-I've (mostly) got only good memories from both places; as we're in the chitchat thread and walking down memory lane, I'll add a couple of (hopefully amusing) tidbits of my own:
First time I went to Singapore, I was supposed to be on summer leave, but because reasons (and lack of available personnel), I was asked to do one job in Sing before going on holiday. I really wasn't in the mood for it, having just completed a grand tour of Sub-Saharan Africa, so I told them I'd do it if they shacked me up in Raffles Hotel for the duration. Fifteen minutes later, customer rep calls me back and asks whether I am okay with a deluxe room, or do they have to spring for a suite? Just get the hell to the airport, chop, chop.
So off to Singapore I go. After working at Keppel (out in Benoi) until I could hardly stand on my feet, I jump in a cab up to Raffles for a shower and bedtime. Anyway, half asleep as I am, I just chuck off my shoes outside my room, as was the custom on some of the less reputable vessels I'd worked on - and, five minutes later, fast asleep.
Next morning? I find my work shoes outside, polished within an inch of their lives. Sigh.
Took me ages chasing down the poor sod who'd been stuck with my battered work shoes for hours during the night. He received a (very) generous tip. I brought my civvies out to Keppel that day, so that I could shower and change there. I've never felt as out of place as I did when I walked from the lobby to my room at Raffles in coveralls. I'll have to hand it to the staff, though - they didn't bat an eyelid, though I guess they would have if I'd made for the bar.
As for the Congo, I went there several times in 2008-2009 - stayed in Pointe-Noire on the coast. Not a major holiday location, to put it mildly. Usually flew in to Brazzaville, then jumped a domestic flight to the coast. Brilliant idea.
Once I sat down in my seat in a battered, old 737 and find there's something a bit odd, though I cannot really put my finger on it. After a while, it dawns on me; on the seat back in front of me, there's a faded sticker stating 'Livvest under setet dykkar'. Some quick E-mails sent off to SAS and Boeing after I'd returned to Norway, and it turns out the plane had been sold for scrap in 1993 (methinks) as it no longer complied with EU noise regulations; through some (presumably shady) route it had wound up in the Congo. Boeing flat out suggested that the plane wasn't as much flying as not having crashed yet, seeing as they'd hardly sold any parts to that airframe since the nineties and who knew where the parts to keep it flying had come from...
Good times.
