YourSingapore (Day 2)

On 24th July 2012, I set foot in Singaporean soil at 0600. As I mentioned in the earlier post, my very first impression of Singapore (the impression being that of the Changi Airport) was super awesome!

There were of course irritatingly long queues  near the Immigration Counter. As I waited in line, I saw the two brothers I had seen in Colombo airport. I sneaked a glance at their passports since I was still curious as to where they were from. I saw "Australia" scrawled in teeny tiny letters in between two kangaroos( that's what it looked like from far, but closer inspection proved otherwise ;) ). One mystery solved :P

Right in front of me in line were a French couple with their daughter of (about) 2. Their nationalities I decided partially by hearing their accent. My guess was confirmed when I caught a glimpse of their passports.

It was almost half past six when I finally cleared Immigration and headed towards the exit. On the way, my eye caught a foreign currency exchange counter. Since all I had on me were American Dollars, I exchanged them for Singapore Dollars.

I then hurried out of the airport to find an airport personnel pointing me to a number 2. I hurried off to the place marked number two and was pleasantly surprised to find a taxi waiting for me there. Talk about efficiency! :D

As the Cabbie drove off, I was stunned into silence by the beautiful scenery unfolding in front of me. It was like I was driving through a park filled with trees. Such was the greenery around me, with the trees forming canopies overhead. The sight of beautiful flowers blooming like colourful dots here and there were so calming to the soul.  And the funniest part was, it wasn't until 7am that the sun rose. (In Maldives, sun rises usually at around 6!)

The cab driver asked me about Maldives and why I was in Singapore. Speeding away from the airport, I was enchanted by the architectural miracles of all shapes and sizes. The driver was an awesome tour guide, he told me about every single significant building we passed.

Singapore Flyer

Esplanade Building

Marina Bay Sands

Gardens By The Bay

It was also fun to stare at the cable cars overhead :D

So I finally reached the hotel I was supposed to stay at, South East Asia Hotel. The nice cab driver gave me his number so that I can contact him if I needed any help. I could tell that he was feeling sympathetic for the young girl who traveled alone all the way from somewhere in the Indian Ocean, and had nobody she could call for help in the country of Singapore. (I was sure I wasn't that helpless, but turned out I  was so wrong!!)

I still had my Dhiraagu (one of the Maldivian telecommunication service providers) sim, but of course that was totally worthless in Singapore, I found out bitterly, later. I dialed the driver's number so that it would be in my call  log. Then I thanked him and dragged my luggage in to the hotel.

Yes, it does look nice, doesn't it? But the lesson of "Not everything that glitters is gold" was learned the hard way when I went in to the hotel. There were already 3 boys of around 20 who were from Italy or somewhere close by, from what I could tell, insisting that they had booked their rooms that day and that the rooms should be available. The elderly lady at what was supposed to be the reception, (which, in reality was just a 3 feet long counter, behind which she sat) told them firmly that the guests check out at 12pm and the rooms would be available only after 3pm unless the reservation was done a day ahead. 

I walked in confidently because a friend of my Dad, Yazydbe has booked my room one day in advance and he had been reassured that my room would be available to me by 8am. I went and told the lady about it and she refused to listen to my side of the story. She repeated the same thing and asked me to come back at 3pm. It was just a little past 7 then. What was I supposed to do for the next 8 hours with myself, all alone, nowhere to go with a heavy handbag, an equally heavy laptop bag and a HUGE luggage bag. (Self pity, I know! But it was that panic-inducing ;) ) The lady was kind enough to let me leave the luggage bag in a storage closet, but offered no further help.

I was at a total loss as to what i should do next. I pulled myself together and decided I should get a Singtel (A telecommunication service provider in Singapore) sim to start with (what little homework I did paid off !). I asked the landlady where I could get a Singtel sim and the answer was 7 Eleven. I asked for directions to the nearest 7 Eleven and went off in the direction pointed out by the lady. I didn't know whether it was the accent or the lack of clarity, but it took me quite some exploring to finally find the place, which was actually right around the corner, literally! 

Just as I was buying the sim card, I got a text from Iko who is Nashidbe's( Another of Dad's awesome friends) younger sister. She lives in Singapore and I was so relieved to hear from her. I inserted my Singtel sim into my phone and messaged her, telling her how the hotel so heartlessly threw me out in to the streets (drama much, huh ;) )! She told me she was a bit busy then and that she'd call me a bit later.

I wasn't so depressed anymore, but I was still starving and dead tired. I then called Raid to get directions for the nearest Starbucks. (Starbucks has free wifi and I wanted to load my google map where I had marked all the closest Subways, McDonald's and other emergency places ;) ). He totally deserves a Noble(or in this case a Shina)prize for the most supportive human being on Earth! It was 3am, but he still called me back, and he stayed up thereafter, giving me directions to all the places that I wanted to go.

I honestly don't know what I would have done if he wasn't there, calling me every two minutes, literally!

 With Raid giving me directions on the phone and me asking random strangers on the street about the landmarks he was talking about, it took me around 15 minutes to find a Starbucks. But luck seemed to be evading me (if you are a huge believer of luck, which I'm not!). My laptop was out of charge and there was no port I could connect the charger to. So I was stuck with a cup of coffee I wasn't such a huge fan of (Don't take it personally, Starbucks! I usually hate coffee! :D )!

Then I decided that I would make the best of the situation and go sightseeing! I had grabbed several maps from the airport and they marked all the cool places I wanted to go to. But I had to get this card thingy, "Singapore Visitor's Pass" which gives me $10 credit and I can travel on any bus or MRT (Singapore Mass Rapid Transit- Singapore metro) more cheaply. 

But I had to wait till 10am for the offices to open so I can get one. 

So while I waited, I decided to grab a bite and thus began the search for a Subway (I am Subway, all the way! :D).And it was waaaay harder than you think it is, mostly because I found it really difficult to understand the Singaporean accent, and Google map, which Raid was checking, was annoyingly misleading. 

For an instance, he told me there was supposed to be a Subway in Bugis Junction. I went there and all I could see was this shopping mall. That was the same response I got from some of the people I asked as well. And I would never have known of the existence of a Subway in the Basement level if a young soul hadn't lead me there herself! 

I'm signing off for tonight leaving you with a picture of my favourite submarine from Subway- personalized tuna Sub. (Best thing about tuna is, it doesn't have to be Halal, so I can eat tuna at any place, without waiting to find out whether the place serves Halal food! :D)

Tuna, Cucumber,  Just a little bit of onion, Extra Cheese, A bit of lettuce

Bon Appetite! xD