Singapore Sling
FROM CAP’N MERYL
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/getline/2005-04-04-ask-the-captain_x.htm
“Singapore Sling”
What fun to fly around the planet as a way to earn
a living, and what a full week. First was the
commute from Denver to Chicago to spend the night,
The next day it was on to Tokyo for a layover.
That was on the Saturday before Easter. By the
time we crossed the International Dateline into
Easter Sunday, it was late in the evening so we
pretty much missed the holiday altogether.
Fortunately, thinking ahead, I left Al the Web Guy
with a nice stash of Easter goodies.
My copilot this trip was none other than
Laen(pronounced “Lane”) August. Many of you
already “know” Laen as he flew with me once before
as relief pilot on a military charter to the
Middle East. Here’s his picture from the charter
we flew together and there are some new pictures
of him as well in a different section which I’ll
tell you about in a little bit:
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=topn&cat=&pos=2
We were joined by our two relief pilots, Bob
Sweeney and Roger Laitres, in Flight Operations to
plan our flight. You’ll find their pictures as
well in a new Album in the Photo Gallery.
I’ve been to Tokyo several times recently, but the
last time I visited Singapore was in the late
eighties when I was Al the Web Guy’s Copilot on
the DC-10.
Singapore lies just 1 degree north of the equator
or about 60 miles. It’s hot and sweaty pretty much
all year round.
Bob and Roger, our relief pilots, got off in
Tokyo, laid over, then headed back to Chicago as
the relief pilots on another flight while Laen and
I headed down to Singapore—just two of us this
time. Flight time was 7 hours 17 minutes.
Anything over eight hours requires a relief pilot,
and anything over twelve hours requires two relief
pilots. So we were on our own from Tokyo to
Singapore and back.
Taking off out of Tokyo it was quite rough but
smoothed out soon enough and we had a great ride
the rest of the way. Part way down the moon rose
over my left shoulder illuminating the
Philippines. What a beautiful sight, those
islands in the moonlight.
The earthquake in Indonesia that you may have read
about occurred about 400 miles from Singapore.
We were on the crew bus between the airport and
the hotel in Singapore when it hit just after
midnight and we were unaware that it had happened,
but the hotel staff felt it. There was no damage
locally although there was devastating damage in
Indonesia.
The next morning I decided to visit the bird park
and took the subway to get there. When I arrived
at the station, I saw my train was leaving in just
two minutes and was rushing, trying to figure out
how to get my ticket from a GTM or General Ticket
Machine, which was really quite straightforward.
I asked a girl at an information booth what time
the next train was in case I fooled around too
long and missed this one, picturing a wait of
several hours. I needn’t have worried. “Next
train in seven minutes.” I forgot. This was
Singapore. Very clean. Very efficient. Very
no-nonsense and at the same time very exotic.
After the subway ride of almost a half hour, half
of which was above-ground, I had to transfer to a
bus. It was a very old, unconditioned down-home
two-storey affair with some colorful locals on
board.
I asked the driver to let me off at the bird park
but he forgot. Several passengers very helpfully
screamed at him to let me off after he’d passed
the entrance. I trudged through a little bit of
jungle to get back where I needed to go, just
waiting for something scary to come swinging out
of a tree or slithering through the grass, but
thankfully that didn’t happen and I got to the
entrance just fine.
This seems like a good time to inject a little
info about the new album I’ve added to my Photo
Gallery called Chicago – Tokyo – Singapore. It
could really be divided into three parts: The
flight from Chicago to Tokyo, including some nice
shots of my crew and of Alaska, then some new
aerial shots around Narita Airport, then the
birdie park. It should be easy to skip over groups
of photos you think might not interest you. In any
case, please click here to get right to this new
album:
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=15
After I returned from the bird park I went to the
famous Raffles Hotel which is basically next door
to our layover hotel. Al the Web Guy and I went
there years ago and it looked about the same, the
prices as exorbitant as ever.
The bar at the Raffles Hotel is the birthplace of
that famous drink known as the Singapore Sling,
made with gin, lemon juice, cherry brandy and
carbonated water.
I’m not a drinker so I had a look but didn’t stay.
On the way out, I met a British couple and asked
if they’d had Singapore Slings. I could see that
everyone in the whole place was drinking them.
The gentleman answered “Oh, yes!”
“And how was it?” I asked.
“Bloody awful!” was his cheerful reply.
“Really? What did it taste like?” I ventured to
ask.
He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Like I’d
expect battery acid to taste if you mixed it with
vinegar.” He added as an apparent afterthought,
“Only not as good.”
So much for this famous and popular frothy pink
concoction.
I considered eating something ethnic for dinner
and stopped at a Chinese restaurant, but when I
saw “squid guts” on the menu, that was enough for
me and I bolted over to a French delicatessen and
had a hot dog wrapped in a crescent roll—-a
“safe” choice for my crudely Americanized
palate.
In the meantime, Laen was out getting a Chinese
massage. He said it was really painful and he had
trouble getting out of bed the next morning due to
the stiffness and pain, but seemed satisfied that
the massage had been beneficial.
I’m not into pain all the much. I was happy with
my visit to the bird park and my hot dog, after
which I went for a lovely swim in the hotel pool
and collapsed after a long day in the equatorial
heat.
A second night in Singapore, an early morning
departure to Tokyo, next day home to the U.S. and
we were done!
Now, wasn’t that easy?
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airpseed!
