Thursday, February 12 – Nadi

Well, this is my last day in the islands. A little over 5 weeks. It’s gone by kind of fast, but I think I’m ready to move on…

It was a rather lazy day. I did some prep for my trip to Singapore tomorrow – reviewed the immigration procedure, how to use the metro, and directions to my hotel via the metro.

Travel Note: Speaking of Singapore immigration, it’s required for visitors to complete an online Arrival Card no more than 3 days before traveling. It’s very straightforward, and doesn’t cost anything. U.S. citizens do not need a visa for travel to Singapore.

A little chill time on the beach.

And of course I was back at the Beach Escape for my last island dinner!

Tonight’s lead off is the Beach Escape Slide (the Baileys pulled me in!)…

It was good! And a little stronger than last night’s drink. Different bartender.

I was here early again today, around 5:15pm, and was the first diner. By the time I left though another 6 people had joined me.

Tonight’s specials. Nothing really jumped out at me (well, of the mains anyway)…

…so I chose the Garlic Prawns this evening.

I preferred last night’s tuna, but this was still a good choice. (29 FJD = 13 USD)

For dessert I did rely on the specials board: Homemade Lemon Cheesecake (12 FJD = 5.50 USD). The waiter told me it’s made from the chef’s grandmother’s secret recipe. Great story, I hope it’s true! (I’m so cynical!) Either way, it was wonderful!

But sadly, there will be no sunset tonight…

Friday, February 13 – transit from Fiji to Singapore

Today is going to be a long day. I have a 8:15am departure from Nadi airport, so I’ll be taking the 5:30am shuttle from the hotel (10 FJD).

Sidenote: Traveling on Friday the 13th? Maybe I didn’t think this through properly!

I booked the trip with Qantas, but the first leg to Brisbane was operated by Fiji Airways. And as it’s a one way ticket, when I checked in I expected the ticket agent to ask me about an onward ticket from Singapore. But no. Mmmmm. I’m thinking it may be due to the fact that Singapore requires the submittal of the online Arrival Card, which includes my Singapore departure information. (Cost of the trip: 593 USD)

The 4 hour flight to Brisbane on the 737 was packed. This kind of surprised me, because when I met with the agent at the Fiji Airways ticket office a couple weeks ago, she told me the flight was pretty much empty. Fortunately I was assigned an aisle seat when I checked in via the app a couple days ago.

On the flight I watched the movie We Are Marshall. The description noted that it was released 2006. Twenty years, and I had never seen it. Good movie; nice time killer on the flight. Odd though that a movie which depicted a plane crash would be an in-flight viewing option. I guess I thought that was kind of something airlines did not do. Didn’t bother me though (despite the fact that this is Friday the 13th!!).

Travel Note: This was my 8th flight on Fiji Airways during this trip. All were on time, run smoothly, with friendly flight attendants and nice inflight meals/drinks. Very impressed. (they were expensive though)

I had a 5 hour layover in Brisbane and then boarded a Qantas flight to Singapore. This was on a wide body A330 with 2-4-2 seating. While waiting in the departure gate area, it seemed to me like there weren’t very many people around. And when the agent announced that all zones would be boarding the plane at the same time, my suspicion (hope) was confirmed: This is going to be an empty flight.

And boy was it. I was in a row 50 window seat, and there was nobody in the rows in front or behind me. And many of the 4 seat middle sections were empty too; I could have moved there to stretch out, but decided to stay where I was. During his announcements, the captain mentioned that we were going to be traveling at an altitude higher than normal because there were only about 70 passengers on board. (lighter plane)

A dream situation, considering this was an 8 hour flight!

(I ended up talking with the woman seated to my right in the picture above. She’s from Singapore, but lives in Brisbane. She’s coming back to surprise her family for the Chinese New Year. Very nice. And she gave me some tips on what to do this week. Thanks!)

And as with my previous experiences on Qantas (many years ago now though), the service was great. I had a nice meal, 2 little bottles of wine, an ice cream bar, Tim Tams (!!), and a Cornish pasty before landing.

For entertainment, each seat was provided with its own tablet. It could either be held or attached to the seat back. Pretty cool! I watched Season 3 of Reacher. Eight episodes. That pretty much took up the whole flight. I was tempted to try and sleep a little, but since it was a daytime flight, I didn’t think that would be a good idea.

(In the photo above, you can see where/how the tablet attaches to the seat back)

We landed in Singapore at 8:45pm. And with their advance Arrival Card process, there was no waiting via the automated immigration system that utilizes passport scanning and facial recognition. And even with the quick pass through immigration, I only had to wait about 5 minutes for my bag. So impressed!

Catching the train from the airport to the city was pretty straightforward; took 45 minutes and involved 2 transfers. And I paid for the trip by tapping my phone at the metro entrance and exit gates (via the credit card stored in my iPhone’s wallet). The cost of the trip was 2 USD.

(I didn’t acquire any Singapore Dollars upon arrival. I’m going to see if I can stay a week in Singapore without using cash. I’m confident!)

On the train…

I arrived at my hotel around 10:15pm. Singapore is 4 hours earlier than Fiji. That means my shuttle departure from the hotel was at 1:30 this morning, Singapore time. Like I said, a long day!

I’m staying at the Lanson Place Winsland (173 USD/night; this is Singapore…during Chinese New Year!)

I’ll follow up with more hotel pictures tomorrow…