Well, perhaps my pointing out to the Qantas rep in Shanghai that I bought these airline tickets directly from Qantas may have helped (when they told me I would need to deal with my travel agent. “You are my travel agent”, I was able to say) – but I was fortunate enough to be greeted at Singapore airport by a Qantas official holding a sign with my name on it when I got off the plane. Evidently, I must have been the only transfer passenger because they didn’t appear to be waiting for anyone else. Qantas met me and somewhat clandestinely handed me a piece of paper with the name of a hotel name on it. They verbally gave me instructions “take a taxi to this hotel and tell them you are from the Chinese Eastern flight and they will take care of everything for the next 24 hours – including meals and the taxis.” The next flight to Perth wasn’t until 6:30 pm – arriving at midnight.
It was nice to take a short break in Singapore, but I couldn’t do much on short notice. I was only able to get 3 hours sleep after getting in so late. Changi airport had the longest immigration line I had seen in years and I was not full of energy. I looked into a few things to do there that I have not done before, but reservations were required and unavailable for and my umbrella and shorts were trapped in my suitcase at the airport. I had suggested retrieving the suitcase when I was arriving but was discouraged from doing so due to the time involved in hunting it down.
In the end, I just took a stroll around the neighbourhood and did a bit of window shopping between naps. The meals were great: a breakfast and lunch smorgasbord of local and Western dishes – which were very popular family feasts patronized by the local Singaporeans on this Sunday.
