Business Class Airport Lounge - Changi, Addis Ababa, Sao Paulo

You know how YouTubers always show you what is like in airport lounge? And how awesome the food are inside? And all that free flow alcohol? Well, all that is wasted on me. I couldn't really eat much after being fed so much on the flight, and I don't really feel like getting dehydrated and drunk before each flight. So I visited 3 lounges in my one trip: Changi, Addis Ababa, and Sao Paulo. Above is the typical Changi lounge. Nothing fancy. Didn't feel like eating anything at 11pm after dinner. Mainly just sat down and drank some coffee. I really like the coffee machine in the lounge cause you are always trying to stay awake while waiting for your flight. 

Next lounge I visited was the Cloud Nine lounge is Addis Ababa Bole Airport. This one was a lot more interesting because of the next few picture. 

So inside the lounge, they have a traditional Ethiopian coffee area. And when I reached there at 7am, there wasn't anyone around, so I took some photo and thought that was it. I went to have some juice and sat down to watch my youtube since there is no wifi on the plane.

Maybe they don't open during weird hours. At least I got some nice photos, right?

Luckily for me, when I walked past to go to the toilet, there was a lady there. So I quickly went to the toilet and come out and waited for her. There was another guy also waiting for her, so we both sat down and ask for a cup of coffee. 

She will basically just pour it in the cup and ask if you want any sugar with it, and then hand it to you. I thought she would actually engage more with the customer, but nope. She would just smile and look around until you hand her back the cup.

But the coffee was thick and smooth. I especially like the cup it was served in. I tried to buy it as a souvenir on my way back, but the lady in the shop only sold it in a set of 6 at least, and cost around 45USD! That's what I would call not doing right business. I bet they would have sold a lot more if they sell it as individual set at a cheaper price since tourist like me would be happy to buy them as souvenirs. Bummer. Too bad, I guess. I have enough cups at home anyway.... but these were Ethiopian coffee cups! Gah!

I spend my transit ride home mainly sleeping in the quiet room at the lounge. When I went in, it was just me. Then came some China people who talk loudly even though it was a quiet zone. After a while, it was rather quiet. Some guy even snore in the seat next to me. Since I was on my way home without a care in the world, I didn't really care what was going on around me, or how I was seated. I basically treat it like my house sofa. It was a midnight flight, and I was tired. 

Interestingly the nicest lounge was Sao Paulo Terminal 2 airport for me. Although from the review Terminal 2 was supposed to be older. Surprisingly it looked brand new to me, and I really like the layout and colour. I was actually sitting outside the airport for 2 hours before I could check-in since there was no one at the counter. I was so hungry cause I didn't feel like eating outside and didn't have much money left. The moment I stepped in side here, I quickly use the toilet to freshen up, and then make my way for free food.  I ate a lot of sandwiches, juice, soup and some dessert from here. After which I went to sit at the tall stool looking out at the plane and basically play with my phone until the time came for me to board the plane. 

All in all, it was an interesting experience. Although I was travelling alone (which I preferred), I was never once bored. I had so much to see and look at. I even talk to people in the airport since I had so much time. It was a rather relaxing travel for me. 

Ethiopian Airlines - Business Class Snacks.

I guess one of the things I love about Ethiopian Airline Business Class is the cheese they serve. Since their food was kinda hard to stomach, I ate a lot of cheese as substitute. Above is the first cheese platter they serve me. Since I don't really want to eat sweet cakes and dessert, this was the next best thing. I really wish they would serve it with coffee at the same time, but they always serve the coffee after that....

On my second light, I asked for dessert wine to go with my cheese. They serve me port which was kinda strong. So strong that I can only finish half the glass. But I finished most of the cheese though. I think I enjoyed the cheese platter so much that I don't even have any cheese craving after coming back to Singapore. But then again, it has only been one week since the trip....

Last dish of cheese platter. The dates was nice and sticky, but I was thinking how much calories are these little babies! OMG! I skipped the last plate on the last flight cause I was sleeping so well. On my flight back, I was basically dressed in my pajamas, so it was really really comfortable for me. 

The airline also provided a personal touch chocolate box for each flight. If only it was dark chocolate....

Each box has two chocolates inside, with different fillings. It was a nice touch, and goes well with the coffee. 

Above photo look so classy. Like I was dining in some fancy restaurant. 

Lastly, the Tobasco Sauce they serve with each meal was so cute! I tool like 3 of them home. I also took a jar of Brazilian honey home. I don't really like Tabasco sauce, but the bottle is just too cute to ignore. Plus it was already paid for, right? 

