The main reason for this trip is to support Hope International's two regional events. I usually don't need a great excuse to come to Hong Kong, so this will do just fine. Given the timing of the events, I will first travel to Hong Kong, then hop over to Singapore, and return to NJ from there.
9/11 Monday. I found out late last night the incoming plane (from San Francisco) had to return to the gate. While the United APP didn't say why, today's crew did mention it was a maintenance issue. United has an old fleet, and this 777-200 (N783UA) first went into service in 2/1997, so is 26.5 years old. The plane ended up arriving at Newark 2 1/2 hours late. (Some trivia: the first United 777 (N777UA) is 28.5 years old, it's still flying today. The seating arrangement is of the "antiquated" kind, with first class seats facing both forward and backwards, although they did change the configuration in economy from 2-5-2 to 3-4-3, with the addition of economy plus seats.
Early this morning United still showed a delay of 50 minutes, so we left the house later than planned (Anne dropped me off before going to Brookdale for start of term). Somehow my biometrics weren't working with CLEAR; in the past they would still take me to the TSA check point, this time they said they couldn't. The TSA precheck line was a bit long, that meant it was about 10 minutes before I cleared security. I picked up some breakfast of egg white and sausages at the "new" United Club in Terminal C. The food could be warmer, but generally I have no complaints, especially since the club was relatively quiet.
The boarding process just started (still at the pre-board stage) when an announcement came on saying there would be a moment of silence at 9:03 am to commemorate 9/11. The usual din quieted down when they announced the moment, but the boarding process continued. This newly configured 777-200 has a lot fewer economy plus seats, so I chose an aisle seat in regular economy. For the 5:20 hour flight it was okay, even with a full flight. It depends on one's expectations, and the size of the neighbor. Scheduled for 8:30 am departure, The flight took off at 9:57 am.
The scheduled connection time was about 1:30 hours, but our plane landed early enough that I had more than 30 minutes to transfer, helped further by UA1312 being assigned a gate in Terminal G, where the SFO-HKG flight departs. With Terminal G being a relatively recent addition, I was surprised that our gate was a "towing" gate. Just around then I was notified that I was upgraded to Business, but got the disappointing news when I was boarding that it was "only" to Premium Economy. (They deducted 40 Plus Points, which got adjusted after I contacted them Wednesday night.)
The TV Series "Barry" has good reviews. They were showing only season 4 (which I didn't know at first), so I couldn't make much sense out of the episode ("Yikes") I watched. I was quite tired throughout the trip, but managed only little sleep.
A word about United WiFi. For domestic flights the charge is $8 for Mileage Plus members, and there is a $2 discount if a United credit card is used. So the price is quite reasonable. For UA869, the cash price was $34.99, which is a lot higher than I remember; I used my T-mobile allowance for that. In both cases the performance was atrocious.
During the flight there were a couple of announcements asking for people with medical training to help out a passenger. The second one mentioned that the person was now unconscious. I was half-expecting the plane to be diverted (even though we were over the Pacific Ocean at that time); we were not. I hope the person was okay.
Upgraded to Premium Economy on SFO-HKG flight. Still didn't get much sleep.
The little piece of chicken - what one sees is mostly sauce - was quite tasty. Premium Economy food.
This was served before the plane landed at around 6 pm. Looks like breakfast, though.
9/12 Tuesday. When we came to Hong Kong in March, United only had the evening flight that would arrive early the morning two days later. UA869 leaves in the early afternoon and arrives in the early evening. Our flight was scheduled to arrive at 6:45 pm, but touched down at 5:53 pm. Taxiing and a shuttle ride to the immigration area meant it took about 30 minutes to clear immigration. Since I checked in luggage, that meant another 25 minutes to wait for luggage.
I had dinner at Tai Hing; then took the Airport Express and a taxi to go to Causeway Bay.
Dinner at Tai Hing at HKG airport. They use a lot of cooking oil in the dish "Minced Port with Garlic Sauce."
