Exploring Changi Airport

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We had booked a local driver for 6am and were outside and waiting when he rang to say that our address did not exist. I had sent details of the nearest cross road and reminded him to take that route. Unfortunately he ended up in the next suburb. Another call and he was back on track, arriving 15 minutes late. I never seem to have any joy booking transport to the airport.

It was a quick run with the holiday traffic and there was no queue at check-in. Passport control and customs were also super quick, so it wasn't long before we were back at our annual coffee spot.

We left on time and were even a little early into Singapore. With four hours till our next flight, there wasn't enough time to leave the airport but plenty to do with three terminals to explore. We started with a visit to the Butterfly Garden at Terminal 3 then caught the Sky train to Terminal 2 and visited the cactus garden before travelling back to Terminal 3 via the newly built Jewel. The waterfall was amazing as it cascaded the height of the dome to the void below

Detouring via the Crystal garden, we caught the train again to Terminal 2 and picked up our $20Sng vouchers which gave us two hours entry to the transit lounge. We enjoyed cold drinks (alcohol not included), snacks and a little hot food, including some Dahl to get in the spirit of our visit to Nepal.

Unfortunately, the flight was delayed to Kathmandu.

We ended up leaving 40 minutes late. There was no in-flight entertainment but we were fed again and water was offered a few times. There were two spare seats next to me so we were able to spread out across six seats which made it easier to get some sleep.

We had done our visa applications online so on arrival went immediately to the counter to pay the visa fee. There was quite a bottleneck around the visa kiosk machines which we were glad to avoid. We ran into a problem at immigration as we couldn't find all our boarding passes (as we didn't know we needed them). Fortunately we had printed out copies of the boarding pass when we had checked in online and these were accepted.

Our bags were waiting and we went straight through customs and exited the airport to find a representative from the trekking company holding a sign with "Suzanne". We provided the details of our accommodation, Sunshine Boutique Hotel, Lazimpat, but there were no street details. Calls to the hotel went unanswered so I provided my limited knowledge from Google maps, being that the hotel was on the right side of the main road to Thamel, about 1.7 km from the trekking office.

It was all eyes on the side of the road and we eventually spotted the hotel sign. Check in was quick and we were soon in our rooms, being around 4am Sydney time.

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