Ethiopian Airlines - Business Class Food

I'm gonna do two post on the food served on my Business Class flight with Ethiopian Airlines. First is all the mains that I was served, and the second would be the more enjoyable snacks that I got on my flight. So to start off, 1st dinner from Singapore to Ethiopia. I actually asked for non-meat meal, but the 1st course came with meat anyway.....It may look really nice on the photo, but the meat was super tasteless. Hence the many sauces that was served in every meal. The mustard really save the day in most meals!

My no-meat 2nd course was carbo filled. Fried rice and linguine.... At 3am in the morning??? Come on! I couldn't really finish the portion, but I did try my best to finish the paste cause I was afraid I might get hungry along the way.

Breakfast was slightly better. I like the cereal with milk, fruits, and yogurt. But again, the main was rather disappointing in taste. I was actually thinking maybe it's just better to eat the sides and skip the main all together. 

The flight from Ethiopia to Brazil had better food. I had smoked fish, and the olive oil and vinegar with bread was my favourite. Every time they serve that, I ask for an extra bottle and just soak it all up with the bread. Somehow the taste of vinegar helps in improving the other wise, very blend food. 

Above meal was serve from Brazil to Ethiopia. It was named Noya Chicken, and I though it was nyonya chicken curry. Boy was I wrong. It was terrible in taste! But the rice was ok, so I mainly ate the fried rice and left everything else on the plate. 

Morning breakfast from Ethiopia to Singapore was kinda fresh toast with vanilla sauce and jam. You can't go wrong on that. Finished everything here. 

Dinner again came in two courses. Again, blend cold meat. I swallow it down with half a bottle of mustard sauce. No vinegar was served with the meal even though I took the bread in anticipation. Sigh. No wonder they need to much alcohol on the flight. Probably to wash everything down.

Last dinner was herb sauce with rice and battered salmon. This was surprisingly good. I think I also had roast beef, which was also tasteless in one of the flight. So lesson learned: always eat the national dish if it is recommended and you just took off from that country, or stick mainly to fish cause it is a lot lighter and easier to eat. 

Addis Ababa Bole International Airport - Transit to/from Brazil

A week before my flight, I have no idea where Addis Ababa was. I had to google it. So apparently it was the capital of Ethiopia. And although I have heard of Ethiopia (mainly from South Park), I don't actually know where it was. I was thrilled and excited when I found out it was in Africa. I've never been to Africa before! This business trip was gonna bring me to two continents I've never landed on before! Awesome! Above is what the airport look like. Nothing much in terms of duty free shopping. I mainly bough coffee. 

This was probably what I will ever see of Ethiopia unless I decided one day to visit the country. Transit was 3 hours and 5 hours, and the only regret I had was not taking a shot of the sunrise when I first arrive there. I wanted to go to the airport lounge first, but there were no windows there, so I missed capturing the beautiful African sunrise with the backdrop of the mountains. Sigh. Hopefully next time....

I guess Ethiopian Airline is kinda affordable for the Chinese, there were many Asians at the airport, from Korean, Japanese, and China Chinese. There was even a special Chinese Service Counter there. And since it was still Chinese New Year while I was there, it was also decorated in red. They also have a Chinese restaurant at the airport, and a duty free shop that seems to cater to Chinese. I didn't visit any of them at all. I got free lounge access! 

I took the above shot while I was landing in Ethiopia on my way home. In my small world, I though Africa would be full of jungles. But obviously I was very wrong. Look at all the city lights! This was a very developed country! So I took this photo to remind myself that what we imagine a country to be like can be bias. There is so much we don't know. And until we venture out there to take a look, we would always be restricted by what we think a country is like, instead of seeing it for what it really is like. 

Here is a sign you don't often see in other airport. Ebola! And it was comforting to know there is none here! I didn't even think about it when I was there until I saw this sign. Snap a photo as a souvenir. 

I took the above photo while I was on a transit bus to the plane. I kinda like it cause wow, Nairobi! Isn't that awesome. I was so so far away from home or anywhere I know. It was such a surreal feeling! 

Ethiopian Airlines - Business Class African Experience flight to Brazil

As promised in my January 2019 post, this is a post on my Business Trip to Brazil Sao Paulo in February. I was having a workshop there from 11-Feb to 15-Feb, just right after the Chinese New Year holiday, and it was quite a rush to prepare everything and get there. Because of the CNY holiday, I wanted to settle all my arrangement of the trip before people started going on leave. So I booked everything one week before the workshop, and our friendly office travel agent helped me booked a flight to Brazil on Ethiopian Airline on a Best Cost basis.... and I was to transit at Addis Ababa, a place I have no idea where. So, arm, Ethiopia here I come!

Ethiopia's Business Class is known as Cloud 9. Above is the pillow they provide on the plane. Since I was flying Business Class, it wasn't that bad. I was rather looking forward to the flight, even though it was a 9.5+12 hour flight in total, with a 3 - 5 hour transit at Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. This was my 2nd time flying Business Class, and I don't even have to queue to check-in at Changi Airport. They have a special lounge where you can sit down while the counter lady does everything for you. Yay! 

