Wow. Where do I even start when it comes to recounting this incredible trip? Usually, the “begin and the beginning” is where I’d be… so let’s start there. The idea of going to New York probably started almost 10 years ago, though back then I wasn’t sure what I actually wanted to do there, so it was a very faint idea. It wasn’t until I became an actual coffee and food enthusiast that New York began to look really appealing, and there were restaurant names that started to appear, like Per Se (#6 in 2012), that I noticed once I started paying attention to the World’s 50 Best awards. Eleven Madison Park made my list shortly after too (at #4 in 2016). After having travelled for the past several years, and getting a taste for a super hipster lifestyle, my dream holiday to New York was budgeted at a cool $50k, for three months’ stay in an apartment overlooking Central Park, and working as a part-time barista to help pay for food.
Well, that didn’t quite work out the way I wanted, but I got close! The other title I wanted to call this blog was “The 20k holiday” but I wanted New York in the title. I’m pretty sure that’s how much my holiday ended up costing, from start to finish, and it was worth every dollar. Except for maybe my final taxi ride since I bribed a cabbie to take me to their airport lol.
While there wasn’t a specific reason to finally go, there were a number of factors that added together that made it worthwhile:
- Singapore airlines just released the world’s longest flight from Singapore to New York.
- This flight was fitted with only business and premium economy seats.
- This was my last opportunity to use my existing passport, as the first entry in it was also to USA, so I wanted to bookend my passport with American stamps.
- EMP finally hit #1 a couple of years ago so I really needed to go!
- It’s as safe as it ever will be I guess XD
- If I didn’t go now, I might never end up going!
And thus, I ended up with my dream holiday. Business class there, on the world’s longest flight (SQ22), living in Manhattan for 3 weeks, and splurging on restaurants! Let’s get started with recounting my trip!
A business class ticket meant that I could access the SilverKris lounge, so after taking some photos (I can’t remember if that was my plane or not), it was time to head over. Having only been to the Virgin lounges before, I thought it would be fun to compare! First thing I noticed, was that the lounge had no windows. The Virgin ones had massive windows that made it feel spacious and bright, whereas the SilverKris in Perth was kind of dark and small, with a small selection of food. The hot food didn’t look to great, so I headed toward the chilled cabinet and took a selection of things. It also felt… quiet. I remember the Melbourne and Sydney Virgin lounges feeling busy, because there were so many people moving about, whereas here, everyone was just sitting around. Maybe Singapore’s lounge will be different!
An egg sandwich, some beetroot cured salmon on potato salad, a creme caramel and a passionfruit coconut panna cotta. It was a cute and tasty selection!
One funny thing that happened was that I was wearing thongs since they would be the most convenient footwear for the plane, but one of the straps snapped as I was in the lounge! So there goes my footwear… luckily, I had a pair of flats with me, so I managed to change into them.
Ok, time to board the plane. This was gonna be my little taster of my epic flight ahead. The priority queue was so fun to go in, I really did feel special, walking past all the economy peoples! And wow. Business class really is something else. The seat looked like what I expected, but the service was way different! I’d always seen the pre-flight drinks being offered when I used to walk past the business section on domestic flights, but being in a separate section without other classes walking through is an amazing feeling. Plus, the staff greet every passenger by name!!! What!
Look at all that leg space!!! I also had TWO windows!! What I also didn’t expect, was the number of compartment and storage space available! I could take out my liquids bag, throw the extra pillow in the corner and still had heaps of space. In fact, there’s so much space that there’s even a vanity mirror behind one of those compartment doors! And free slippers, socks and eye masks! Instead of having just a USB port, these seats also had powerpoints so that you could plug a laptop in!
The food was impressive too. Not only was there a decent sized mocktail list, but they also had Illy “specialty” coffee! “Mono arabica”. Uh what? Do they mean single origin? Single varietal? Robusta free zone? Who knows!
