Victoria to Sydney

I arrived in Sydney two days ago and have spent the time recovering and only now do I have enough energy to update the blog.

In order to get to the airport in Vancouver in time to check in for my flight I had to catch the 6 a.m. bus from Victoria. As some of you know I am not a morning person so you can imagine how thrilled I was at that. The bus actually drives on to the ferry and everyone gets off and goes to the upper decks for the one and a half hour crossing. They have a couple of cafes, a buffet restaurant and even an arcade on board. Since it was 7 a.m. and kind of cold, I spent the trip inside reading a book. The ferry ride to Victoria last week was in the afternoon and the weather was great so I sat outside and watched the islands go by.

The first flight was to Singapore, via Seoul Korea - 18 hours 45 minutes! I've never flown on Singapore Airlines before and what a treat it was. Each seat, even in economy class, has its own tv screen. There's a controller attached to your arm rest that you use to select what you want it to do. In addition to music you have a choice of 80 movies, tv programs, documentaries, information on your destination, and even video games. I played Super Mario for the first time in years. And the on-demand movies meant I didn't have to watch what everyone else was and I could pause it when I wanted to have a washroom or stretch break. Singapore Airlines could definitely teach Air Canada a few things - although I guess with competition for market shares, the other airlines may be forced to make similar luxuries available. And the flight attendants gave great service - actually I felt bad for them as they were run off their feet carrying single glasses of water or tea to fulfil individual requests. We got off the plane in Seoul for an hour while they cleaned and restocked the plane - I didn't expect to have to get off, so unfortunately I had taken a sleeping pill shortly before and was rather incoherent. I do remember that there was a heritage group running an booth where travellers were invited to sit down and paint a fan in a traditional Korean pattern.

I changed planes in Singapore for the flight to Sydney - also Singapore Airline. The flight was practically empty so I had three seats to myself to lie down. Arrived in Sydney at 9:20 a.m. local time and took a train to North Sydney to where my friend Robin was picking me up. The train system in Sydney is run more like the subway in Toronto than like the GO Train. Trains come along very regularly and there are lots of stops. The routes are quite extensive.

Total travelling time = 36 hours.