Before take off, they serve you some champaign. I love the writing of the Ethiopian language immediately. They look so cute! On my 4 flights, I drank champaign in 3 of them, mainly to help me sleep better. I must say, it kinda grows on you. 

As the flight was so long both ways, we were fed really well. Almost 2 full meals per flight. Each meal consisting of 1st course and 2nd course, drinks and dessert. Chocolates were also provided in one of the meal. In this post, I will mainly be blogging about Ethiopian food cause to be honest, that was the thing I most look forward to. And I am happy to report that I've tried everything that was on my to-do list!

In the menu, they were kind enough to have some write up on Ethiopian food with some explanation of it. I zoomed in on those and was hoping I get to try all of them. 

I was served Kolo on my 2nd flight. It was rather nice watching movies and eating these snacks. I felt like I was at the cinema or even at home comfortably watching the telly. Business Class is so comfortable that it doesn't even feel like flying. I was so comfortable that I even used their toilet 3 times on my first flight. 

Next was their traditional dish call Teff. It looks like cloth, but actually just taste like thosai or some indian roti. I had it twice, once on the way there, and once on the way back. To be honest, it was the best food on all my flights, mainly cost it taste like indian curry. 

This is the menu showing what is served with the teff. Can't say I knew what to expect at all. So when the server came around, I just said I wanted to try it and they serve a plate of it with everything on it.

The awesome thing about Business Class is, everything is serve on plates with real knife, folk and spoon. It really does make you wonder how you are going to fly economy any more....

Here is what the final dish look like. The tumeric mutton was the best dish, followed by the vegetables. It was yummy I cleaned the plate on my first try, probably because the rest of the dishes they serve was pretty blend. This, on the other hand, was full of flavour, fragrant, and delicious! Highly recommended!

Spring Blossom 2019

We stayed in an area where there are many landed properties, and Chinese seems to like decorating their homes with flowers during Chinese New Year. I guess it's a sign of abundance and good harvest? Anyway, a week before Chinese New Year, we decided to take a walk around our area to visit the florist nearby. Katong Flower Show was the very first we went to, and the whole place was beautifully light up, which was what drawn us to visit all the florist in the first place.

Next was a chain of 4 to 5 florist on the same road as where we lived. Above is what the road looked like at night while we were walking there. Everything was light up, and extra flowers spilled out into the pedestrian walk.

When you walk into any of the florist, the tent greets you with red chinese lantern and well wishes in chinese. Below it, pots and pots of flowers for sale.

Most of the flowers on sale were the chinese type, and for some reason, orchid is really popular too. There were also lots of Mandarin Orange plants everywhere, costing a few hundred per pot for some. 

Here are some nicer shots. Above pots of mandarin oranges in full harvest.

Imported China flowers I assume. They look really beautiful but would probably die real soon in the heat of the Singapore weather....

Pots of red and pink flowers in bloom. These are really pretty too. Just in the themed of Valentine Day too!

And here is what my husband got, little monk sitting next to a bonsai-like palm tree, with the ground covered in moss. This little thing cost SGD25! Huat AH!

Happy Chinese New Year 2019!

Happy Chinese New Year 2019! Although I am not supposed to be celebrating this year due to my father's death less than 3 months ago, I am still soaking in the atmosphere. And 2019 is the year of the pig. So I was in Chinatown a few weeks back for a dinner to celebrate the passing of my probation for my new job, and decided to check out some of the lights and decorations. So above is the entrance to Chinatown, with a few big pig lanterns decoration in the middle of the road.

I didn't actually ventured into the heart of Chinatown as it was so crowded even on a weekday (we were there on a Friday night). We had dinner at Chinatown Point, and since there was a covered (a.k.a. air conditioned bazaar just outside, we went in to have a look. I love the furry piglet decorations. They are so adorable. 

My colleagues here can be seen here browsing with me. I didn't know pomelo was used for Chinese New Year. I thought they were only used for Mid-Autumn Festival, no? I am no Chinese expert, so I can't say for sure. 

Here is another mysterious colleague I had dinner with. There is a third too, but I couldn't get a not-so-obvious photo of her to post here. I don't really want to show their faces in case they complaint... Anyway, all the lanterns are red. And all the soft toys are pigs!

I always like Lion Dance during Chinese New Year. And this one was nicely decorated able all the toys. 

Lastly, there is a wishing tree inside Chinatown point itself, and I really like this photo cause it kinda reminds me of Sakura. Hanami Matsuri (Sakura viewing festival) is only 1 month away, so I'll just leave you here with this photo as a transition into the next phase of what the year has to offer.