I had come prepared with some Voila instant coffee, just in case, but with that amount of detail, I had to try some!
And now I’m a believer. I chose the Ethiopian as an espresso, and it actually came out quite nice! It tasted GOOD. By good, I mean that it was too thin and one dimensional to resemble actual specialty coffee, but for something coffee flavoured to drink, it was spot on! So smooth with no bitterness. What a life changing flight already!
Meal service time! The first thing I noticed was that they give you tablecloths! They actually laid out white linen on top of the table! Like what! And salt and pepper in little ceramic shakers too. I had no idea this kind of stuff existed on planes! And instead of having everything served at once on a try, this actually came as separate courses, so this was the prawn cocktail entree. Not too bad, but as you can see the lettuce was already getting a bit sad. However, I could definitely taste out some shiso in here, which I didn’t expect. I also had a cheeky chardonnay, just because I could!
They even have bread service with butter in a ceramic holder, and the option of olive oil. Look at this cute little mini version! I agonised between keeping this or using it, and ended up using it, so no business class souvenir.
Woah. I’d used Book the Cook before when I managed to get premium economy a while back, but it was just served in the ordinary foil covered trays of economy class. This time though, wow, it’s served in a real bowl! And I was given chopsticks! It actually looked really good! How insane!!! The cutlery was even changed over for ever course! This is the most luxurious plane meal ever! Plus, the flavour of the food matched the presentation, which is always important. I could even smell the sesame oil! This was definitely a good feed!
I skipped the sweet dessert option in favour of the cheeses. They actually had a good selection, but the soft cheese looked a bit sad and dried out lol. It came with quince jelly, crackers and nuts, and I was allowed to pick any fruit of their tray, so I took the biggest strawberry and smallest bunch of grapes. That strawberry was super sweet! The menu also has pralines as petit fours but honestly I can’t remember if I took one or not. I probably did and forgot to take a pic!
The other thing that was cool about business class, was the bathrooms. Our plane just happened to have a faulty alarm on my side of the aisle, and the attendants had let us know at the beginning of the flight that the alarm would go off in the bathroom and told us just to ignore it. Good thing we got the heads up, sometimes the alarm triggered a bit late and was actually alarming!
I spent extra time in the bathrooms to snoop around the amenities cabinet, because there was an immediate difference as well. They had Penhaligon toiletries, including a face mist, perfume, and hand lotion! Woah! That’s some expensive stuff, and it smelled good! I made sure to use liberally to keep my skin hydrated on the flights :) There was also mouthwash, disposable combs and toothbrush sets. I really felt like I’d entered a different world!
Okay, that’s my first 5 hours done. Time to spend 4 hours in Singapore (I deliberately chose a longer stopover because I love the airport so much) – and good thing I did, because my super flight had a gate change and was no longer departing from the same terminal that had a SilverKris lounge.
I can’t seem to embed video, but here’s the first thing you see when you enter business class! The audio is pretty fitting!
https://www.raining-chaos.net/blog/?attachment_id=4618
Anyways, this SilverKris lounge is huge, but of course! Since this is their home turf. Again, no windows, it was kind of super dark, but there were so many people in it! Yep it was definitely livelier here! It was so packed that it was a small but manageable mission to find a table for myself.
There was a decent buffet selection with mostly Asian cuisines. There was a small stall dedicated to some food I don’t know the name of – small cups of biscuit-like consistency, filled with savouries like onion and the like? I’m kind of bad at this lol (Google says it’s “top hats” or “pie tee”).
I went with some vegetable goop, more vegetable goop, some potato chicken thing, and a fried chicken wing. Most of it tasted quite nice, though the veges were mainly very mushy!
I also found some almond jelly with longan, so I definitely had to have some of that! I’ve been craving almond jelly for so long, but I don’t have a can opener and I can never quite get the feeling that it’s completely safe and healthy to eat lol, but when presented with it… yes I love this stuff!
