Friday, August 12, 2005
10:06 am
Typhoon Masta
Got back last night at about 10pm. Started to cough during the flight. By the time I unpacked and bathed, I was having a fever. ~_~''' But I don't wana take another day off work cos I've already been away from work for so many days. So I'm currently nursing a fever at work. At least it's not really high...I think. *sigh*
Have to blog about my trip cos it's been such a once in a lifetime experience. (I hope) I have to say, I'm really impressed and proud of my own country's national airline, Singapore Airlines aka SIA. I don't usually fly by SIA cos the prices are always steeper than many other airlines. But my mum usually insists on flying by SIA. I must say that I'm really thankful that we flew by SIA this time round.
I was supposed to take a early morning flight on saturday and reach Shanghai early afternoon. When we (my mum's colleagues and my family - 12 people in total) reached the airport, we were told that our flight was delayed till noon due to Typhoon Masta which was due to hit Shanghai the strongest on Saturday afternoon. SIA gave each of us a flyer which said that they wanted to avoid the eye of the storm and wanted to take all precautionary measures possible. Okkkk.... that sounded kinda serious. And my sis was asking what's wrong with meeting the eye of the storm. Ain't the eye of the storm the most peaceful and quiet? -_-''' Well, so the airline staff told us that we were given complimentary breakfast while waiting for our flight. So we proceeded to the foodcourt area to have our breakfast and wait at the same time. After that, we decided to clear the customs and do some duty-free shopping. This waiting area provides public telephones with free local calls and computers for free internet access. w(^o^)w (I mean, wow many airports in the world provides free local calls and free internet access?) So that's where I tagged myself that I was stuck in the airport due to a flight delay. Finally, we could board the plane. I was already telling myself that this is the first time my flight got delayed for any reason at all, not to mention the reason being an act of God.
Our flight went ok, except that there was quite a bit of air turbulence. It was really quite bad at times that I was clutching my armrest cos I felt like I was sitting a rollercoaster. My stomach dropped and lurched. My sis and I were so close to throwing up in the air sickness bag. Even when the plane was below the clouds, it was shaking quite badly. After about a 5 hour flight, the plane was getting ready to land. My sis and I looked out of the window and we were at about tree level. I think by the this time, the wheels of the plane would be out already desho? However, the plane was still rocking from side to side. Then suddenly, the plane flew upwards very fast. We all thought that perhaps the pilot was going to try and make another landing. After a while, the pilot made an annoucement that due to very bad weather including strong gusty winds at low level, he could not land in Shanghai. So we were heading towards Nanjing which was about half an hour away by flight and try to land there instead. Ehh??? Nanjing?! Immediately, the plane was abuzz with everyone talking. Luckily, no one made a fuss about the change in flight. I mean, it's no one's fault desho? The pilot did try his best to land but he could not compromise the safety of all the passengers. Luckily, the flight from Shanghai to Nanjing was better with much less air turbulence. However, it was also raining and windy in Nanjing. The pilot managed to make a perfect landing though. Usually the plane would be kinda bumpy when the wheels were touching down right? We all didnt feel a thing and were quite impressed. There were a few passengers around me who even clapped in appreciation. My sis said that the pilot had to make up for the previous unsuccessful landing. x_x''' Yes, I have quite a crappy sis. Anyway, so we had to get off the plane but we were NOT allowed to. The officials at Nanjing Airport said that we had to get proper clearance before the pilot could even open the doors. ~_~ It was kinda of an emergency landing situation. Would we have the proper papers beforehand?! Gyahh.... So we had to wait inside the plane. My sis is a little clastrophobic so she was feeling terrible. I was still feeling the after effects of the air turbulence. So both of us were trying to eat some sweets to make ourselves feel better. The pilot did not know when he could let us off the plane as well. He wanted to get off and talk to the airport officials, but even he was not allowed to leave the plane. X_X In the end, we were cooped up in the plane for about FOUR hours before they let us out. By the time we got off the plane, it was past 10 at night.
