Kathmandu to Singapore – Massage chairs rock…
Day 12 – Singapore 2008
Well, it was time for the pretty inconvenient and highly dreaded overnight stop in Singapore on the way to Thailand. I remember years ago actually writing in a similar journal that I was never, ever, ever going to sleep in an airport again. It always seems like a good idea in advance, but at 4am, lying on a concrete floor, back in spasms and
a floor polisher buzzing past your head, you realise that you’d pay more than the average £40 airport hotel fee to end the misery. Of course, that memory mellows after 6 months or so though and you get back to thinking, ‘£40? And I have to get up at 5am anyway – no chance!’
At least the international terminal of Kathmandu airport turned out to be exponentially more efficient than the domestic version and we were up and away pretty much dead-on our scheduled 11am departure. Much to the dissapointment of Cat and I there weren’t even any films on our Silk air flight from Kathmandu to Singpore, only endless replays of Mr Bean, You’ve Been Framed and some weird asian cartoon in which a maybe-bear/perhaps-dog went through various highly embarassing, painful and sometimes plain cruel situations.
Singapore airport is, if you have to be stuck somewhere for a night, probably the best of a bad bunch. The place is huge and harbours the facilities of a small city – restaurants, shopping centre, cinema, gym, computer games centre, the works. Most importantly though, it has a chill-out area called ‘The Oasis’ in which you’ll find a set of futuristic looking massage chairs. After getting some food and exhausting the entertainment options for the evening Cat and I went off in search of these chairs thinking they might offer our only chance of actually getting some sleep. Luckily for us The Oasis was flamin miles away, a good 15 minute walk from the main restaurant/shopping area, and noone else could be arsed with the trek. We snagged 2 of the 4 chairs and settled down for some massage induced sleep. The chairs were actually pretty damn awesome. A remote controlled every tiny function of the seat, from reclining angle and massage type to silly details such as leg bend and head angle. After being pounded and pummeled to within an inch of our lives Cat and I turned off the invisible hands and put our super-chairs into full recline. I woke up once or twice due to the ubiquitous floor polishers but that chair not only saved me £40, it gave me the best sleep I’d had in two weeks.