At this point in time Hurricane Lee was a strong Category 4/5 storm (it was category 5 for a day or so). I have always wondered how good the track forecast is, so took a screen shot as things stood on Tuesday 9/12 at 5 am. Supposedly the track would be affected by the strengths of the high pressure over the Atlantic and the low pressure over North America. Turns out at this point they had enough data to provide a rather accurate forecast (see a later photo below).
The area across from where I stay used to be low rise government buildings. The rather large site will be transformed over several years into a huge complex. I mentioned to Tim it hasn't changed much since I last visited in March; he said a lot of progress has been made. In any case about 300 people work there every day, as indicated by an "accident board" posted at the site entrance.
The safety record has been perfect so far this year.
Accommodation: Causeway Bay apartment (6 nights).
9/13 Wednesday. My week here in Hong Kong would be marked by meals with various people. I did start my day with a visit to Tim's office so he could draw blood for testing, and give me HA shots for my knees. Then it was off to Fairwood for "glutinous rice." Alas, it was not as delightful as it used to be; of course I still enjoyed it.
Lunch was at the Hong Kong Club Cafe with Larry, where we chatted for a couple of hours.
There was a lot of talk about Octopus Cards for Seniors being replaced by a new card, I had no trouble using the one I have, which was convenient. After lunch I walked over to City Hall to collect the ticket I bought on line for the Saturday Hong Kong Philharmonic concert.
With a bit of time on my hands, I took MTR to Tung Chung and walked around Citygate, the mall next to the MTR station. It was relatively quiet. Then it was back to CWB to rest up for the evening. I was hoping for a short nap, but that didn't happen.
Dinner was at Chuan Yue Lou (meaning "Sichuan Cantonese Restaurant"), a short Uber ride away. Traffic was a bit heavy, so I got there a few minutes late. Present were several Hope HK Board members, some with their family, and the guests for this Friday's event: Sam and Becca from India; well, Becca was originally from North Dakota and Ohio. Sam had some interesting stories/testimonies to share. Uber drop off back at CWB was around 10:30 pm.
Breakfast of Glutinous Rice at Fairwood. Still good, but not enjoying it as much as before.
Dinner with Hope people at Chuan Yue Lou. From left: Dan, Sam, Becca, Priscilla, Sharon, Nathan, myself, and Alan.
Eden is Joe and Alex's one year old daughter. We are "best friends" because I fed her some dessert (very light, and with Alex's permission).
Tim has some 0 alcohol beer lying around in his fridge. Tried this. Not sure why people like beer, except for the alcohol. Tried a 0 alcohol Kirin on Saturday; supposedly better, same reaction.
9/14 Thursday. Lunch was with a few members of boy scouts from my high school days. Some I had never met, some I hadn't seen for decades. Service was close to non-existent at the restaurant, but overall it was great to catch up.
This was followed by coffee with Joe T at IFC. A new Hope supporter Stephen T also joined us. He graduated from Cornell the same year Joe P and Jess did.
After an early dinner (by myself) at Pepper Lunch in Hysan Place, I took a long walk. I was drenched with sweat from the humidity and temperature.
I joined Ron's Bible study at 9:30 pm, and chatted with him (over zoom) quite a bit afterwards.
Gathering of old DBS Scouts: Daniel, Victor, Jeffrey, Stephen, myself, and Henry.
Having coffee with Joe T at IFC Starbucks. We will be joined by Stephen T later.
9/15 Friday. My day was free, so I picked, somewhat randomly, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum to visit. It was less walking if I took the bus, and Bus 170 was quite empty when I got on. It was a short walk from Che Kung Miu Station - including a pedestrian bridge over Shing Mun River - to the Museum.
One word I had for the place: disappointment; two words - major disappointment. Only one of the buildings had anything in it; if there were other exhibits (and there were per their website), they certainly made them difficult to find. The main attractions were exhibits about Bruce Lee and Leslie Cheung. Then there was this collection donated by a wealthy collector (quite impressive as a private collection), and some paintings by some painter (name of Chin Kee). If there is all there is to Hong Kong heritage, then it's a sorry state of affairs.