Cap’n Meryl
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/getline/2005-04-04-ask-the-captain_x.htm
“Singapore Sling”
What fun to fly around the planet as a way to earn
a living, and what a full week. First was the
commute from Denver to Chicago to spend the night,
The next day it was on to Tokyo for a layover.
That was on the Saturday before Easter. By the
time we crossed the International Dateline into
Easter Sunday, it was late in the evening so we
pretty much missed the holiday altogether.
Fortunately, thinking ahead, I left Al the Web Guy
with a nice stash of Easter goodies.
My copilot this trip was none other than
Laen(pronounced “Lane”) August. Many of you
already “know” Laen as he flew with me once before
as relief pilot on a military charter to the
Middle East. Here’s his picture from the charter
we flew together and there are some new pictures
of him as well in a different section which I’ll
tell you about in a little bit:
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=topn&cat=&pos=2
We were joined by our two relief pilots, Bob
Sweeney and Roger Laitres, in Flight Operations to
plan our flight. You’ll find their pictures as
well in a new Album in the Photo Gallery.
I’ve been to Tokyo several times recently, but the
last time I visited Singapore was in the late
eighties when I was Al the Web Guy’s Copilot on
the DC-10.
Singapore lies just 1 degree north of the equator
or about 60 miles. It’s hot and sweaty pretty much
all year round.
Bob and Roger, our relief pilots, got off in
Tokyo, laid over, then headed back to Chicago as
the relief pilots on another flight while Laen and
I headed down to Singapore—just two of us this
time. Flight time was 7 hours 17 minutes.
Anything over eight hours requires a relief pilot,
and anything over twelve hours requires two relief
pilots. So we were on our own from Tokyo to
Singapore and back.
Taking off out of Tokyo it was quite rough but
smoothed out soon enough and we had a great ride
the rest of the way. Part way down the moon rose
over my left shoulder illuminating the
Philippines. What a beautiful sight, those
islands in the moonlight.
The earthquake in Indonesia that you may have read
about occurred about 400 miles from Singapore.
We were on the crew bus between the airport and
the hotel in Singapore when it hit just after
midnight and we were unaware that it had happened,
but the hotel staff felt it. There was no damage
locally although there was devastating damage in
Indonesia.
The next morning I decided to visit the bird park
and took the subway to get there. When I arrived
at the station, I saw my train was leaving in just
two minutes and was rushing, trying to figure out
how to get my ticket from a GTM or General Ticket
Machine, which was really quite straightforward.
I asked a girl at an information booth what time
the next train was in case I fooled around too
long and missed this one, picturing a wait of
several hours. I needn’t have worried. “Next
train in seven minutes.” I forgot. This was
Singapore. Very clean. Very efficient. Very
no-nonsense and at the same time very exotic.
After the subway ride of almost a half hour, half
of which was above-ground, I had to transfer to a
bus. It was a very old, unconditioned down-home
two-storey affair with some colorful locals on
board.
I asked the driver to let me off at the bird park
but he forgot. Several passengers very helpfully
screamed at him to let me off after he’d passed
the entrance. I trudged through a little bit of
jungle to get back where I needed to go, just
waiting for something scary to come swinging out
of a tree or slithering through the grass, but
thankfully that didn’t happen and I got to the
entrance just fine.
This seems like a good time to inject a little
info about the new album I’ve added to my Photo
Gallery called Chicago – Tokyo – Singapore. It
could really be divided into three parts: The
flight from Chicago to Tokyo, including some nice
shots of my crew and of Alaska, then some new
aerial shots around Narita Airport, then the
birdie park. It should be easy to skip over groups
of photos you think might not interest you. In any
case, please click here to get right to this new
album:
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=15
After I returned from the bird park I went to the
famous Raffles Hotel which is basically next door
to our layover hotel. Al the Web Guy and I went
there years ago and it looked about the same, the
prices as exorbitant as ever.
The bar at the Raffles Hotel is the birthplace of
that famous drink known as the Singapore Sling,
made with gin, lemon juice, cherry brandy and
carbonated water.
I’m not a drinker so I had a look but didn’t stay.
On the way out, I met a British couple and asked
if they’d had Singapore Slings. I could see that
everyone in the whole place was drinking them.
The gentleman answered “Oh, yes!”
“And how was it?” I asked.
“Bloody awful!” was his cheerful reply.
“Really? What did it taste like?” I ventured to
ask.
He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Like I’d
expect battery acid to taste if you mixed it with
vinegar.” He added as an apparent afterthought,
“Only not as good.”
So much for this famous and popular frothy pink
concoction.
I considered eating something ethnic for dinner
and stopped at a Chinese restaurant, but when I
saw “squid guts” on the menu, that was enough for
me and I bolted over to a French delicatessen and
had a hot dog wrapped in a crescent roll—-a
“safe” choice for my crudely Americanized
palate.
In the meantime, Laen was out getting a Chinese
massage. He said it was really painful and he had
trouble getting out of bed the next morning due to
the stiffness and pain, but seemed satisfied that
the massage had been beneficial.
I’m not into pain all the much. I was happy with
my visit to the bird park and my hot dog, after
which I went for a lovely swim in the hotel pool
and collapsed after a long day in the equatorial
heat.
A second night in Singapore, an early morning
departure to Tokyo, next day home to the U.S. and
we were done!
Now, wasn’t that easy?
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airpseed!
Cap’n Meryl
<< Home