Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge Singapore

Malaysia Airlines has its own lounge in Changi Singapore Airport (SIN), Golden Lounge, as it has quite several flights out of SIN.   I was there on the early January-2014 on my SIN-KUL-DXB trip.

In general the lounge is ok.  It has all the business facilities and working space.   The food is adequate with some varities of food.   My flight was in the morning 955am departure so they may serve more food varities for lunch or dinner.

I will let the pictures talk themselves.

The exterior of the lounge.   Looks quite huge from outside.   Please note the operating hours if you are trying to make us this lounge using your Oneworld.

The reception area.   Next to it, it has the display of the MH memoribilia.  However, when I asked, the receptionist told me they are for display only and they do not sell it in SIN.   You can only buy it in KUL, such a pitty.

This lounge has a business are, including meeting room, photo copier (and printer I suppose) and computer if you need to use one.

 The lounge are mostly is the blue chairs.  I guest blue is MH color (or at least used to be).  The food selection is not so much, but considering the flight will only be 55 minutes (unless you fly to KCH), it should be ok.   Most importantly, it has shower are.

 This was the plane that took me to KUL,:9M-MSE, a B737-800.

Ambassador Lounge (T3 Changi Airport Singapore)

I saw so many posting asking about where to take nap when they are on transit in Singapore Changi airport.  As I was using Ambassador Lounge in T3 waiting for my Garuda flight to Jakarta, I thought why don't I take some picture around the lounge and post something in my blog.  Perhaps some people may find it quite useless.

Well, I hope some of you may find it useful.  If it is so, appreciate it, if you can drop a comment so that I know my effort is not useless :)

This is the reception desk of the lounge.  I spoke to the staff there and they told mne actually they have another Ambassador lounge in T2.

When you are about to go into the lounge you will see the "clock wall" where you can see time on different time zone.

There are quite some area for you to seat and relax and enjoy the drink and food.  Well, in my opinion, the food and drink are just so so.   Nothing fantastic.

There is also some area for your internet access.  PC is also available.  However, I did not try how good is the PC there.

I saw quite some people (well in fact most of the people at that lounge at that time, as the lounge quite empty that late morning, around 10-ish am) were napping in the seat.  I found these couple are smart and get the good location.  Well, if you do not need to nap, you can see nice few of the airport also (not really sure what it call, tarmac??)

Actually the lounge also has a nap suite, which you can use for minum of 3 hours for SGD 35.31 (and then can extend it hourly) but I guess this is on top of SGD35.31 that you need to pay for lounge access.  The lounge access comes also with shower facilities, which you can also purchase separetly if you just need to have shower.  Here is what you get when you pay for SGD35.31.

The shower area is quite good and apparently if you just purchase the shower, they give you a bottle of water and snacks.  Not so bad I guess.  Here are some pictures of the shower area.

Unfortunely, they do not let me see the nap area, but they gave me the brochure.   Well, I hope this write up give some idea for some people the next time that they will be in transit in Singapore, especially in Terminal 3 (T3)

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Trip to the Land of Golden Pagodas - Part 1

I visited the Land of Golden Pagodas in early May.  This is my first trip into the country which has been closed for years.  Even now, I still need to get visa, although I hold ASEAN country passport. 

The process of taking visa is actually quite easy, 1 working day process.  You submit today and you will collect it tomorrow afternoon.   However, as I was lazy to go to Myanmar embassy in Singapore, I decided to use a travel agent service.  I went to Peninsula Plaza which is known as Little Myanmar to look for travel agent.  Apparently, due to a week of New Year holiday in Myanmar, the embassy was closed.  So some travel agent has back-log and they told me they can only submit the application for a limited number (some say 5, some say 6) per day.  I managed to get the agent that can do it for me (as I need to be in HKG on Monday before Labour day) and my trip to Yangon was on 3-May.


I took a very early morning flight (0755) out of SIN to RGN, as only the morning flight is SQ flight and the rest is MI flight, as I prefer to fly on non-single aisle plane as much as I can.  Here is the plan that will take me to Yangon

The flight was quite empty.  I think the load may not even 50%.  Most of the passengers are Myanmarese.  I guess not many Singapore-based business people flies to Yangon on Friday morning.  May the belly is full.

The flight was nothing to talk about.  The plane is rather old B777-200ER (10+ years) which still have a very small screen in economy, although it is AVOD.   The aircraft registration is 9V-SVK.

After about close to 3 hours, we were about to land at Yangon Mingaladon International airport.  From above, you can see a big river, I suspect it should be the mighty Irrawady river.

My friend told me he saw a big Pagoda when he about to land.  We suspect it is the Shwedagon Pagoda which I will cover later.

To be very honest, I expect that the RGN airport will be a very run down airport and nothing much to expect.  But oh boy, I am very very wrong.  Although, it is not very big, it has a very modern look and clean.


My flight just arrived from SIN and they have aero-bridge :)

There were some traffic on the late morning in RGN.  Most of the airlines that I never see before.

The terminal is very clean and modern look.

The arrival is on the 2nd floor, so you have to go down to pass the immigration and custom.  There is a sign welcoming you to Myanmar.  Mingalabar!!!

The luggage area is just after you pass immigration.  Immigration is fast.

You need to put your bag in X-ray machine to pass the custom.



There is a money changer just after you pass the custom to your left.  It is advisable to exchange some local money here, Kyat (pronounce likes Chat) - MMK.  The rate is quite good.  If I am not mistaken 1SGD = MMK 718 at that time.  When I took money using my Citibank ATM on the hotel the following Sunday, the rate is MMK695.   Now a days, you can withdraw money through the local bank ATM using MasterCard/Visa, but they will impose some small fee (cannot recall) on top on what your bank will charge you.You need to calculate carefully so that.

Please be warn also, you can forget your Credit Card in Myanmar.  Everything is in cash.  The hotel only accept room bill settlement using Credit Card.  What I heard, MasterCard is planning to be the first one to introduce credit card in Myanmar but this will only happen toward end of 2013.

Here is the scene after you pass the immigration.  Many people are waiting.  It seems they are waiting for their relatives or families member come back from overseas.  There is also a monitor to display flight arrival information like many other airport.

Part 2