Taking the gap to Thailand

Since I have endured three separate flights to get to Thailand, I thought I would share my experiences with you, in a jumbled, mixed-up and random way. 

A slight gap in the national motorsport season, between the July Volkswagen Rally and round five of the Extreme Festival at Zwartkops in August provided a 15 day window for a breakaway to an exotic destination.

That’s 15 days including travel time and the first hop from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg takes an hour and 40 minutes. That’s a fairly routine flight which I’ve done thousands of times over nearly 20 years of traveling.

Leg two is the one I’m currently on. Johannesburg to Singapore. This flight is 10 hours in the air, arrival time is 05:46 tomorrow morning as they are six hours ahead of us in South Africa.

With a ground speed in excess of 1000km/h, our Singapore Airlines flight is making good, albeit somewhat bumpy time, cutting through the balmy -44°C atmosphere.

It is quite surreal, enjoying a hot chicken meal (cue the chicken or beef joke) then watching Avengers, Age of Ultron over a hazelnut ice cream and jetting over the island country of Antananarivo. So many lives oblivious of us up there and all of us returning the favour.

In my mind I have this little equation running in my head. Arrive at 05:46 Singapore time with a body and mind that believes it is midnight. Let’s see how that goes …

At least the clouds are pretty.

These koi swim in a pond littered with coins. People appear to use the pond as a wishing well of sorts.

The orchid display at Singapore airport taken from the floor above.

Lots of photos of the orchids, but there really was so much to look at.

This intricate bit of natural wood stands higher than me, got an image of an old man in there somewhere if you look at it correctly – and that’s exactly why I didn’t include my face in the image.

Another image from the very intricate and fascinating orchid display in Singapore.

A very small part of the Swarovski display – again at the Singapore airport.

Orchids from the orchid garden at Singapore’s Changi airport.

Dessert on the Jhb to Singapore leg was Hazelnut ice cream. Frozen solid too – I wonder if they left them outside considering the temperature of the plane’s outer skin was -50 Celsius.

Beef or chicken? I had the chicken on Singapore Airlines, between Johannesburg and Singapore. It was actually very good.

Breakfast on Singapore Airlines, from Singapore to Phuket.

Some pretty dramatic cloud formations appeared the closer the plane got to Thailand.

Author: Morné Condon

Automotive journalist in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, following new models, old cars, car clubs and motorsport. My interests are not restricted to the automotive environment, although this is where I am mostly to be found. View all posts by Morné Condon