Last Day in Beijing

I woke up at 4am despite the I have set the alarm clock at 4.45am. I looked out of the window and there was no snow. I felt relief and quite confident that my return journey would be smooth.

I was supposed to collect my pre-packed breakfast around 5.15am. The pre-booked taxi would arrive around 5.45am. Since it was an early morning, the journey from the hotel to the airport should be less than an hour. That would leave me plenty of time in the airport to do any last minute shopping since my flight departs at 8.45am.

I reached the Reception at 5.15am. The breakfast was ready. Besides buns, I have a packet of milk, a big sandwich and a hard-boiled egg. I felt so pampered by the service of this hotel. Just as I was struggling to put my breakfast into my haversack, the taxi arrived. I happily hopped onto the tax and assured myself that I would reach the airport even earlier.

Around 6am, I arrived the airport. I saw something started falling from the sky. The driver told me snowing again. Ok, at least I was able to see snow falling just before I left Beijing. I was quite excited and stood outdoors to see any snow falling. Due to mist, the visibility was poor. Everything was still quite blur and dark. I decided to check in earlier as I knew I have to take a train to my departure gate.

When I reached the departure lounge, OMG, the wings of the SQ airplane were covered with snow. By then, the snow was getting heavier. It was like heavy rain. The ground crew were busy spraying chemicals to melt the snow. I started to worry if my flight could take off at the scheduled time under this condition.

Soon at 8.45am, all the passengers were seated and the doors of the aeroplane were closed and locked. I felt warmth despite the weather outside was chilling. The feeling of returning home and seeeing my loved ones gave me the warmth.

The aeroplane began to move slowly despite it was snowing heavily. It stopped and then moved again. By 10am, we were still in the airport!

The captain announced due to the heavy snow, the aeroplane has to queue for de-icing. The runway has to go for de-icing too. OMG, the cabin crew were rooted to their seatsbecause the seat-belt sign was ON. Passengers were frustrated, thirsty and hungry. Only then the cabin crew started serving drinks.

By 11.30am ie close to 3hours later, the aeroplane was finally given the green light to take off.

Once we were out of the clouds, the meal and dessert were served. Everything was done in a rush. Some passengers began worry about their connecting flights. The cabin crew were unable to offer much info as they could only seek help when the flight approaches S'pore.

Instead of arriving S'pore at 3.15pm, the plane touched down close to 5pm.

I was not very satisfied with the service of this airline.