Koh Samui & Bali: "Live Aways"

Good Morning from Singapore! ☀️
The night was shorter than originally expected, but here's hoping today will be clearer sailing! Let me catch you up from where we left off with last night's flight! 😉

First, I should share that one of the first issues we encountered was that the driver in Samui arrived earĺy and we were off to the airport without having a chance to say goodbye to our rep and her partner (the old boy's new buddy). 😔 It was so disconcerting to leave without a proper farewell. Apparently, they arrived to see us off ... just seconds after we departed.

And then, we never even made it through security in that exceptionslly cute airport without setting off some alarms! Maybe because it felt nothing like a tense and fretful screening ... I completely forgot to take my fluids bag out of my backpack! Good grief ... who does that?? So, my bag was searched ... the contraband extracted and all of it needed to be rescanned. Sigh.

We found our way to a lovely little spot for a croissant and a beverage at 5:30ish. It was a bit early to eat but I wasn't sure if we'd get food service on the flight, so I figured I best eat something to tide me over until we landed in Singapore. What I didn't see coming was that you are not allowed to consume any food or drink not purchased on the aircraft. And, as nice as it would have been to sip a glass of wine ... no alcohol was being served on that particular flight.

Our delay ended up being 90 minutes (instead of an hour!) and once we were aboard, the pilot warned that it was expected to be a bumpy ride ... but assured us they would do their best to minimize discomfort! Upon hearing that, I was grateful I had some Bonine in my purse! It works better than dramamine because its non-drowsy. However, you can only get it in the USA. Thank you again Caryl for getting me some! 🥰

Oh ... I forgot to mention that while they were carting us to the plane awaiting us on the tarmac, the full stainless steel water bottle torpedoed out of the old boy's backpack and landed squarely on my left shin. It hurt like crazy but thankfully didn't break the skin. I expected to have one hell of a bruise today, but no. Maybe bone doesn't bruise?? 🤔

At any rate, I was trying not to be too cranky in my efforts to get comfy with a throbbing shin on a plane headed for turbulence that served no food or wine. Let's just say ... I was not my best self.

That said, the old boy and I were very grateful when we landed safe and sound. Neither of us can remember being on such a rough flight ... the whole way ... including the landing. We were flopping and tippling from side to side so much as we neared the ground that I instinctively grabbed for the old boy's hand. He admitted that he, too, was scared too. But, we landed without any real issue!

The Singapore airport is covered with marble tile and is impressive with its big, bright and highly technological processes. I am assuming they're intended to expedite immigration ... but ... our first stop ended up being a huge hurdle for us.

We tried scanning our passports as others were doing, but we were denied. We were missing something. With all the technology so mechanized, there were very few humans around to ask for help. 😦

We finally realized we had to scan a QR code and fill out a very detailed document ... one for each of us. And ... regardless of what I tried, it kept telling me something was missing. After about 30 minutes ... most of the other passengers had exited, but us. Eeeeeek.

I finally tracked down someone who figured out that I couldn't enter 2033 by hand as the expiration year of the passport. It had to be done with the online calender. Arghhhhh. I could enter the day and month manually but it required us to scroll for the year! Who knew??

You'd think it'd be easy for me to submit the form for myself after successfully completing one for the old boy. Nope. When I auto entered my phone number, the phone switched my address to Taber, but I didn't realize it. Then there were a couple of other odd little glitches which required more help from the absentee humans. Grrrrrr. I was so frustrated and tired and hungry and thirsty that I was almost in tears.

Fortunately, a young staff member figured out the error ... but ... it even took him some time to do so!! All in all, it was nearly 90 minutes before we got the green lights to exit. Can you imagine???

And then, all we needed to do was walk to Terminal 3. I had wisely booked the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport Hotel at $400/ night because I thought we'd arrive early enough to enjoy it. And, we could have a nice sleep and it would require no shuttling before our connection in the morning left at 10:40am.