However, it wasn’t until I decided to try the fried lentil donut that I realised what actually tastes good here. That fried lentil donut was so amazing, and this picture is actually my second serving! I decided to dunk it in some congee and the whole thing kind of worked! If you’re ever in the SilverKris lounge in Singapore… go for the fried lentil donuts!
There are actually also shower facilities here, but I didn’t really realise or plan for it, since I’d just had my hair done and didn’t want it destroyed, so I skipped the shower, but good to know for next time!
I also took the time to just walk around and take in the sights at the airport. This was my first time exploring the sunflower garden and cactus garden, and I love the koi pond here! I also found myself the I heart SG sign again , and also a cool coffee shop!
Haha. 1800 words and I haven’t even gotten to the good bit. Finally, lo and behold, I was ready for this beast. The Airbus A350-900 ULR, fitted with no economy seats. Oh yeah, I was going to enjoy this. Hello, SQ22.
The security checkpoint felt less stringent than my trip from Sydney to LA about 9 years ago, but that’s too far of a gap for me to recount accurately. Also, I’ve been doing a lot more travelling now so maybe it all is normal to me now. Security was quick, I took a sneaky photo of the plane, and then straight to boarding. Wow I love the priority boarding so much!
As soon as I stepped on the plane – BAM! – new plane smell?! Was that even possible?? Absolutely amazing. While the seat format was same-same but different than my Boeing-777 flight from Perth to Singapore, the Airbus had a significantly large screen. In both cases, the screens weren’t touchscreens, but had remote controls.
Even the windows were clean and unscratched!
Look at all the fancy powerpoints! Also, that top thing is a backlight for reading!
Even lil’ Gilg wanted a piece of the action!
Pre-flight drinks came around, and I didn’t want to consume anymore alcohol so I went for their lemon green tea ginger drink. It was super refreshing! I watched only 3 movies total between Perth and New York, but that’s because the best bit about business is the sleep, but more about that later.
Because the flight is so long and everyone has a different way of adjusting timezones, meal service could be requested anytime and didn’t have any set times, apart from the very general guidelines in the booklet.
I had actually theorised a bunch of different sleeping and eating patterns on the plane to try and figure out which one would work out best, but in the end, I didn’t actually care, and chose to have my meal straight after takeoff, which is essentially a very late dinner in Perth time.
I was actually a little disppointed that my flight was actually going to be fast – the attendant told me that the estimated flight time would be 17 hours 25 minutes. Woah, that’s fast! I said. I think he thought I was silly cause he said that was a long time… but I was thinking, relative to the published flight time for this trip haha.
Bye bye Singapore! See you soon, New York.
I took some photos of the outside at some point in the flight, because I knew how different it’d look from all the other environments I’ve seen, and they were so pretty!!
Choosing the chirashi sushi Book the Cook first paid off. I figured that the order mattered, since whatever I ate last would have been stuck on the plane for almost a day, and probably prepped up to a day before that, so I needed to ensure that my seafood was fresh.
This was so delicious! And unexpectedly good. And I’ll tell you why it was good – the rice was warm and the fish was cold! It was actually heated and prepared separately before serving! Wow!! You’d never get anything like this in economy, or even premium economy! No wonder even the Book the Cook selections are separated by class. You really do get your money’s worth!
Ok, the toppings on this included salmon roe, tamagoyaki, eel (unagi), smoked tuna, salmon tataki, pickled lotus root, crab meat, and some ridiculously tasty thick chunks of squid sashimi. I really don’t like small, thin squid sashimi, but this thick stuff is fantastic! I think it’s all about the texture. The rice was also well flavoured with enough vinegar. How perfect, I was so happy!
The in-flight screen! There’s no plane-cam anymore though, and even then it would have been pretty boring most of the time since you can’t see too much that high, and when it’s dark!
