Vietnam and Singapore: January, 2014

On January 14th I finally consumed the final portion of my Air Canada points by boarding one of their 777s flying to Frankfurt (8 hours).  There I changed to a Thai air A-380 for Bangkok (13 hours).  At BKK, I boarded another 777 for Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon, 1 hour).  I did not know how long the VOA (visa on arrival) process would take, based on my previous experience, so I had not booked a flight on to Da Nang.  That was somewhat of a mistake as domestic flights are so heavily booked in Viet.I had to go back and forth between different airlines and agencies in a hot and crowded terminal for a couple of hours, all to be told there were no flights available until late evening (it was 0900 then).  Then mysteriously, I accepted a standby position on Viet air and was given a valid boarding pass with a seat.  Why that happened when three minutes earlier it was impossible, I do not know.

After a couple hours waiting, I was off to Da Nang, where after 31 hours of wide awake flights and changes, I would only have to fall into a taxi and go 30 km. to Ho An.  So easy.  Ha Ha.  Incredibly, I found in the line up, the only driver in Vietnam who did not know the way to Hoi An.  It is like not know where JFK is in NY.  The driver was good, except that he could not shift the manual gears without killing the engine over an over.   It took two hours to make what should have been a 20 minute trip.I was so exhausted by the time I arrived at a nice four star hotel.  But I was just glad to be there.

I must mention something odd about Thai Air.  The A-380 is the double decker monster that is the largest passenger aircraft in the world today.  Usually on the main deck, there are 500 souls on board.  I have flown A-380s on Emirates, and Singapore airlines previously and were v comfortable despite being packed full.
But the leg room on Thai was for Midgets - just terrible, especially for a 13 hours flight.

But then I learned something amazing to me.  Because these giants fly v. long routes, they need double crews.  The crews on Singapore and Emirates have a kind of big box at the back to the aircraft where the crews go in to sleep.  But Thai air has decided to put the sleeping rooms down in the freight area and the stews have to descent a ladder to get to the freight section, and they are not happy about it.  It seems surprising that you get the largest psgr craft ever made, reduce the legroom seriously, and stick the crew in the basement!

Singapore is where I finished up the trip, but I put it at the top here because it is the most visual part of the trip.

When I was last in Singapore, the Marina Sands Hotel and Casino were completed, but not open yet.  It is such an amazing structure and development that I wanted to return to see it all.  It is three 57 storey hotel buildings with a plank across the tops of the three buildings.  The interesting thing is that the buildings are not only massive, but slightly curved which is fascinating to the eye.  The hotel rooms are constantly sold out at $330-350++.  I did not stay there because of the tours that make it a noisy - all-night place.  

On top is a viewing deck - which is the 221 foot point that sticks out.  The public can go up there for $20., but they cannot go to the infinity pool as that is only for guests.  There are several restaurants and  bars up there and the view is wonderful.  I am an addict of the harbour and it is always full of huge ships,

I saw tv program on how the hotel was built.  The unsupported point sticking out had to be counterbalanced with two 7,500 ton weights on the hotel's top floor.  Singapore insisted that they wanted the concrete sides painted - which is not common with concrete.  The tv doc. showed men on window washing equipment painting the walls with little hand rollers and 4" brushes that you would use at home to paint the bathroom.  But they mostly looked like Bangladeshi men, so I guess the labour cost was meaningless.

Of course, there is a giant  - and v. pretty - shopping mall in the base of each building.  The Casino is managed by the Sands corp. of Vegas under the strict eye of the State.  But all reports and local people say it is a great success.  Locals have to pay $80 (U.S. to enter, but they say that nothing

will stop them from gaming).   The two humps shown are the Symphony hall and the Art Gallery.  It took me 16 years to finally find a program I wanted to attend there and a ticket available.  The program was Strauss, Four last songs with a Swedish soprano and an hour of Wagner.  Unfortunately both the orch. and the soprano were 2nd rate. But the interior of the hall is amazing.  It has many features, of which I can only describe one - the raw silk covered walls in a pleasant green colour.
I like the design of these buildings.  You cannot really see here the odd surface of each of them which together with their shapes has led locals to refer to them as Mating aardvarks.

At one huge exit wall (probably 20'high and 24' wide, at one of the hotel towers is the above.  It is a water wall where a perfect flow of water runs down from the top, and activates thousands of little white bars probably 6" each.  Some obsessive/perfectionist artist worked out the precise amount of water it would take to activate all of these bars simultaneously.  It is a great piece of art and one of the most exciting things

 I saw the whole trip.
Singapore is just amazing.  Although foreigners like me admire it - still regretting that not a speck of old Singapore remains - many of the locals think there are too many glass towers and concrete, and that they have lost a lot of their culture.  Understandable.  But people like me admire it because when you come from a trip in seriously undeveloped China, Indonesia, or chaotic Vietnam, the orderliness, cleanliness and fine architecture of the place is pleasing.  The stupid No. American media can never get over chewing gum and haircuts and fails to notice it is the 3rd richest nation per capita, and about 2nd or 3rd richest in its sovereign wealth fund.  It is a (bitter)  miracle compared to all its neighbours in the region and achieved all of its gains through hard, single-minded sacrifices and unsurpassed economic intelligence.

I was very happy to be back again, especially as it was 81 F. when I departed and -2 F in Toronto.