To enjoy the rewards, we must first pay the price upfront – Los Angeles to Tokyo to Singapore to Bangkok – the longest flight sequence of the trip. Singapore Airlines Flight 11 goes from Los Angeles to Singapore with a 1.5 hour stop in Tokyo (no change of planes, but you do have to get off and on again).
And because Singapore changed their flight schedules after we originally bought our ticket, instead of a nice overnight in Singapore at a comfy hotel, we arrived at 3:15 am with a 10-hour layover. The positively anticipated stop for R&R before taking the final 2:20 flight to Bangkok turned into a 5:30 am march through the streets and hotel bathrooms of Singapore City Center.
But to start with the challenges is to undersell the miracles. Sennen and Ailyn made it through 20 hours of flight time, several hours at LAX and 1.5 hours at Narita with not a fuss or problem. For the first year, not a moment of crying, no awkward moments on the plane, no mishaps – nothing. They were models of pediatric air travel virtue. They even slept at the right times without a fuss.
And then, they handled Singapore boot camp like champs. After dropping Emily off at the 24-hour Starbucks in the Plaza Singapura mall, Matheus and I were left with the question of what to do with a three and five-year-old in Singapore at 4:30 am. Luckily, I had a plan in pocket. Anticipating everyone would be hungry, I decided the moment could dovetail nicely with one of my own goals for the Singapore layover: martabak. Chicken, scrambled egg and fried onions enclosed in a Malay-Indian style roti paratha served with a bowl of curry dipping sauce. Given martabak is a Singaporean favorite late-night eat, it’s not surprising that my favorite martabak establishment is open 24 hours. The fact that it was a 15-minute walk from Emily’s Starbucks made the stars align.
So it was that the kids and I marched down Bras Basah road, made a left on Bencoolen and found our way to the raggedy, Al-Jamil our what I like to think of as House of Martabak. There we ordered up a cheap feast of egg and cheese stuffed roti paratha, nasi goreng (malay fried rice), mee goreng (Malay fried noodles), peanut butter stuffed roti paratha and of course martabak. Plates swirled around the table as the kids and Matheus boldly tried it all.
It didn’t take long after greasy hand and face clean-up was complete, and the bill was paid for Sennen to report his emergent need to poop. And Al-Jamil was not the kind of place to offer a customer a bathroom. Nor were many bathroom options open at that hour and area of town. I knew we needed either a mall that was partially opened, or a hotel – and fast. So, we flagged the first taxi to whisk us the few, but long blocks to what I hoped would be a handy restroom at Raffles City Mall. And while the mall itself offered no sanctuary, the connected Swisshotel did. And then the 5-Star Fullerton Hotel again 20 minutes later.
But eventually, with bodies filled, emptied and tired from walking along the Singapore River at dawn admiring the water, the skyline and collecting fallen frangipani blooms with the plan of making perfume in Bangkok, the kids were ready for a rest. I decided to take them to Bencoolen Link – a pedestrian-only street with a market and two temples, Taoist and Hindu – to sit and watch the prayerful while sipping cold drinks. To get there, we went on a one-stop journey on the Singapore MRT – the kids’ first experience with a subway and one that sets the bar incredibly high. New York’s looks like a collection of moving garbage bins by comparison. Sennen mentioned this as part of making today, “a day I’ll never forget”.
After frustrating struggles with technical problems at one of her schools, Emily rejoined us by the temples and then shortly thereafter, our friend Tony Cohen a 12 year-resident of Singapore converged on us too. From there it was walking, sitting, visiting, letting kids play, doing small errands –enjoying time with a good friend from growing up
However, while sitting at Starbucks, Ailyn told Emily she was tired, crawled up to cuddle with Emily and promptly fell asleep on her. Sennen stayed energized, but by the time we were ready to leave for the airport, he was laying his head on the table also fighting off sleep – and as soon as we hit the back seat of the taxi, he was out.
It became obvious that our kids were running on low batteries and that the exemplary performance of the first and longest flights may not be what we experienced on our last and shortest leg of the journey. Emily recalled that for the past three years, it has always been the last and shortest leg of the journey that has involved crying, meltdowns and other challenging moments.
As we waited for our delayed flight to Bangkok, our kids began to get on our nerves – probably partly because of them and partly from our own fatigue. We prayed to board and get the flight over with.
And how did it go? Well, no meltdowns. But fussing over a candy, pasta being eaten by hand, repeated question asking, impatience… but all tolerable enough to avoid labeling it a fiasco. It didn’t end in half-asleep night terrors with unintelligible slurred speech and crying like last year’s flight to Chiang Mai nor the “Turn the plane around! I want to go back to America! I love America!” like our 2016 final descent and landing in Bali. I’ll call that a success – although our kids were in a state of exhaustion that only trans-global travel can do to them.
That said, if ever there were a mark of success it was Singapore Airlines’ endorsement from Sennen, “Daddy, I like Singapore Airlines better than the country (of Singapore)!” When asked why, “Because they give us more things! The airplane is fun – I don’t want to get off!” And on the flight to Bangkok, “Daddy, they have the best food on Singapore Airlines. This is really great!”
Is it a case of simple pleasures or does he face serious disappointments ahead when he flies other, less reputed airlines? Time will tell.
In the end, the emotional volatility that characterized the end of the day was a small price to pay. Our condo in the Rama IX neighborhood is fantastic. We have a small mall downstairs and a large one down the block. We did a complete grocery shop to get us started right – as supermarkets are always on the basement floor of malls – and grabbed some dinner from street vendors and the supermarket food court.
Unlike Sennen, this may be a day I choose to minimize. But I agree with him wholeheartedly when he told me on the plane, “Daddy, this year’s trip is going to be the most incredible ever. We’re tired – but we’re off to a great start!
