Must Be the Last Business Trip for 2024

My last business trip was a short one to Jakarta in the beginning of October. I was supposed to go to Mumbai in end November but had to push that back by a week. I totally enjoyed not traveling in November. 

Just like the last Jakarta trip, this one was decided at the very last minute and I was scrambling to find air tickets. I almost had to take Air India. No!!!! The last Jakarta trip, I was scrambling to find hotel. Hoho. 

It was the same Mumbai routine - I was up at 4.30am and arriving at 5.30am for the 7.30am flight. What is different this time is the Christmasy feel and the many families heading for their year end vacation at Changi Airport. I want to go holiday too. 

Hello Kitty is in town!

I had some cosmetic to stock up. Like I said, it had been “a while” since I traveled. 

As if there was a sale… no sale ah, but I needed to stock up. 

I hesitated at the extra empty calories but eventually decided that I needed to make myself happy before traveling to Mumbai for work. Nice teh.

Luckily I did bcos I was seated at the hind of the plane due to the last min ticket purchased and there was only vegetarian food left by the time the food trolley reached me. I could wait and see if the stewardess managed to stun some leftovers from the business class. Never mind ah. The stewardess was very grateful bcos so many other passengers were “waiting” for their non-vegetarian food. 

It wasn’t too bad. It was some curried potato and chick peas and roti. I was actually quite happy with the carbs. Lol. 

I know I should have slept but I backside itchy and didn’t. I caught 2 movies instead. Hoho. I headed directly to the office in the CBD and started my work day. I worked hard and had a busy day bcos I was also covering 2 colleagues who are on leave. It was about 5.30pm when I left the office.

I opted for a hotel that I didn’t stay before bcos this one is nearer to the site office. The last one was horrible but this one had been tested and proven by other female colleagues. The hotel is decent though a little old. I was brought to a room with pool view and the porter was so proud of it, showing me the view.

Then barely a minute later, I was told that they had given me a wrong room and brought to another one that faces the street. Lol. Still not bad lah.

The bed and linen could be better but I have very high threshold for hotel rooms, so I was generally comfortable. Hoho. 

This was my dinner - the sandwich was leftover from lunch and I ordered soup. Happy and comforting food. 

The hotel is located in livelier area but I had no time to explore and was working into the nights throughout the whole stay. Then, calls took place in Singapore morning times, which meant super early in India time. So gym time become even earlier. Then I realised that my earphones were low batt. Zzzzz. Luckily, for all 3 mornings, I was the earliest in the gym and blasted Spotify from my phone. The gym opens at 6am and on the 1st morning, I made them open it at 5.45am for me. 

The gym is decent and well equipped. 

They have plenty of dumbbells. There are many pairs of 5kg but missing the 3kg and the 4kg. I duno why. 

I did my hiit, treadmill and elliptical respectively for the mornings. All good. 

The hotel serves decent bfast spread too. I think it is common to have mainly vegetarian food in hotels in India. The only meat were sausages and bacon. I had to take a picture of this Singapore noodles.

It tasted like stir-fried noodles with a very strong curry taste. I cannot tell which part of it tasted like Singapore. The bfast spread was about the same every morning. This was my dinner for the 2nd night. Nice!

On the last night, dinner was my half eaten subway from lunch, topped up with the airplane bun that I tabaoed from the 1st day.

My flight was at 11.40pm on Friday night. My colleagues said that I should leave the site at 5.30pm bcos of Friday traffic and I should allow for 3 hours for immigration. I gladly heeded their advice. On the way to the airport, I was accompanied by an egg yolk sun, which also meant that it was hazy. 

I arrived at 7ish. Immigration was slow but I had plenty of time. My dinner at the airport. Nice ah. 

I duno why, but I was less tired and the wait was easily occupied by social media scrolling. I think I was deprived after working hard the last few days. 

This time, I was seated in the middle of the plane and I am quite sure they still have non-vegetarian food when the trolley reached me but I was disciplined. I didn’t need 2 dinners and opted to sleep instead. Sleep is never easy on the plane but I had Jay Chou to accompany me. Ya, I can sleep anywhere and was sleeping while listening to Jay Chou. 

Overall, the plane was ok, except for this pair of toddler twins who started whining and crying intermittently and then persistently about 3/4 into the flight. It was irritating and their parents didn’t seem to do much and they just kept to their irritating whining-kind of crying. It didn’t quite affect me as Jay was masking the cries. I saw how devastated the passengers who sat directly in front of the twins were. 

Finally home! Landed at 7.30am on Saturday morning.

My luggage had a dent. The airport staff said that it was due to the air pressure. 

She did manage to “undent” the dents but the dent marks were still visible. The staff said that I can make a report but duno if the repairs can be done. It doesn’t sound like there will be compensation. Haiz, 算了. I was too tired to argue. 

So that is it! My final business trip for 2024 completed! 

We are all totally looking forward to our Beijing holiday in mid December before the business travel starts again next year. Thank God for journey mercy! 

Mummy Lim