Shatin City One is a couple of MTR rides away, and I had a lunch of Hainan Chicken there before taking Bus 680 back to Causeway Bay, making a stop at a Fairwood in North Point to have "French Toast." Again, the experience was delight tinged with disappointment. (French toast and iced coffee cost HK$31, less than US$4.)
Dinner was the Hope International event, with guests Sam and Becca G, at Bombaby Dream. 70 people, the capacity of the venue, showed up. It rain on and off during the afternoon and evening, but I managed to avoid the heavy periods of rain; and have managed so far with minimal use of the umbrella I always bring with me.
One can see Amah Rock as one exits the Lion Rock Tunnel. At the correct angle it looks like a woman carrying a child on her back, and in Chinese the name is "husband watching rock," describing the woman waiting for her husband to come home.
One of the exhibits in the Hong Kong Heritage Museum is on Leslie Cheung. The paper crane is a symbol.
Give credit when it's due. The path predicted a few days ago remains accurate.
Sam G also preformed a magic trick. Lead up to it perhaps a bit long, but the "trick" itself is quite fascinating.
About seventy people attended this event.
9/16 Saturday. Arthur C was one of the two roommates I had during my senior year at Cornell. He went off to MIT to study geophysics at MIT, YK to Caltech, and I remained at Cornell. I hadn't seen either of them since graduation. So it was a special occasion that Arthur and I had coffee this morning. We are no longer "the world is my oyster" type of young people. He has decided to move back to Hong Kong (although he still intends to keep a home in the Bay Area).
Walking back I passed by Mak Noodles and decided to have lunch there.
I attended a Hong Kong Philharmonic concert this evening. Dinner was at Cafe de Coral, snack at King's Dim Sum on Jardine Bazaar after the concert. The dim sum served there is quite mediocre. A view shared by many reviewers of the place.
The Sunday before I left I interpreted at a church service where Pastor Chang talked about God's protection that we don't see. This is close. The branch fell right before me as I was walking along Sing Wo Road in Happy Valley. Maybe not heavy enough to kill, but messy nonetheless.
Walked by Mak's Noodle and decided to go in. They do good lunch business, evenings tended to be quiet the times I walked by.
The "large" wonton noodles soup has 4 wontons.
I didn't buy this T-shirt from Uniqlo. KAWS was the artists whose sculpture I saw in Melbourne a few years ago.
Got notified about upgrade to Business Class on SIN-EWR flight, with the appropriate amount of Plus Points deducted. Only got a Premium Economy seat. Repeat of earlier experience?
Update on Lee 5 am Saturday AST; it is now a Tropical Storm. Forecasted holding up well. Let's hope the Canadians are prepared as I am sure they are not used to being hit by storms.
No, I didn't go to Outback for dinner. Neon sign of "Tomahawk Steak."
Across the street from Outback is Cafe de Coral. That's my dinner.
After I left the CWB MTR Station, I had a couple of dim sum dishes at King's Dim Sum on Jardine Bazaar. Mediocre quality, at best.
I had time to walk around the area and took some (in my opinion) nice photos. This is the Space Museum.
The iconic Tsim Sha Tsui Railway clock tower.
The sculptor named this "Freedom Fighter," a title nixed by the Hong Kong government (this was back in 1992). It's called "The Flying Frenchman" instead. The sculptor refused to attend the unveiling ceremony.
Night view of Hong Kong Island skyline.
Banner announcing the concerts for the two nights.
Jaap van Zweden at the end of the program.
Tim's current favorite water sport is "trolling." Basically a few rods and lines hang off the back of the boat as it moves along at displacement speed (around 6 knots). We did that for a couple of hours, the only excitement was when "we" caught a discarded rice bag which for a split second looked like a Mahi Mahi. Boats tend to rock more at idle speed, so the ride was on the rough side. A couple of people had to take sea sickness pills, Whitney and I managed to tough it out.
Despite the debris we caught, and some amount of flotsam, the water was very clear. And today was the sunniest day for this trip. And we did circle Waglan Island, well-known for its meteorological station. When I was young weather reports typically would include data from the station on the island.
Mark C, whose daughter is a student at Cornell, came to the boat to meet this old alumnus (that would be me). After we chatted for a few minutes, I took the tender to Deep Water Bay to catch a taxi to head back to town.
