Based on my (obviously limited) research, I thought it’d be great to do some awards… firstly for accommodation and flight related things…:
🥇 Best shower in the world goes to… a convent! Well, who knew? – Diakonissenhaus Riehen, Switzerland
🥈 Second best shower in the world – my aunt and uncle’s shower in Auckland, New Zealand
🥉 Third best shower (and bear in mind all of these top three showers would be fit for a king or queen) – Nobbs Flat, Milford Road, New Zealand. En suite showers in wooden huts in the middle of nowhere. There’s no phone signal, but the showers were great!
🥇 Best airline vegan food – Air New Zealand, though closely followed by
🥈 Singapore Airlines, with their delicious coconut and mango sago pudding.
United Airlines were not in the running. (A cheese sandwich is really not vegan🤨) Neither is Swiss Air (Swiss quiche also not vegan. Though I could’ve probably asked for something else, but didn’t want to forfeit the also unvegan Swiss chocolate they give you at the end of the flight!!)
🥇 Best airline in the world – Air New Zealand
🥇 Best airport in the world – Changi Airport, Singapore (it’s like a small country in itself, including museum rooms where you can learn about various Singaporean cultures, fresh greenery growing up most of the walls, and arranged in incredibly artistic displays with water features throughout, lots of places where you can sit in squishy seats and relax, lots of eateries, quiet jazz playing throughout… you get the picture).
👎🏼 BUT most annoying immigration procedure – Singapore… I couldn’t get cross with the quiet jazz playing and the leaves everywhere but I do wish there’d been a sign or someone telling us to fill out landing cards /pointing us to them before we’d queued up for half an hour only to get turned away to go fill them out and then have to queue up again! (My luggage had been taken to lost and found by the time I got through that little lot!) This happened to me again when I re-entered Singapore over land from Malaysia (doh!), only this time without the calm sophistication of Changi airport to help me simmer down. It was late and I was not a happy bunny!
Having said all of this, it wouldn’t have been an issue if I were a more observant person, no doubt! But other people were also caught out by it.
🥇 Most comfortable form of transport – luxury coach, Malaysia
🥇 Best trains in the world – Switzerland (I spent quite a while worrying I was in first class, having only paid for second class, because…what could have been improved? I was in second class.)
🥇 Best hotel in the world – Royale Chulan, George Town, Malaysia
🥇 Best Homestay – Mia Spa, Ninh Binh, Vietnam
la perle 