along the way. Finally, it's time to take off. Make room on our doors and cross track.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Hong Kong. Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened until the seatbelt sign is off. This trip was a three-day, two-night excursion. My best friend from secondary school now lives in Chicago, and when he visits Singapore to see family, I'll take the three-and-a-half-hour non-stop flight so we can catch up. Another school friend who now lives in Australia was also going to be there, so we planned a mini-reunion with our friends who were still in Hong Kong.
While in Hong Kong, our group followed an over-order, over-eat rule. According to Asian customs, a good host always ensures there's more than enough food and thus over-orders. Even though we ordered the meals ourselves, we tried not to be wasteful and so we end up eating more than we probably should. So, like a swarm of angry locusts, we moved from one restaurant to another, indulging in our favourite foods.
We started with McDonald's sundaes as a post lunch treat, then a US sports bar for some disappointing Tex-Mex appetizers. Note to management, we are Nacho friends anymore and we won't be back. We mistakenly booked the wrong Chinese restaurant for dinner. So instead of Peking Garden for delicious Peking duck, we ended up at another place in the same building that committed the twin sins of bad food and poor service. We did redeem ourselves with dessert at Shake Shack.
Day 2 wasn't much of the same. On day 3, it was time to go home. I grew up in Hong Kong but being British, I was always expected to eventually move to the UK. However, unlike my siblings, I stayed in Asia mainly because I preferred the weather and the food. During this recent trip, I noticed how much Hong Kong had changed since it was under British rule.
What I once called home had changed enough that it no longer resembled the place of my youth. "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome aboard Singapore Airlines, flight 883 bound for Singapore."
I first arrived in Singapore on a Boeing 747-400 at Terminal 2. It remains my favourite terminal and I remember hearing the welcome messages back then and thinking it was lovely. It has been a great pleasure having you on board with us and on behalf of Singapore Airlines and our entire set of crew, thank you for choosing to fly with us and we hope to see you soon again. Cabin crew, prepare for arrival. Thank you. In the years since my first arrival, things have changed.
What was blue and gold is now red and gold. And this time, I was on an Airbus A350-900 arriving at Terminal 3. And the message hit differently. Welcome to Singapore, ladies and gentlemen, and to all Singaporeans and residents of Singapore, a warm welcome home. Singapore is now home in every sense of the word.
You've been listening to Singapore Hong Kong Singapore. Here is Changi Airport Terminal 3, postcode 819663. Check out this episode's show notes for more information about Changi Airport or visit our website, herehere.show. Catch you on the next step.