Above: View of Gulangyu from my hotel room.
We left the hotel for Xiamen airport around 0900 for our 1220 Silkair flight to Singapore. We couldn’t enter the check-in area for a while and when we were, it was another wait till the counter opened 2h prior to the flight.
The counter staff kept an eye on who had arrived first and beckoned us forward before inviting the other passengers.
Going airside, the security staff were very polite, asking before doing anything eg. inspecting a pen or opening one’s water bottle.
During the wait, we checked out some coffee shops. The minimum was CNY60 with others at CNY90. Very pricey and no wonder there were no customers. Obviously, they don’t believe in lowering margins and selling higher volume.
At the boarding gate, the barcoded boarding pass is scanned and it triggers a camera which takes a photo of the passenger. Few years ago, when I mentioned to Air New Zealand IT colleagues that Chinese bus stations issue barcoded boarding passes, they laughed. [Edit: Little did they know that it would be the way of the future, replacing the more expensive magnetic strip boarding passes.]
The Silkair inflight service began with drinks after takeoff. A meal was offered without dessert. A DVD player was also offered for inflight entertainment.
Five of the six cabin crew had Malay names but could speak Mandarin. Some spoke well whereas others had flat intonations. Nevertheless, they were good with Chinese-speaking passengers.
Upon arrival, I checked my emails at the airport computer terminals before collecting our bags and heading to the staff foodcourt for a dinner of rendang, chicken and long beans. It was very hazy in Singapore and we couldn’t see the airport from the motorway on the ride home.