Since I can’t embed, here’s a link to a video that showed the flight path that I was taking:
https://www.raining-chaos.net/blog/?attachment_id=4619
Look at all that space! I estimate the flatlie at about 175cm, if you tuck your feet right into the corner bit. I decided to sleep now as it was about 2AM Singapore time (the plane took off just before 12AM) and see what happens. I’ve heard the flatbeds really do let you sleep comfortably, but that wasn’t quite true for me as I still woke up every few hours because the air flow was drying out my eyes, nose and throat. I guess there’s no way to escape that on a plane. I had to keep drinking water before trying to sleep again. It did get easier to stay sleeping once my body settled down though. It kind of felt like a capsule hotel without the capsule, in terms of ambient noise, light and a mighty strong air conditioner. I managed to enjoy sleeping/lying down for so long that by the time I got the urge to check how much time had passed, there were only 8 hours left on the flight! Wow!!
I remained in bed mode, and it kind of felt like an amazing sleep in. It really does make a huge difference that you can lie down and toss and turn (that was my favourite bit haha), rather than sleep-sitting and having a stiff neck.
I found that on this flight, I didn’t feel the need to stretch my legs and walk around as much, I think it was because I could stretch them fine on the flatbed, and never felt like I had too much pressure building up anymore, nor did I feel the need to move.
The second meal was served at around 10AM Singapore time, and this time came with entrees.
The satay sticks were tasty as always, but I had a giggle at the ocean trout salad just because salads really don’t do well on planes. The leaves are always so sad looking! But the trout was tasty!
And behold the famed lobster thermidor in all its un-photogenic glory! This is where the backlight came in handy, but didn’t improve the photo. Sad to say, but it tasted like it looked too. The lobster was definitely over and those asparagus were a bit sad haha. Though, just remember this has probably been sitting around for a day, so I can’t really criticise it too much. It was, however, significantly less pleasing than the chirashi, so I was really, really glad that I’d chosen them in this order. Sad sashimi would not have been a safe place!
There was this little cute pastry for the bread selection, and the attendant said that it was cheese flavoured, so I took it. Laminated cheesy goods are delicious, so this made up for the underwhelming lobster.
Given the pedestrian nature of the cheeses in my previous flight, I decided that the sweet desserts this time looked much more appetising. They had petit fours, a chocolate palet, and a creme brulee. I went for the creme brulee, and it tasted good!
Also kids, remember to keep up your fruit and vege intake! Here’s the apple for my day.
Once when I was walking back from the bathrooms, I saw the attendants having their meal, which was ungracefully eating in the galley. One of them was eating the chocolate dessert, and noticed me walking past and asked me if I had the chocolate dessert. I told him no, I chose the creme brulee instead, so he asked me if I wanted to try this one! I couldn’t say no to another dessert, so I said I’d love to try one! And behold the chocolate palet! He actually wanted to watch me take a bite which was a bit weird but I think it was more to share his joy at how delicious this dessert was. And it wasn’t bad! The chocolate moussey thing had a really nice smooth texture and had a good flavour! Hooray for second dessert!
There was now only about 4 hours to go, and I felt relaxed the entire flight (apart from pain of dry eyes and nose and throat lol), and it seriously felt like the shortest flight I’ve ever had. I opted for a tea after all that food, and chose a TWG specialty tea called “Harmutty” which apparently improves circulation and all that jazz. I just wanted to see how it tasted as a blend, and it wasn’t too bad! These teas are quite nice!
And we’re finally here. Hello, New York. It was still dark at 6AM in the morning so this is technically a night shot I guess. I remember having no idea what I was actually taking pictures of, but now that I’ve looked at it after being in New York, I can kind of see one of the bridges right at the back lol. I still don’t know what else I’m looking at though haha!
Customs was a bit of a pain only because the line was long, but quite painless. And when I collected my bags, I realised that business class also gets a priority tag on checked luggage too! Now time to explore the city….
HELLO NEW YORK