My last day was pretty much spent in airports with long layovers… Throughout this trip, I had the chance to finagle my way through a bunch of huge airports. One rule of the trip was to always take public transportation. Here’s a breakdown:
San Francisco International Airport was pretty bland, and most shops were closed by the time I arrived… blah. I did get to whip out my Chinese skills and help a lady pay for her stuff though!
Here’s some public art I found during my layover:
The international terminal was quiet, and a bit dim. Getting to it from the domestic terminals was pretty ez-pz, but it required a bit of walking.
Hong Kong International Airport:
Great natural light and neat architecture.
It also has a spectacular backdrop (the 777-300ER I was on).
A Cathay Pacific 777-300ER; which I’ll be on in 1.5 months!!!
Arrival at Changi International Airport (Singapore)
Each gate has its own security checkpoint, which I liked. Access to public transit was very easy and the staff was very knowledgeable and helpful
Changi is consistently named the best airport in the world… On the way back, I went through Terminal 3, and everything made sense.
More interior architecture…
The ridiculousness that is Terminal 3… they also had a free movie theater, butterfly garden, free massage chairs, free TV-stations where you could watch anything on a big screen, mini-hotel for long layovers, massages, public showers, and other stuff I can’t remember…
Oh ya know, just chillin’ by the koi pond…
booooo!
Air Asia A320 to Kuala Lumpur.
Kinda random, but here’s the lobby of the Concord Hotel Singapore
Kuala Lumpur’s LCC-Terminal (Low Cost Carrier). We all got thermal scanned for H1N1 on arrival. You had to walk to and from your plane here. Public transport was a bit iffy, no one seemed to want to help. I managed to find some westerners who helped out. Trying to catch the right bus before it left felt like a scene out of the Amazing Race…
Remember what I said about walking to and from your plane? It was sweeeeeet!
Phuket International Airport was generic. Although it has a Thai Airways Restaurant which was cheap and good. ANNND a Dunkin Donuts, which has moochi donuts!!! (they were omg). As for transport, the only way to get to and from this place was via Taxi… boo.
Suvarnabhumi Airport (Bangkok, Thailand). Access to public transit was a bit confusing. A bus will take you to a central airport bus station, then you transfer to regional buses. I was lucky to find a local who told me where to get off. Then another who pointed me in the direction of the SkyTrain.
The interior was pretty nice:
On the way home…
SFO… Sterile, bland, blah… I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express Airport… they ran shuttles to and from the airport very frequently… and from there you could use the rail system to get downtown. The cost of a one-way ticket was multiple times more than anything else I used on this trip… and the slowest… but it goes more places than Seattle’s Light Rail, sigh.
On the way back to Seattle…
