When I rocked up at Heathrow airport 5
months ago with my bike all packed up nicely in a bike box with my separate
luggage to check in, I thought them charging me £160 for excess baggage was a
lot. Little did I know I clearly got a bargain here and must have caught
Singapore airlines on a good day because it was a completely different story
for poor James. Thai airlines stung him so badly that he paid 1 and a half
times the fee of his airfare just on excess. It really does depend on the
person on the desk and their mood. Needless to say, I was horrified when James
eventually told me how much he paid. So, naturally we didn’t want the same to
happen on our return journey.
We needed to do lots of research. We worked
it out that we had roughly 90 kilos between the two of us, which included all
our kit and bikes. The tough bit was just finding the cheapest and most
reliable way of getting it home. So, off I set through Singapore to FedEx’s
offices. After lengthy discussion with the nice lady on the desk, I came away
with two 25kg FedEx boxes (just in case), lots of bits of paper and forms to
fill in and a sigh of relief. We had already researched our flights and booked
these while we were in Melakka. We booked with Emirates specifically because
they are the only airline that allows you to have a 30kg allowance on economy
class, so we knew we had 60kg safe. We spent a day (yes a whole day) in our
room carefully packing the FedEx box, making a note of everything in it, and
weighing it every now and then with the Hello Kitty scales we borrowed from the
lady on reception. We managed to cram 24.5 kilos worth of our kit in the box,
which we estimated all together valued at £1000. Eeek. The rest we worked out
we could take as hand luggage and in our bike boxes; another thing off our
minds! Next was trying to get the bikes packed up.
We were a little stressed as it was Chinese
New Year while we were in Singapore, and don’t get me wrong, this was a great
experience but it meant a lot of the shops were shut. We had emailed over 10
bike shops before we came into Singapore to see if they were open and would be
able to help pack our bikes and three came back to us. We traipsed over to one
shop the other side of the city to suss them out and find out costs etc. It was
a very professional shop and we trusted them with our babies. They were able to
clean our bikes (yay - a big job in itself), pack them up in boxes and have
them ready for us to pick up before going to the airport. They were pretty good
and very interested in what we had done. Phew on a massive scale. The next
thing was to look at the map and work out how to cycle across Singapore to get
the bikes to the shop! Although it was hot and a bit stressful, we somehow
managed to muddle through and we got there in the end.
We felt a little lost without our bikes for
a bit and suddenly a huge weight lifted off our shoulders when we realised how
things were all coming together. The bikes were with the bike shop and we
wouldn’t see them again until we opened the boxes in England. The FedEx box was
packed and would be picked up from our hostel reception (thank goodness – it
was heavy!). The next thing was to find some relatively warm clothes. After our
cold experience in the Cameron Highlands, where I was wearing every single item
of clothing, I certainly am pretty rubbish when it comes to coping with the
cold. Going back to England in early February with summer clothes, in my mind
was not an option. So off we went to the shops (the ones which we open anyway).
Slight issue however; why would shops in a country where it’s roughly 38
degrees sell jumpers and trousers? Hmmm… We persevered and much to our surprise
I managed to find a long sleeve top, a hoodie, a pair of jeans, socks and
hightop trainers, while James managed to find similar – excellent!
Now, it was time to relax and actually see
some of Singapore. Our hostel was in the Arab quarters of Singapore; a great
part we discovered. Loads of great restaurants and little shops to look in, we
spent a day here in itself. We massively enjoyed Singapore Night Safari
Zoo. It was such a fantastic experience. The aim is to arrive at the zoo for
5pm just as its getting dark. We had some dinner there and off we went on our
little train tour and then enjoyed the rest of the night exploring on foot. The
highlight of the evening was when we were watching the flying squirrels in
their huge contained area. We were watching them for ages running along the
tops of the trees and playing ‘catch’ with each other. We had been there quite
a long time as we wanted to see them ‘fly’. We were just about to go when
suddenly one of them launched himself off the top of a tree and came swooping
down to where we were standing and flew right above our heads and nearly into
another patiently waiting chap, who had to duck at the last minute or the red
furry little dude would have landed right on his shoulders. It was amazing and
they are probably three times to size of what we would know as a squirrel in
the UK. Marvellous! Nature at its best : )
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| Lantern mad in Chinatown |
We enjoyed a bit of beach action, even if it is fake! It was nice to have a bit of a swim, until the most bizarre thing happened. It started raining, but naturally no one really does anything because it's warm rain and we all know it will stop shortly. Everyone on the beach continued to swim or sunbathe. Yet all the lifeguards suddenly went crazy! They started charging up and down the beach, blowing their whistles and telling everyone to get out the water. Then a lifeguard on a Segway was driving up and down shouting down a megaphone telling everyone to get out as there was a chance of a category 4 lightening storm coming!! It was hilarious. We couldn't belive it, and by the sounds of the locals around us, neither could they. It's funny how things like this stick more in your mind that sights. What was even funnier was watching people try and sneak back into the sea, and the reaction of the lifeguards who would chase them down blowing whistles at them.
Then our time came for us to pick up our bikes from the shop. Do one final pack/sort and tape the boxes up and off we went to the airport. Everything from checking in to stopping over in Columbia, a break in Dubai and back on a flight to London was smooth and before we knew it, we were back in the grey skies of Heathrow looking a pale miserable faces. : (