Rain and wind greeted us at the airport. Coaches were arranged for us to choose whether we wanted to travel by a 5 hour coach ride to Shanghai or to put up at Nanjing for the night. My parents and her colleagues decided that it was safer to put up at Nanjing for the night because the weather in Shanghai was still pretty unstable and travelling by land lat at night might not be really safe. So the 12 of us took the coach which was headed for a hotel in Nanjing. Up till then, we had no idea what was the plans or where we were going. We were just following the arrangements made by SIA. After about nearly an hour's ride, we reached our hotel. w(^o^)w It was a FIVE-STAR hotel right in the middle of the city! Yappari, it's SIA. We were definitely well taken care of. The hotel staff could not advise us on how long we were going to put up at Nanjing for because the weather was unpredictable. We were told that we could take our dinner (buffet-style) at the restuarant (it was already 11+ at night) and the cooks there immediately whipped up more food for us. In all, 2 SIA flights were affected. So SIA booked many rooms for all the passengers including the air stewardess and pilots. We were all really tired so we took a quick dinner, washed up and hit the sack. Well, if we had to miss our shopping trip in Shanghai, we would shop in Nanjing instead! *LOL*
At about 6.30am, we all recieved a morning call. However, the morning call was just music playing in the background so no one thought anything of it. I was awoken by the morning call and somehow, just looked at my room door. I saw 2 pieces of paper that wrote that SIA had arranged for coaches for us to travel by land to Shanghai at 8.30am. So that was what the morning call was for. I quickly got up and went to my parents room and told them about it. My mum then woke up all her colleagues. We got ready, ate our breakfast and took the 5 hr coach ride to Shanghai. *sigh* Some of my mum's colleagues joked that even if we were going to Alaska, we would have reached there by then. We took 1.5 days to reach Shanghai! Gyahh...
Finally, we reached Shanghai in the late afternoon on Sunday. For the next two days, it still rained in short sudden strong spurts and was kinda windy. However, from Tuesday onwards, the hot spell came back. It was really extremely hot, about 33 to 35 degrees. What extreme weather. And what luck we had to experience the effects of the typhoon. For the record, we read the papers and it said that typhoon killed 6 people in Shanghai and injured 30. I guess we must be thankful that we were not in Shanghai when the typhoon arrived and that SIA took such good care of us. Oh yea, and because our trip in Shanghai was shortened. We extended our trip by 1 day at NO extra charges for the hotel and change of flights. V(^_^)V Did I say that I love SIA already? *lol*
PS: The shopping and food was cheap!!!!
PSS: Takkicon dates?
Have to blog about my trip cos it's been such a once in a lifetime experience. (I hope) I have to say, I'm really impressed and proud of my own country's national airline, Singapore Airlines aka SIA. I don't usually fly by SIA cos the prices are always steeper than many other airlines. But my mum usually insists on flying by SIA. I must say that I'm really thankful that we flew by SIA this time round.
I was supposed to take a early morning flight on saturday and reach Shanghai early afternoon. When we (my mum's colleagues and my family - 12 people in total) reached the airport, we were told that our flight was delayed till noon due to Typhoon Masta which was due to hit Shanghai the strongest on Saturday afternoon. SIA gave each of us a flyer which said that they wanted to avoid the eye of the storm and wanted to take all precautionary measures possible. Okkkk.... that sounded kinda serious. And my sis was asking what's wrong with meeting the eye of the storm. Ain't the eye of the storm the most peaceful and quiet? -_-''' Well, so the airline staff told us that we were given complimentary breakfast while waiting for our flight. So we proceeded to the foodcourt area to have our breakfast and wait at the same time. After that, we decided to clear the customs and do some duty-free shopping. This waiting area provides public telephones with free local calls and computers for free internet access. w(^o^)w (I mean, wow many airports in the world provides free local calls and free internet access?) So that's where I tagged myself that I was stuck in the airport due to a flight delay. Finally, we could board the plane. I was already telling myself that this is the first time my flight got delayed for any reason at all, not to mention the reason being an act of God.
