Singapore / 5–8 Sep 2026

The Singapore extension

A volcano in the Sunda Strait ended the trip, and then didn’t. This chapter is the four days a journey spent refusing to close, and what you do inside them.

Singapore
5–8 Sep 2026
Unplanned
Krakatau
Four days

Two free days in Singapore is a story you tell at dinner. Day three onwards, paying for it yourself, is just an expense with a nice view. Both versions happened on the same trip, about forty-eight hours apart.

The canal, escalators and glass roof inside the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands — An air-conditioned afternoon in a city I like anyway, on a day that was supposed to be spent at home.

The flight home routed through Singapore. The Singapore–Jakarta leg was cancelled: volcanic ash from Krakatau.

Singapore Airlines put us up at the Royal Plaza on Scotts, with breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets included. For two days this was, frankly, a gift. Somebody else’s hotel, somebody else’s meals, and a city I like anyway.

There are worse ways for a trip to refuse to end. And then the coverage ran out.

5 Sep

The cancellation

A volcano in the Sunda Strait ended the trip, and then didn’t.

6 Sep

The extra day

Checked out at nine, checked back in by lunchtime.

7–8 Sep

Getting home

Three rebookings, and then a Tuesday afternoon flight.

Two free days in Singapore is a story you tell at dinner. Day three onwards, paying for it yourself, is just an expense with a nice view.
The Singapore extension

5 Sep

A volcano in the Sunda Strait ended the trip, and then didn’t

Out of Sydney in the evening, into Singapore, and into the news that the last leg was not happening. The airline handled it well — a hotel on Scotts Road with all three meals included — and for two days that was, frankly, a gift.

Busy departure gate at Sydney airport with orange seating and travellers waiting — Leaving Sydney thinking the trip had one leg left in it.

Orchard Road at night seen through a car window, lit shopfronts and traffic — Into the city instead of onto a plane. Familiar road, entirely wrong reason to be on it.

Large paella pan of rice with prawns on a hotel buffet line — Somebody else’s dinner, which improves almost any food by a measurable margin.

Copper pot of seafood in a red broth on a hotel buffet counter — The buffet was better than a stranded traveller has any right to expect, and I ate accordingly.

6 Sep

Checked out at nine, checked back in by lunchtime

Out of the hotel around nine to head for Changi, with a rebooked flight around noon. Then the news that Soekarno-Hatta was still closed for the day. Checked back in, and assembled a day out of a day that wasn’t supposed to exist.

Tower block and covered walkway on Orchard Road in the morning — Orchard Road at ten in the morning on a Sunday you were meant to spend at home.

Bakery display case filled with croissants, danishes and filled pastries — Coffee at Tiong Bahru Bakery, which is the reliable answer when you have no plan and need one immediately.

Flat white and an iced black coffee on a green terrazzo table — Two coffees on a green table, doing the work of a plan.

Rooftop hotel pool with red umbrellas and empty poolside tables — Back at the hotel by noon, at the pool by one. There are worse ways for a trip to refuse to end.

Cup of matcha soft serve held up inside a dessert shop — Gelato at Tofu G. When the day is filler, you may as well fill it properly.

Tonkatsu set with shredded cabbage, rice, miso soup and pickles — An early dinner at Tonkatsu Ma Maison, eaten at the hour of someone with nowhere to be.

Refrigerated display of tarts and cakes in a patisserie — A cheesecake from Olivia, taken away for later, because later was clearly going to need something.

Pistachio tart in an open cake box photographed on a bed at night — Just before one in the morning, in a hotel room, which is exactly the right time and place for this.

7–8 Sep

The part where it stops being a gift

The airline’s coverage ran out. The last two days were on my own money, in a city I hadn’t planned to be in, waiting on an airport in another country to reopen.

Open kitchen counter at a Japanese yakitori restaurant with cooks working — You start choosing places by how long you can reasonably sit in them.

Takeaway unagi bento box with rice, pickles and salad on a hotel desk — Takeaway on a hotel desk. Not a bad meal. Just not a meal anybody planned to eat.

Golden custard tart in an open box on a bed at night — The other half of the midnight order, eaten at the hour when you have stopped pretending the day has a shape.

Three rebookings and a Tuesday afternoon

The return was first pushed all the way out to the 12th, which is the number that made this feel less like a delay and more like a relocation. Then it moved forward to the 9th. Then Soekarno-Hatta reopened on the 8th, and Singapore Airlines put me on the 13:10 that same afternoon. I got home on Tuesday 8 September, four days later than the ticket said and four days earlier than I had made peace with.

If it happens to you

Take the airline hotel and the buffet without guilt, and use the free days properly — they are the only part of this you will remember fondly. Then start counting, because the coverage ends before the disruption does. And don’t plan around the rebooked date: mine moved three times in three days.

Honest downside

An extended trip you did not choose is not a bonus holiday. Two days of it is a story. After that it is a hotel bill, a laundry problem, and a daily check of whether an airport in another country has reopened.