By the time we found the skytrain and were finally checking into our hotel room at about 12:30am ... which was 1:30am ... with the additional one hour time change. Unfortunately, the only food and beverage service at that hour was room service (which would take another 30 to 45 minutes) so we decided against it!

I remembered I had the cheese in my backpack that I'd kept chilled in fridge at the resort. Sadly, however. It was absolutely melted on one side due to the lengthy exposure to the heat with all the delays. Shit. No cheese and no wine at what should have been the end of our day. Turns out that it wasn't over for me yet ... 😬

Just before we toppled into bed, I decided to look and see which Terminal our departure was going to be at in the morning. However, our flight no longer existed! Whattttt? There was no Scoot TR284 departing at 10:40am listed. There was only one that was leaving at 12:55pm.

Well ... shit!! I was bamboozled. I tried to fall asleep but determined that I didn't want to wake up extra early and get to the airport for a non-existent flight. No. No. No. No. No.

I assumed that the flight schedule had changed but wondered why I hadn't received any notice??? That is when I turned on the light to see if/how I could make sense of it all. With the sound of the old boy snoring nicley beside me, I examined my email with a fine tooth comb. I finally found an automated email that was sent just the night before when we checked in for our flights. In the fine details, I could see a new time for our connecting departure! Typically the airlines email you with changes. Perhaps it didn't happen because I booked our flights through Booking.com? Gah!!

By the time I had the cleared up the confusion, it was nearly 3:30am!! At that point you'd think I would have collapsed into a deep slumber, but apparently all my sleuthing had generated second wind!! I could absolutely not fall asleep. I'm guessing it was all the adrenalin and cortisol that contributed to my insomnia!

I have no idea when I finally dozed off, but it sure felt like morning came much to early! It occurred to me that I should post our blog from last night. And, that was when I realized that everything I had written on Find Penguins on the old boy's Sim card phone (while we waited out our flight delay) would not transfer to my phone nor post from his phone! I had to redo it all!! 🤯🤯

After encountering all of those issues, I was feeling pretty cranky. In an effort to turn things around ... we talked about everything that had gone well over coffee. And, it really was a great breakfast at the hotel! And, there really were lots of great views despite the travel mountains we had recently ascended!

We then moseyed back to Terminal 1 for departure about 10:00am. I realized, however, that I also had to contact Wheel & Anchor to adjust our arrival time and subsequent pick up by the driver. Thankfully, our rep Mara said she'd let the driver know. 🙌

I was really hoping there will be no more travel mountains for us ... BUT ... I worried there might be a similar immigration QR code process in Bali. Eeeeeeeeeek. Mara had given us a detailed 'how to' to optimize our arrival experience in Bali cautioning that it was not really "intuitive".

As we arrived at gate C17 with boarding passes in hand we noticed that there was baggage screening right at each and every boarding lounge/gate. Yes. There is individual screening right before boarding the plane. And so, not one person is even allowed to take a drop of water on with them when boarding. Going through a mass face recognition and fingerprint detection beforehand with these gate prcedures was very new to us! It's a very unique airport indeed!

Oh, I should share one thing that made me chuckle!! While I was getting my fluids bag out to place in the bin and the control agent corrected me ... "can stay in your bag". Woofta!! You just never know? 🥴

Fortunately, I ordered a meal for this flight. We're in the very back of the plane again ... row 33!! Unfortunately, it was such a bumpy ride again that it was hard to eat.

All in all, though, there were no more major travel mountains. Not even when we landed. We were a little late arriving ... and ... got caught in rush hour traffic, but arrived at the resort at 6:00pm. At first glance, it looks amazing!

We were starving so we were headed to the " Tree House" for happy hour. We joined the couple who is also coming from Koh Samui. The bottles of wine were 50% off ... and ... the food and service was stellar. We enjoyed the full moon lighting up our beach side table!

So, all I can say is that things went really well today ... most thankfully! And, we look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings!

We are ending this day with grateful hearts and better attitudes,
❤️ k& j ❤️Meer informatie