Flight Report - Taipei to Bangalore

I went on a business trip earlier this month to Bangalore, India.  It was my first trip to India and first business trip in almost 2 1/2 years due to cost cutting at work.  I love airports, airplanes, and pretty much anything else that has to do with transportation and travel so was happy to find out my flight would be on Singapore Airlines with a connection at Singapore's Changi Airport.  Singapore Airlines is one of the top airlines in the world and the country's airport is one of the top airports in the world; I could easily spend hours if not days exploring the place, eating the foods, and going window shopping. Unfortunately, my layover was only two hours long so I had to make the best of it. Anyway, for those who like this kind of thing, here's my trip report in (as Tina would put it) excruciating detail ....


Taoyuan Aiport


The trip began at 10am on Sunday morning when my sedan driver came to pick me up for the trip to the Taoyuan Airport (formerly known as Chiang Kai Shek International Airport).  I would have preferred taking the High Speed Rail but, with a suitcase, it was more expedient to hire a driver as I wouldn't have to transfer from taxi to train to shuttle bus. Plus it was only NT700 (a little over US$23) and they threw in an (older) Mercedes S class car too! Tina and kids joined me on the ride as they were going to church so the driver dropped them off there before heading on the freeway.  Two hours later I was dropped off at the airport (Terminal 2). I had already completed the check-in process two days earlier online so merely had to drop off my bags, get through immigration and security, and find some lunch.

There, surprisingly, aren't a whole lot of dining options at the airport.  I saw a Burger King in the public area, a noodle place past security, and a cafe. I chose the cafe as it had a view of the runway and I really didn't want any Chinese food. Lunch was thus a semi-decent spaghetti with meat sauce and a Diet Coke.


TPE to SIN


Feeling much better after lunch, I headed to the gate. I had noticed quite a large number of Mainland Chinese visitors throughout the airport and it had shocked me to hear boarding announcements for flights to Beijing and Guangzhou. Growing up in Taiwan in the mid-Eighties it was just about forbidden to talk about the People's Republic of China. I'm glad to see things have changed but it is still a shock.

The flight to Singapore was on an Airbus A330-300 in a two-class configuration.  I was looking forward to this flight and this bird is one of Singapore Airline's newer planes and has an upgraded entertainment system. Upon boarding, I was surprised that the seats felt a bit cramped. According to the Seat Guru website, seat pitch on the A330 is 32" and width is 19" which is pretty standard. I was somewhat spoiled as my flight into Taiwan was on a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 with a pitch of 34" (plus we got a bulkhead seat for the baby crib).  I wish I had a ruler as it sure didn't feel like 19". The seats are in a 2-4-2 configuration which I like as I got a window seat. The AV system is pretty darn cool.  There's a huge 10.4" screen, tons of audio and video on demand, and, if that's not enough, ports for you to connect your own DVD player or an iPod!  This last feature pretty much pushed over the edge to buy an iPod Touch.  I asked for a special iPod cable upon boarding (free but first come first serve) which plugs into the bottom of the iPod and then you insert the other side into the round port next to the screen. I did that, turned on the AV system, and got ... bupkuss.  Nothing. Nada. Hmmm ... I checked the configuration and manual and everything looked right.  None of the video on demand programs were working either. Bummer. 


Dinner was being served so I ate the Asian chicken selection (not much worth writing about here) but I did enjoy the after dinner dessert of a small strawberry Hagen-Daz ice cream. I also told the purser about my issue and he promptly reset the system on my seat.  (Geek alert - My screenshot of the bootup system shows they are running on a Linux platform.)

After the reset, everything ran fine.  I watched a few short videos on the iPod and then started to watch "Inception" on AVOD.  The screen, while nice and large, is a bit lacking in terms of brightness and contrast. The video system is relatively low res (I guess that's how they manage to have over 100 films onboard) so it's a bit jerky too. Still, there's more than enough entertainment for a 4 hours flight and I was only halfway through the movie before we had to shut things down for approach.  I posted a video on YouTube of the landing which can be found here. (Sorry for the vertical orientation ... I'm still figuring out my iPod .)


Singapore Changi Airport

Many others have written about this airport so I won't spend too much time here.  Suffice to say this is one of the best airports in world. Where else can you find a fern forest, a butterfly room, and a swimming pool in transit? My stop here was brief as I only had 90 min to make my flight to Bangalore. Landing at Terminal 2, I quickly made my way to the AirTrain to go to the new Terminal 3 (T3).  T3 is relatively new and I hadn't been before. It's impressive.  Lots of light, lots of room, and plenty of shopping and dining. Dining was my main objective here and I found the 24 hour food court located above the main shopping plaza.  My objective?  Hainan chicken rice and chili crab which I found at the Prima Taste restaurant.  I quickly got both 'to go' and headed back to T2 to find my flight to India. Changi is a bit odd in that security (X-rays and metal detectors) are installed at each gate instead of centrally located. The security staff made me dump my newly purchased and unopened can of Diet Coke (bummer!) and almost made me throw my contact lens solution away. At the gate, I suddenly felt a bit out of my comfort zone as I was one of a handful of non-Indians boarding the flight. There were a few other Asians and a smattering of Western business types but everyone else was an Indian business person or their family. Boarding was quick and efficient (and SQ Boeing 777-200) and I was off to India.




SIN to BLR


Though it has the same seat pitch this older 777 supposedly has narrower seats (17.5").  I think someone at seatguru.com messed up as this seats definitely felt wider and more comfortable. The's much more overhead space on the 777 as the overhead bins retract into the ceiling. Score one for Boeing!  As this was an older plane, the AVOD system had not been upgraded. The movie selection was the same though so I finished watching Inception while digging to my chili crab and the vegetarian selection on the flight. The bumpy flight as well as the sudden infusion of spices into my system made me feel a bit queasy so I skipped the ice cream (Nestle drumstick) and tried to get some sleep.  The rest of the flight (4 hours) was uneventful and we had a smooth landing in India.


Bengaluru International Airport


My seat mate happened to work for HP in India and was a local Bengalorian (sp?).  He gave me a bit insight into the city (exponential growth in the last 15 years!  Real estate up 20x!) as well as the brand new airport we were landing at.  The old airport was close to downtown but the new airport is a 1 - 2 hour drive depending on traffic. It was quite nice and clean though it was your typical metal structure with high ceilings and lots of windows.  Immigration and customs took a few more steps than usual as you had to go through a security X ray before you picked up your bags. (Little did I know that security / X rays are a big deal at all the major hotels and shopping malls ... I guess terrorism does that to you.)  I met up with my coworker and we made our way outside to the surprisingly cool night air to find our driver.  One of the local managers had arranged for a 'rental car'.  What I didn't know is that all 'rental cars' in India come with a driver for free. This is a good thing as the drive from the airport to downtown was pretty harrowing. (Imagine six to seven lanes of cars on a three lane expressway driving down a break neck speed while weaving in and out of each other.)  Traffic in Taiwan is pretty down staid and orderly compared to this!  That said, our driver knew what he was doing, the car was small but very clean, and we were at the Leela Palace Hotel in under an hour. We were greeted by a security check (mirrors checking underneath our ride) and then a lobby with a huge Christmas tree and Christmas carols. Check-in involved one of the hotel staff personally escorting me to my room to make sure I did not get lost. (This was a recurring theme ... Service levels were high ... Almost too high.)  And there I was in India after a 14 hour trip from home.  After a hot bath and some CNN I was down for the night.


Steve