I stepped out of the shower, put on my clothes, and walked briskly towards to the kitchen. I grabbed a used cup along the way and poured some water into it. I had to be quick because I would need to wash the cup before leaving the apartment. Once everyone was ready, my parents and I took the luggage we had and brought it down to the black SUV that was already parked in the car park.
The morning was cool and slightly overcast, as rays of sunlight slowly peeked over the horizon. I was not used to waking up this early in the morning, so I fell asleep during the ride. We arrived at Gate 5 of Changi Airport Terminal 3 at around 7.50 am, but there were long queues already forming at the multiple Business Class counters. We decided to take a lane each to see who would reach the counter first. Fortunately, the attendants at the check-in counters worked swiftly and we checked-in our luggage in no time.
We made out way to the Business Class lounge, and as expected, it was nearly full. Looks like morning flights are really popular. We managed to locate three counter seats and settled in. They were having a buffet in the lounge. To my disappointment, most of the food were already gone, but I managed to grab some noodles, sausages and half an omelet. Our flight was taking off soon. I shoved down my food, grabbed my bag, and headed towards the departure gate.
Shortly after the plane took off, the air stewardess started serving us the Brunch. I decided to have the Poached Eggs. The other choice, Dim Sum, seemed to be more popular among the Australian passengers on board. Throughout the flight, they kept us well fed, serving us sides and dinner a couple of hours later, I felt like I put on at least a pound or two just from this flight alone. Constant eating plus minimal walks to the bathroom? Never a good thing.
As we started descending to Brisbane, the sky has already turned dark and city lights dotted the ground beneath the aircraft. We touched down, got off the airplane and started making our way to Immigration. A lady greeted us and told us that it'll be much quicker if we had a bio-metric passport and just scanned our way through immigration. I have used this system many times and thought I would be very familiar with the system. Turns out it was slightly different. Firstly, the system required me to insert my entire passport instead of half the passport that was required in Singapore. I did not know that and could not insert my passport fully because I had a plastic cover on my passport. After I realised what I was doing was wrong, I took out the plastic cover and slotted it in. The screen prompted me to answer a few illness-related questions and the glass doors flung open. I wave of relief swept over me and I thought it was all over. WRONG. Turns out, there were another pair of glass doors I had to go through. This time it had like a facial recognition system, where they try to match your face with the picture on the passport. Did I pass through? Of course not. My passport picture was taken years ago and without my spectacles. So I had to retreat to the assistance counter where I had an immigration officer check my passport details.
The immigration officer was very serious and to be honest, I felt kind of intimidated by her glare. While she checked my passport, suddenly she said in a loud voice: "Sir, you cannot make a call here." At first I thought she was directing that at me, until I processed what she just said. I turned awkwardly around to see a guy talking on the phone. She repeated herself several times before the caller decided to put down the phone. I always felt so relieved whenever I pass through immigration. It's a lot of pressure when the immigration officer lowers her glasses slightly and gave what felt to be a judging look before forcefully stamping the passport.
We collected out luggage and strolled toward the baggage collection exit. It was always awkward for me when I walk out the arrival hall. All I could see was a sea of human heads out the door. I could feel the heat of people's gazes as I weaved through the crowd towards the exit. As we made our way out of the airport, a cool breeze swept past my face. The temperature was so perfect. I wished it was this cool everyday in Singapore. The bus that would take us directly to our apartment arrived at around 8.30 pm.
About half an hour later, the bus halted on a slope. This was where we were alighting. The driver helped us take out our luggage from the back of the bus and I held onto two of them. I never liked slopes, especially steep ones. It was like a phobia but I already had this fear since I was very young. So I struggled to pull two luggage up the slope while my mind started drifting off. Anxiousness started settling in as I thought of my luggage rolling down the slope and my palms started to become sweaty. My dad noticed, and decided to take one of the luggage from me. It was so much easier after that.
We found the entrance to the apartment and I noticed that there was quite a number of Asians here, most between their teens to mid-20's. I figured most of them were Koreans because I overheard some of their conversations in Korean. The lift that the apartment here has quite an unusual and interesting system. To use the lift, you had to scan your key card, and key in the floor that you wanted to go to, on the number pad provided, The system will then assign you to either lift A, B, C, or D. We stayed on the 66th floor. I did not even notice how tall the building was. Apparently, there are over 70 floors in this apartment. The lift was surprisingly fast though. The ride to the 66th floor was way faster than the ride to the 30th floor back home. In fact, you would not even feel like the lift was moving. I think we should change the lift system we are using at home.
The apartment was very spacious. It had a living room with a fully equipped kitchen, a master bedroom, a master bathroom, a bedroom with double beds, a small study, and a guest bathroom. We stowed our luggage in the corner of the apartment before heading back down to buy some groceries. Fortunately, a 7-11 was just round the corner and was still open. To my knowledge, most of the shops in Australia can close as early as 5.30 pm. I was slightly peckish so I picked up a instant-ready lasagna to eat. It claimed to have 97% reduced fat, but it's hard to trust labels these days. Whether or not it's true, it still tasted and smelled amazing. It was almost 10 pm local time, but I guess I'm having jet lag since I usually have my dinner at 8 pm and Australia is two hours ahead of Singapore.
Having been transferring from one vehicle to another throughout the whole day, I decided to take a bath. I have started to appreciate some things in Singapore that I have noticed before. Firstly, the toilet seats here are freezing cold. Secondly, I was shivering violent the moment I got out of the shower.
I will now end the blog post here as it is almost 1.30 am in the morning. Check back here again next time for more updates on the trip! :)
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