Back in Singapore!

Picture of the airplane: Singapore Airlines

My hectic but fun late summer holiday is now officially over and I am back in Singapore. Journey back was packed with interesting things as well.

Since there are no direct flights from Helsinki to Singapore (why Finnair?), I made a 13 hour stop at London. I had wanted to see the musical Les Misérables for long and now I went to see the London production. I hardly knew any songs from LesMis, except 'I dreamed a dream' by Susan Boyle last spring. For my happy surprise the musical was packed with catchy tunes that I have been humming ever since. Some despise musicals as too commercial. I think musicals are a just one form of art - and Picasso was commercial too. One day opera, one day musical. By the way, I had a great opera experience in the Finnish National Opera with a friend of mine. If you can, go and see Andrea Chénier.

Here is one of the highlights from Les Misérables:

Other highlight of my return trip was traveling with the semi-new two storey Singapore Airlines A380 plane. Before entering the plane I was amazed how well Singapore Airlines (or SIA or SQ as Singaporeans say) serves travelers at Heathrow terminal 3. The SQ check-in area is separated from the busy main departures hall to a more quiet corner and the area has calming dimmed lighting and SQ branded desks. They has even a designated gate area which is SQ branded and very spacious compared to other gate waiting areas. The most pleasant part was although the flight. The A380 sure is the most quiet plane I have ever flown. One can only hear a slight humming, not any clear motor sounds like in British Airways long haul planes. The food was good in economy class and they served refreshments constantly. A nice detail was the small sanity kit given by the crew - it contained flight socks designed by Givency! Another detail worth mentioning is the 10.6" personal screen (pictured above) and there is a power plug in every seat for a laptop. For the reference the personal screens in A380's first class are 23".

The SQ321 flight from London arrived in Changi airport terminal 3. I have been to all the other terminals. but this was my first time in terminal 3. Boy, it was well appointed! Best part of the terminal was the huge luggage claim hall (pictured above). There were palm trees, water features and mist machines making a rain forest feel. All new and shiny. I almost forget to collect my luggage :)