Dinner was at Nanhai II. Food was fine, a bit on the expensive side. They didn't have a goose dish we ordered, but forgot to tell us. For that they offered us free desserts. I also got to meet and chat a bit with Alyson and Johnson. All good.
I had volunteered to buy some clothes from Uniqlo for Joe's kids, but couldn't find time. (And also forgot, because there is a store very close to the restaurant.) There are Uniqlo stores in Singapore, so I may still be able to do it yet.
The "fish trolling" set up on Tim's boat. Behind me is Waglan Island.
It's actually two islands. The one on the left (North) is rocky, the one on the right has some vegetation on it.
Looking from the south. The first lighthouse was in operation in 1893. One can see the ruins of a building on the right. There are quite a few of them. I am told the island is infested with mosquitoes.
Nanhai II: Eel dish. The partial dish on the left is beef tendons.
Fish with black fungus.
9/18 Monday. I woke up early enough to leave the CWB apartment at around 8:40 am. In the past getting a taxi at this hour was always a problem. While still a relatively long wait, the Uber taxi showed up early enough that I could catch the Airport Express train leaving at 9:10 am. This was the first time I flew Scoot, so I didn't know what to expect at the check-in counter. Either I was late and the crowd had come and gone, or today was just auspicious: there was no line at the counters. It was about 10 am that I cleared the formalities, and I stopped by the Chase Sapphire Lounge to pick up something to eat. My reaction was it wasn't better than the Premium Plaza lounge I used to frequent before I stopped coming to Hong Kong because of COVID. Actually the latter has re-opened, so perhaps I can give it a try next time I have the opportunity. Chase has two Sapphire lounges, and I have been to both. The one in Boston stood out probably because competition in the US is non-existent, while lounges in Asia tend to offer a lot more.
Some words on the Scoot experience. I haven't flown on a budget airline before, at least as far as I can recall. Today's experience with Scoot was simply great (well, at least good). I talked about the simple check-in process earlier. The next worry would be the boarding process, the check-in agent was hedging a bit, but at least allowed that I could visit a lounge. To get a seat in the "quiet zone," which supposed has a longer pitch, I paid HK$100. The small cabin had quite a few empty seats, and after some "musical chair" maneuvers, I ended up in an empty middle row. The flight was on a 787, which made it felt even roomier. Scoot has this policy of no outside food or drink, and I decided with a lounge visit before the flight I didn't need it. I did buy a can of water for S$3. There is this debate whether this rule is reasonable, and there is a story of a man asking for free water, but got a glass of ice cubes instead (I thought the flight attendant was being very reasonable as they have to account for bottles/cans but not the amount of ice dispensed.) The other expense I paid for was extra carryon luggage (increasing the allowance from 10 kg to 17 kg). Mine totaled about 14 kg, but I didn't have to worry about lost luggage. All this, the fare added up to HK$1280, around US$165. Even for Scoot that might have been a bargain, the same ticket for 2 weeks from now would cost HK$1750, around US$225.
My breakfast at the HKG Chase Sapphire Lounge. My recollection is that Premium Plaza Lounge - which reopened recently at HKG - offered food of equal quality.
TR981 waiting at Gate 47 for its passengers. Why Scoot would have TR (Tiger Air) as its code is beyond me. This is a 787.
Boarding was about complete when I got to my seat. Although there were other stragglers, and Scoot didn't seem to stick to its 20-minute cut off policy.
I have all 3 seats to myself.
I didn't get WiFi on board. Prices seem in line with other carriers.
When I first stepped on board I was worried about all these mechanics milling about. These are flight attendants.
The scheduled flight duration is 4:05 hours. Actual 3:10 hours.
Our flight landed in Termina 1. What's surprising about this terminal is arriving international passengers are not herded towards immigration. Instead they can roam around - and eat and shop - before doing that. I stopped by SATS Premier Lounge to eat a lunch that I didn't get to eat in the plane, went through immigrations and customs, which is right next to JEWEL, a "park" that I had heard about before. This time all I did was to walk around the waterfalls; perhaps I will do some more exploring when I leave Singapre on Wednesday.
