Finally I arrive in Singapore, a longed for visit that has been haunting my sweetest dreams for the longest time. Most of all I'm looking forward to the food and bustle of a cosmopolitan city and I dun have to fact GHs (grey hair) all day.
But before I can enjoy all that, I would need to go through the plane journey. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm more of a destination person than a journey person. I dislike long journeys and usually spend most if not all of the journey time fast asleep and hopefully wake up in time to get out of the car, bus, plane or boat. So the fact that I need to go through at least 13 hours of flying time in order to get to Singapore really bums me out. This time was no different. But if I had known what kind of an experience I would have during my flight, I wouldn't have gotten into the car and left for the airport no matter how much I wanna eat that nasi lemak.
I can safely say that even though I flew by SIA, this must be the worst flight experience I have ever had in all my years of flying both budget and hi end airlines. As much as I would like to, I really cannot fault the crew or the level of service that they rendered me. Simply put, it was just a case of true blue almost cannot get any worse bad luck with a generous dash of Murphy's Law having it in for me.
Eve though my worst experience was while I was on the SIA flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, the start of my journey didn't bode well either. My flight was at 9am in the morning in Arlanda Airport in Stockholm so dear husband and I had to get up at 3am so that we could leave town by 4am in order to get to the airport by 7am. Hai...a 3 hour drive just to get to the airport. This, for a girl who thinks that any trip going beyond 45 min is too long.
I had to take an SAS flight from Stockholm to Frankfurt and rush to find the gate to go to through in Frankfurt airport since I only had barely over an hour of transit time. As I approach my gate in Arlanda airport, I realise that something doesn't look right. The screen above the gateway stated Paris instead of Frankfurt. That was when I doubled back and realised that they had to change planes suddenly which delayed us by more than half an hour. I started sweating bullets hoping that I wouldn't miss my connecting flight in Frankfurt. The lady at the counter told me to try and run for that flight otherwise the next flight out to Sg would be later that night.
Shite. Especially since I still had to go through passport control in Frankfurt. Double shite.
But I made that flight with enough time to spare to go to the bathroom. Phew!
But that was the high point of my entire journey. Everything just went downhill from that moment on.
I was seated on an aisle seat which I was grateful for or else I may have seriously injured someone later that flight. While waiting for takeoff, some kids nearby started screaming and crying. 'Oh no', I thought, 'this is not good. But never mind, once the plane is in the air, I can just switch on my in flight entertainment systemm and drown out their voices. So I was really looking forward to my entertainment that was to accompany me for the next 11 hours.
But 30min into the flight, I realised that something was seriously wrong. My movies wouldn't start, I couldn't access any music and the crew kept on rebooting my system to no avail. After about 2 hours, the captain decided to reboot the entertainmant system for the ENTIRE plane since I wasn't the only one who had that problem. Apparently, over 60 seats had the same problem as me. With an almost full flight and over 60 probelm seats, no way I could get a working system. So I was basically left with nothing and I still had over 9 hours to go.
Shite.
Fine, I took down my MP3 player so that I could at least have some music and hopefully that would help me doze off. I was having trouble sleeping (of all times!!!) cos my stomach was feeling very bloated and uneasy. I managed to sleep some but only in 10 minute blocks, at most 20 min. That did not help the time to pass. 4 hours before we were scheduled to land, my MP3 batt died on me. What a luck!
So there I was, without music, movies and looking all around and seeing how others have a working system which really elevated my frustration. The steward and stewardess who had been helping me out knew of my predicament and they tried their best to provide me with anything I needed. At around that time, the air steward approached me as I was taking a walk up and down the aisle (to pass the time and stretch) and apologized again for the system failing me. As a token of apology, his supervisor gave me some compensation which I can use on my next flight with SIA. I was very surprised and totally didn't expect it so it was a nice lift for my spirit...for 15 min.
My last resort to pass the time was finally to read my book which would certainly keep me occupied for a long while. So I switched on my reading light and dived into my book, feeling better although I still wished that I could sleep. 10min later, I realised my light was moving. I looked up and saw the guy sitting in front of me was pushing my light to face the opposite way! I almost shouted, 'What the hell!' but the stewardess came and asked him not to do that since it was my light he was moving. So he started pushing the light back my way but he didnt push it far enough back and the light landed on the Japanese man sitting next to me instead. So it was still too dark and I could no longer read my book. Bastard. You can only imagine all the expletives running through my head as I burned my glare into the back of his head. And the curses of all curses was put upon him.
No movies, no music and now no reading, sitting in the dark summoning all the curses I could think of. 4 hours before landing. And to top it all, we had the worst turbulence I had experienced. The plane kept shaking and there were moments where I felt I was in a carnival ride not a plane. Which so did not help my growing headache.
All I could do then was to keep asking for snacks. Once, I asked for a sweet drink hoping the sugar would help ease my headache. But the steward that passed me was one I had not seen and he was passing around snacks. But when I asked him for a 7-up, all I got was a look like he didnt want to do it and he didn't even bother to acknowledge it apart from his look. He then just continued walking down the aisle without a single word uttered. I was left wondering if he will give me a drink. And that was the last thing I needed. By then I was very very close to tears.
20min pass and still no 7-up. I got desperate with my raging headache and walked to the galley where they store the food to ask for water so I could eat medicine. And who would be standing there if not the same steward? When he saw my face, he suddenly remembered my 7-up and apologized but by then all I wanted was water and the strength and courage to survive the rest of the 4 hours without killing anyone.
Managed to sleep for 30min for which I am so grateful for but then was woken up by the damn stewardess who askedme if everything was ok and thatthey will be serving breakfast soon. Hai...do they really need to disturb my much needed sleep just to tell me that? But during breakfast, more turbulence came so we could hardly pick up our glasses to drink cos everything would slosh around so much.
I sat there for the last 2 hours just wondering when the lightning would strike and the plane would crash cos that's all that's missing from my 'AWESOME' flight experience. It truly sucked out all the joy and anticipation of coming home.
One would think that the worry and frustration would end there. But of cos it didn't. We landed in Terminal 3 which made me nervous cos I wondered if my brother who picking me up would realise that I was in Terminal 3 and not 1 or 2. I tried calling my sis in law...no answer. I tried calling my 2nd brother...no answer. And it was 630am so I wondered if anyone was awake even.
Shite. This is the last worry I needed.
I kept wondering if I should try going to terminal 1 or 2 in case they were there but that would cause even more problems if there were at the airport. So I went through passport control and waited for my luggage. Fatigue, frustration and worry started building up again when after 10 min my luggage was still nowhere in sight. Don't tell me my luggage didn't make the transit since it was so short. UGH!
But after almost 20 min, finally my luggages emerged from the bowels of the luggage compartment. Came out into the arrival hall amidst all sorts of peopel waiting for arriving loved ones and who did I see?
Nobody I knew.
My brothers were nowhere in sight and it was already more than 30 mins since I landed. I walked up and down the entire area a few times but still no one. I decided to try calling again but I only had coins so I went to the only coin phone in the entire arrival hall.
It was dead. Hai...
Started wondering if I should take a taxi home or wait or just go to the nearest toilet and drown myself in a toiletbowl. Walked up and down a few more times before I finally spotted my eldest brother coming down the escalator.
Phew...finally the end of my torturous journey was in sight. Thank God.
I am NOT looking forward to going back to Sweden.