Our flight went ok, except that there was quite a bit of air turbulence. It was really quite bad at times that I was clutching my armrest cos I felt like I was sitting a rollercoaster. My stomach dropped and lurched. My sis and I were so close to throwing up in the air sickness bag. Even when the plane was below the clouds, it was shaking quite badly. After about a 5 hour flight, the plane was getting ready to land. My sis and I looked out of the window and we were at about tree level. I think by the this time, the wheels of the plane would be out already desho? However, the plane was still rocking from side to side. Then suddenly, the plane flew upwards very fast. We all thought that perhaps the pilot was going to try and make another landing. After a while, the pilot made an annoucement that due to very bad weather including strong gusty winds at low level, he could not land in Shanghai. So we were heading towards Nanjing which was about half an hour away by flight and try to land there instead. Ehh??? Nanjing?! Immediately, the plane was abuzz with everyone talking. Luckily, no one made a fuss about the change in flight. I mean, it's no one's fault desho? The pilot did try his best to land but he could not compromise the safety of all the passengers. Luckily, the flight from Shanghai to Nanjing was better with much less air turbulence. However, it was also raining and windy in Nanjing. The pilot managed to make a perfect landing though. Usually the plane would be kinda bumpy when the wheels were touching down right? We all didnt feel a thing and were quite impressed. There were a few passengers around me who even clapped in appreciation. My sis said that the pilot had to make up for the previous unsuccessful landing. x_x''' Yes, I have quite a crappy sis. Anyway, so we had to get off the plane but we were NOT allowed to. The officials at Nanjing Airport said that we had to get proper clearance before the pilot could even open the doors. ~_~ It was kinda of an emergency landing situation. Would we have the proper papers beforehand?! Gyahh.... So we had to wait inside the plane. My sis is a little clastrophobic so she was feeling terrible. I was still feeling the after effects of the air turbulence. So both of us were trying to eat some sweets to make ourselves feel better. The pilot did not know when he could let us off the plane as well. He wanted to get off and talk to the airport officials, but even he was not allowed to leave the plane. X_X In the end, we were cooped up in the plane for about FOUR hours before they let us out. By the time we got off the plane, it was past 10 at night.
Rain and wind greeted us at the airport. Coaches were arranged for us to choose whether we wanted to travel by a 5 hour coach ride to Shanghai or to put up at Nanjing for the night. My parents and her colleagues decided that it was safer to put up at Nanjing for the night because the weather in Shanghai was still pretty unstable and travelling by land lat at night might not be really safe. So the 12 of us took the coach which was headed for a hotel in Nanjing. Up till then, we had no idea what was the plans or where we were going. We were just following the arrangements made by SIA. After about nearly an hour's ride, we reached our hotel. w(^o^)w It was a FIVE-STAR hotel right in the middle of the city! Yappari, it's SIA. We were definitely well taken care of. The hotel staff could not advise us on how long we were going to put up at Nanjing for because the weather was unpredictable. We were told that we could take our dinner (buffet-style) at the restuarant (it was already 11+ at night) and the cooks there immediately whipped up more food for us. In all, 2 SIA flights were affected. So SIA booked many rooms for all the passengers including the air stewardess and pilots. We were all really tired so we took a quick dinner, washed up and hit the sack. Well, if we had to miss our shopping trip in Shanghai, we would shop in Nanjing instead! *LOL*
At about 6.30am, we all recieved a morning call. However, the morning call was just music playing in the background so no one thought anything of it. I was awoken by the morning call and somehow, just looked at my room door. I saw 2 pieces of paper that wrote that SIA had arranged for coaches for us to travel by land to Shanghai at 8.30am. So that was what the morning call was for. I quickly got up and went to my parents room and told them about it. My mum then woke up all her colleagues. We got ready, ate our breakfast and took the 5 hr coach ride to Shanghai. *sigh* Some of my mum's colleagues joked that even if we were going to Alaska, we would have reached there by then. We took 1.5 days to reach Shanghai! Gyahh...
Finally, we reached Shanghai in the late afternoon on Sunday. For the next two days, it still rained in short sudden strong spurts and was kinda windy. However, from Tuesday onwards, the hot spell came back. It was really extremely hot, about 33 to 35 degrees. What extreme weather. And what luck we had to experience the effects of the typhoon. For the record, we read the papers and it said that typhoon killed 6 people in Shanghai and injured 30. I guess we must be thankful that we were not in Shanghai when the typhoon arrived and that SIA took such good care of us. Oh yea, and because our trip in Shanghai was shortened. We extended our trip by 1 day at NO extra charges for the hotel and change of flights. V(^_^)V Did I say that I love SIA already? *lol*
PS: The shopping and food was cheap!!!!
PSS: Takkicon dates?
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