Lunch at SATS Premier Lounge. The setup of Terminal 1 is such that incoming passengers can spend time eating and shopping before heading out to immigration and customs. Or to visit a lounge, as was my case.
JEWEL is an attraction at Changi Airport. This sign is right outside of customs.
This is the obvious attraction, and is indeed quite fascinating. It wasn't obvious what else there was to do. I plan to explore some more on Wednesday.
Terminal 1 at Changi is modern and clean.
Getting a car via Grab was quite straightforward. After checking in and resting a bit, I took another Grab car to Emerald Hill Road for tonight's Hope event. Attendance was not as good as I had anticipated, but it was a good meeting nonetheless.
I decided to walk the 30-minutes back to the hotel, stopping by a noodles place along the way. I can attest that Singapore is warm.
Sam G sharing about his work in India.
I wrapped up the evening with a prayer of thanksgiving.
I passed by a noodles shop and ordered the "house special." The main ingredient turned out to be pig liver.
View from Room 1208 at Four Points Riverside.
Accommodations: Four Points Riverside, Singapore (2 nights).
7/19 Tuesday. I spent the day visiting places Anne and I visited 10 years ago. I had toyed with going instead to various Museums, but decided against it, at least for today. The descriptions of both the National Gallery and the National Museum are not that appealing. Perhaps tomorrow Wednesday.
Breakfast was free as a perk of being a Platinum member, and when I went down a little after 9 am, the place was packed. It offered "standard" buffet items, but in this case both European/American and Asian. I ended up leaving the hotel at around 11 am (and got back at around 4:30 pm).
The subway system here (called MRT) takes payment via devices, although it is necessary to both double click and face ID before the gates would open. The line I took, and probably the time, was not busy at all. Only one or two people remained at the Gardens-by-the-Bay station. And everything was clean, including the toilets. It's conditions like this that make Singapore a very livable city, if it were not for the oppressive heat (throughout the year) and other considerations.
I visit the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest (also enclosed in a dome). They are as I remember them from our prior trip, although today I stopped and smelled the roses a bit more. The "supertree walk" required another paid admission, and I decided to skip. I spent about an hour inside Cloud Forest, and forty minutes in Flower Dome, with a Shake Shack burger in between. I did take many photos.
Mixture of eastern and western food for breakfast at Four Points.
Smoked salmon and fresh fruit.
The upgrade saga continues. Screen shot at 10:24 am this morning showed me at No. 7. I was No. 10 late last night.
Got to be No. 1 by 2:06 pm. I was notified of a confirmed upgrade at 3:16 pm.
Train was not crowded when I got on at the Havelock station.
By the time the train got to Gardens by the Bay (end of line), very few people were on board.
Clean and spacious are words that come to mind. But where are the people?
Several cute little birds greeted me when I got off the station. Google Lens identified this as scaly-breasted munia.
Singapore Flyer seen along the walk to the domes.
In front of Cloud Forest.
Parasites or symbionts? Beneficial or harmful?
Singapore is called the Lion City, after all.
Characters from the Avatar movies appear in the Cloud Forest.
Is this Scorpion Thistle real? On Alpha Centauri A, maybe.
Quite a variety of orchids live around Machu Picchu, evidently. (No one told us when we visited years ago.)
Some samples.
Nice collection of carnivorous plants.
Ethereal White Persians by Dale Chihuly. His works pair well with plants, I guess. We saw them at the Scottsdale Botanical Garden as well.
Supertree Grove and Marina Sands seen from inside the dome.
One could step into a booth and have an avatar of oneself generated. This image - like the person himself - is an acquired taste.
The dam creates a reservoir into which the Singapore River flows.
Again this guy. This one moves.
One can see these miniature orchids better with the aid of a magnifying glass. There is quite a collection of different miniature orchids here.
Looking through the magnifying glass.
Google Lens will identify these orchids. I am not sure it gets it right in all cases.
A Shake Shack burger costs S$9.90.
