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Hello everyone, it’s been really too long since my previous report and I sincerely apologize for this long absence. A quick update on what’s going on right now in life, I finished my A levels last year in November! Gone are the stressful nights of studying and mugging, and I’m currently awaiting enlistment into the army in 2 months :/ Quite nervous so shall see how it goes.
This trip was made in January when my buddy and I chose Hong Kong. I’ve known this great friend for 5 years and this trip was sort of a reward for finishing JC and to just hang and chill together. On previous trips, I was always with my parents or with the school teachers. This time, we were completely free and easy! Loved this sense of adventure and though apprehensive at first, I thoroughly looked forward to this significant trip of a lifetime.
Anyway back to the trip. 2 days before the flight, I tried to select a pair of window seats on the upper deck of the 380. To my surprise (horror actually), all pairs of window seats were snagged and there were only the middle seats on the last row available. A quick call to the SIA office revealed that it was indeed a full flight and that many had selected their seats beforehand. I’ve learnt that we could just call the SIA office way before any booked flight to reserve our preferred seats, and we didn’t need to wait till 48 hours before departure.
However, the last row of middle seats were a pair, so it was just nice for my buddy and I.
Pre-Trip
Got an Uber to the airport early at 6am and it was smooth and hassle-free. Met my buddy and we checked in together.
One thing I didn’t like about the check-in process for economy was that we had to check in through the self-check in kiosks. This meant that I had to get the flimsy and fragile paper boarding pass, and I didn't fancy it cuz I collect boarding passes and I knew for sure that this would end up torn and tattered. Tried my luck at the bag drop counters, and I asked the staff kindly for a hard paper boarding pass. To my surprise, it was actually allowed and I happily received the hard paper pass! So far, so good!
Got through immigration and it’s always a breeze with the fingerprint scanners here at Changi.
Went over to the butterfly garden to get a few shots on the tarmac but the view there wasn’t good at all.
So my buddy and I went over to the cactus garden at T1 where there were supposedly better views of the tarmac.
Still not really good, but the views were much better than T3’s butterfly garden.
Not long later, it was time to board and we headed back to T3 to our gate, B5. As we got to the gate, I realized this flight would be an extremely special one. I didn't spot the usual blue, orange and golden livery, but the plane parked at B5 sported a loud red banner across its fuselage, the SG50 Livery! I’ve wanted to get on this big boy ever since the livery was announced and boy was I lucky today! To those who may not be familiar, SG50 stands for Singapore 50. In 2015, Singapore celebrated its 50th year of independence and 2 SQ A380s were painted in the SG50 livery in commemoration of Singapore 50th birthday. What a timely reminder that army is approaching as well haha.
This plane parked beside ours was headed for Tokyo Haneda. It carries the latest generation of cabin products on SQ and I’m still wondering when will be my first time trying out these latest seats.
Another shot of our ride
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