Tom's Travel Blog

Marina Bay Sands hotel and the Art Science Museum, Singapore

We visited Singapore in October 2022 and had a good holiday, (you can read the posts here), but came away feeling that we hadn’t seen or done everything we wanted to. So last year we booked another trip, this time for spring (not that visiting at different times of the year makes much difference in Singapore; they have a climate, not weather).

We decided to go back to the same hotel as before, this time for the whole holiday, but we had uncomfortable memories of the long direct flight from Heathrow to Singapore, not to mention the additional impact of getting to and back from Heathrow. So this time we booked flights from Manchester with Qatar Airways, which would mean a short stop at Hamed International airport in Doha. Our flight out was at lunchtime, then there would be a two-hour stopover in Doha starting at around midnight local time, and we would arrive at Singapore in the early afternoon of the following day. The return flights would leave Singapore in the mid-evening, would again involve a a two-hour stopover at Doha at about midnight, and a further flight that would get us back to Manchester at about 6am. In view of that early arrival time in Manchester, and a realistic consideration of how we could expect to feel when we did so, we decided to book a return transfer with a local travel company rather than use our own car. We’re not as young as we used to be….

Most of that worked well! The car transfer turned up promptly on our departure day and got us to Manchester efficiently and comfortably. Our flight was from the new Terminal 2 which is certainly a lot glitzier than the others. Most impressive were the new security arrangements – no need to get all your electronic devices and liquids out, they were scanned inside the carry-on bag. We still had to empty our pockets, however. But we were through security very quickly and spent a couple of hours just relaxing and snacking before boarding the plane. Take-off was almost on time, the flight was a bit quicker than scheduled and we landed at Doha a bit early after just over six hours. We flew in one of Qatar’s Airbus A350’s – a good modern aircraft, comfortable enough, and the seating not too cramped. It’s a wide body aircraft with seats arranged in a 3-3-3 configuration, and we had an aisle and centre seats in the central block. And as with all the Middle Eastern airlines, we were wined and dined comprehensively. (Though these days we stick to soft drinks while flying.) So far, so good, then.

Hamed International airport was a mess, however. To put it politely, it’s a work in progress with acres of construction. We were surprised when the aircraft did  not pull up at the terminal but at a hard standing – somewhere, from where we were bussed to the terminal. This was quite a shock – I haven’t had to walk down external steps and board a bus after a flight for a long time, and never after a long haul flight. Worse still, we were waiting for ten or fifteen minutes to actually get off the plane – I think they were waiting for buses – and then the ride itself lasted for a good ten minutes. All of this was eating into our two-hour transfer window, of course. Then we arrived at the terminal, were swiftly ushered inside, someone said ‘Transfers this way!’ and pointed us in a general direction, we went that way, and found ourselves already in Departures – somehow we’d bypassed the transfer security check.

Terminal Interior, Doha airport

There’s no doubt that the interior of the terminal at Doha is stunning, and the actual operational arrangements inside work well. But can you find a cup of tea at midnight? Well, we didn’t. We did find some very refreshing fruit juices which we drank straight down – we hadn’t realised how thirsty we were. Then we went to the gate and waited for a while for boarding to commence. Boarding is by groups, which were called individually, but all that meant was that each group got its own bus – yes, we were back to the busses. In fact at one point, a group ahead of us was called and formed a queue at the gate and then had a five minute hold-up while they waited for another bus…. not a good experience. But we got on board eventually and the aircraft (another A350, with us seated in same way) took off not too much delayed. The flight passed uneventfully, I may have managed a bit of sleep, and we landed at Singapore just about on time.

Actually getting into Singapore took me a bit of time – they have new electronic passport control gates which a) scan your passport, b) take a look at your face, and (if it’s not happy with that) c) require a thumb-print scan. I had to have a handful of attempt at c) before I was let in. Val just breezed through with just the facial scan at the first attempt, of course. We got our bags, found a taxi, and were at the hotel about ninety minutes after landing. We were feeling pretty tired by then, and I was pleased that we’d set things up so that we hadn’t been trying to get currency, phone sims or anything else at the airport.

Checkin at the hotel was quick; we unpacked, showered, changed, and went out for a meal at a restaurant we knew. There was just one hiccup – we had to use cash (of which we fortunately had some) to load value ) – it turns out that the MRT system (Singapore’s metro) requires local debit and credit cards only to add value onto our EzLink cards (Singapore’s equivalent of London’s Oyster cards). Fortunately we had cash and found one lonely machine that would accept it. Then – finally – bed, and good night’s sleep. But oh, the pleasure I had experiencing that Singapore heat! – I love it. I’m finding English winters increasingly hard.

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