Flower Dome has many collections, including succulents and flowers from different parts of the world.
I am quite sure this cactus has been trained/trimmed to look like this. Google Lens calls this "golden barrel cactus," which looks nothing like this.
Perhaps a member of the Madagascar Pachypodium family (genus, to be exact)?
At first glance these look like small rocks. So it's natural they are called living stone cacti (genus Lithops) .
This is the Queen Victoria agave plant.
Monkey Puzzle Tree. Spines all over the branches.
Yeo's (the food company) had displays in celebration of the chrysanthemum. Teas flavored by these flowers are quite popular in Asia.
Exit, Flower Dome.
Supertree Grove. Added decorations in celebration of the mid-Autumn festival.
Lantern Corridor.
The escalator leading out of the MRT station. Where are the people?
Coming back, an extra MRT station's ride led to the Great World Mall. I did some shopping for Joe's kids at Uniqlo; I was supposed to do that in Hong Kong, but forgot.
Dinner was across the river, at Pink Panther. Despite its (French?) name, it served mostly Asian cuisine.
My dinner at Pink Panther consisted of Seafood Pad Thai and Stir Fried Baby Kailan (Chinese broccoli).
9/20 Wednesday. Today marks the end of the trip, I will be on the 9 pm flight (UA28) to San Francisco, and will then get on the 11:45 pm flight from SFO to Newark. If all goes fine my arrival will be at around 8 am Thursday morning. I am sure I have done back-to-back red eyes before, but don't remember that. On the plus side, I have been upgraded to business on the trans-Pacific flight, so should at least get some sleep; or so one hopes.
It was a toss-up between National Gallery or National Museum. I decided on the former. Art is usually more universal (so says the great philosopher). I may want to understand a bit more about Singapore's history if I end up visiting this place more often.
Frankly, I started with considerable cynicism, from reading the description of the museum on the web. So in my mind there was a chance that I will hit the National Museum as well. Indeed I started the visit with a chuckle. The first object I encountered was a painting of "4, no, 3, thermoses," right next to an actual display of 3 thermoses. At a minimum, the artist wasn't taking all this seriously. Another one was a jar containing an artist's urine. My thought was I am sure they can test and confirm what's in the jar, but how do they know whom it's from.
Perhaps with that light-hearted attitude, I found many paintings and artwork on display to be quite fascinating. Some still don't make much sense, like the coat hanging in a room with the words "Don't Give to the Arts" on the back. The long and short of it, I ended up spending over two hours in the museum, and it's a relatively small museum. I left the hotel before 11 am, and didn't get back until around 2:30 pm.
Singapore entities tend to give locals a great deal on admission fees. The museum is free for locals, S$20 for visitors, discounted by S$5 for those over 60. I have no quarrel with the fee structure; their museum, their prerogative. However, museum visits are perhaps low on visitors' lists of things to do anyway, having to pay may be an additional deterrent. When I asked the ticket agent how many tickets they have sold, the reply was it's still early in the day (it was after 11 am).
First time on a Singapore bus. From our hotel to the museum cost S$1.20.
At the bus stop is the Armenian Church which was first built in 1835.
The atrium of the National Gallery.
The number 4 is crossed out, replaced by 3.
I don't have three thermoses at home, but probably can line up three vases.
This is quite neat. At an angle one might guess these are broken pieces of a chair.
Viewed at the correct angle, voila.
I have many coats hanging in my closet. They don't say "Don't Support the Arts" on the back, though.
There is some pattern (too strong a word) to these three panels. Lately in the news is this Danish museum wanted a partial refund from the artist who gave them a blank canvass, and titled it "Take the Money and Run." It was on display for a while. One would think the return period has passed. So even curators have issues.
Many paintings by Singapore artists evoke works of rather well-known European painters. Monet?
Picasso? This is described as a cubist painting.
Another Picasso?
Many school groups were visiting today.
Frida Kahlo?
Balinese art depicts many women.
Cezanne?
Turner? This work is by a European painter.
The Museum also uses the former Supreme Court building. The whole building is apparently enclosed.
The old supreme court building is now part of the National Gallery.
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, just moved across the street.
Face, or a nude portrait?
This painting is called Three Vices. The fourth vice (drugs) can get one in real trouble in Singapore.
At the museum cafe. This is "Curried Hainanese Chicken," not quite what I expected, but was quite good nonetheless.
The forecast earlier in the day showed "0 %" chance of rain. Some meteorologists are very brave, or reckless, or trusting of their computer models.
Joe Tang came by and we chatted in the hotel coffee house for a couple of hours. He was soaked by a period of torrential rain. Meteorologists are the most confident people, earlier forecast in the day had chance of rain at 0%. Perhaps that's what the prediction model tells them ...
The Grab ride out to the airport took about 40 minutes because of rush hour traffic. Terminal 2 was very quiet, and the immigration process was automated. I had dinner at the SATS Premier Lounge (different from one in Terminal 1).
Singapore Terminal 2.
Flight UA28 left on time and landed on time, MPC worked this time, so I was out quickly. The United APP said UA1831 would board at Gate F13, so I left Term G to go through security for Term 3. Yankee Pier is part of the Priority Pass network, so I stopped there for fish and chips; that plus a diet coke cost about $30, more than the PP allowance. Sitting at the next table was a United captain, also using his PP. Turns out he would be the one flying us to Newark later tonight. Meanwhile, the gate changed to G7, so I had to walk back to where I started. United Club closes at 10:30 pm, so I won't be able to use it. The general area is quite quiet.
After I boarded the plane (UA1831), I got upgraded to a Premium seat. Except the plane didn't take off.
Never know what to do with all this stuff place on a business class seat.
Breakfast before UA28 landed at around 9 pm.
Fish and chips at Yankee Pier at SFO. Priority Pass offers a $28 credit.
9/21 Thursday. Then we sat there and waited for a maintenance issue to be cleared (the FAs said it was a tire problem). The jet bridge retracted, we waited a bit longer, and they had to get a mechanic back on the plane. While the plane didn't move, this counted as "return to gate" in the flight status. At around 1:30 am the flight was canceled. It happens, and at first I was impressed because United sent me a link with hotel, meal, and Lyft vouchers right away. What I actually experiences wasn't nearly as smooth.
My first act was to call United 1K and got myself rebooked on the next available flight, which was to be 1 pm later that day. Not ideal, but then I understand SFO-EWR flights tend to sell out. Then I picked a hotel from the list United provided (it was a Holiday Inn Express), and took a Lyft ride to check in, with a confirmation code. Alas, the hotel clerk said there were no rooms, even though United sent me a second confirmation. He was nice enough to say it would be okay to stay in the lobby (I had joked I would sleep outside for a couple of hours, what's another homeless person in San Francisco). I sat there for a couple of hours, managing to rebook myself on the 11 am flight, and put myself on the waitlist for the 7 am flight. So at around 4 am it was time to head back to the airport - again with a Lyft voucher, although the hotel airport shuttle was already running.
Since I had time, I went to CLEAR to redo my credentials, as I had trouble going through CLEAR the last couple of times (still not sure it's been fixed). The United Club at Concourse F opens at 5 am, and I was there soon after it opened, my international itinerary allowing me to do so. When I checked the 7 am flight (UA1411) it had one empty seat. By around 6:30 am I got that seat: last row, middle seat. There was not overhead space, so I gate-checked my carryon.
The flight was relatively bearable, sleep was out of the question. So for the two evenings I got about 3:30 hours of sleep (on the SIN-SFO leg). Luggage came out rather quickly, and I caught the 3:45 pm train to South Amboy. Anne picked me up.
Well, not all confirmations are confirmations. When I went to the hotel I was told all the rooms were occupied. I probably wouldn't have been able to use the room much anyway as I left to get back to the hotel at around 4 am.
United Club SFO Concourse F. Time stamp 5:07 am.
At some of these United Clubs one can cobble together a meal of some kind.
Only sleep I got over the course of about 36 hours (left Singapore hotel Wednesday at 6 pm, got home Thursday at 5 pm).
A relatively short trip, and I was busier than I expected, most of the time.
