I’ve had a whirl wind visit to Singapore. Normally, travel days are tiring, long and expensive. Yesterday, everything went relatively smoothly, not so tiring, I only got lost once and it was surprisingly inexpensive getting here.
I left early to avoid the heat in Bangkok heading to the BTS SkyTtrain at 7:30 am. The heat must have anticipated me coming and cranked up the temperature early. I forgot what a long trek it was from the BTS to transfer to the airport rail. Muggy and hot, I walked along anticipating how to eliminate more weight next time and to buy something with “wheels” for traveling!!!
I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare and found Air Asia relatively empty which was surprising. The day before, I completed the on-line check in and was able to print a copy of my boarding pass. The self-check line had only one person ahead of me so I anticipated a quick check in. That was before they discovered the problem with me being “Larry”. Legally, it’s Lawrence, that’s is the name on my passport, not LARRY. “Do you have any documentation proving you are ‘Larry’”? I started pulling out every piece of documentation I had.
Apparently in the haste of getting a ticket booked in order to get a flight out of DIA, I thought I’d entered my official account with Air Asia and it would enter appropriate personal information. Somehow, this “Larry” character got in the system instead and, judging by their reaction, he was indeed a suspicious character.
My passport was already out, soon to join it was two credit card’s including the one used to book this ticket in the name of this “Larry” character. I added my Colorado Driver’s License only to discover Larry had taken Lawrence’s license!!
I was reaching for my International Driver License when he waved me off while talking to someone on the phone. With authorization, he was able to cross out the name, write in the proper name and get my bags checked. He handed my paperwork and boarding pass to me. Turning to find where to go next, I was shocked to see a long line not only behind where I stood but apparently hundreds of people showed up after I did! Fortunately, I was a bit ahead of the crowd.
Glancing at the paperwork, I noticed that the “Larry” had been crossed. Penned in above it was my official name, “LAWRENCH”. I guess Lawrence would include too many vowels and, what the heck, “H” is close enough.
A long line awaited in Immigration and I waited over 30 minutes to pass through the sluggish system. Still with plenty of time to share, I had enough Baht for a cup of coffee, picked up an authorization pass for the free airport WiFi, and wrote my earlier story there.
A bad storm engulfed Singapore, we circled and circled, over half-an-hour worth of bumping up and down before finally landing. Initially, I had attempted to purchase a ticket directly to Bali and was now wondering why that hadn’t worked?
Once my pack arrived, I walked right through customs, immigration had been a breeze and took all of three minutes. And then I realized something, I hadn’t received any seat assignment with my Singapore Airlines return flight. Through the airport I wandered eventually finding the SIngapore Airline customer service desk and getting seats assigned for my return home.
The MTR transit system here is very good. However, my hostel was off the main route so I had to change three times and walked a ton between. Once again, I was pondering the wisdom of traveling even lighter and having something with wheels to ease the walking! My pack didn’t feel THIS heavy when I tested it in my living room?!
The hostel here was great and four of my room mates were ladies from Mongolia studying in South Korea, learning Korean while working on master’s degrees. This morning I met a man from the US living in the Philippines in a small remote jungle village. We had a great conversation. He’s spent much of the past year going home to the US to visit his mother who has Alzheimer’s and is deteriorating to the point she doesn’t remember him being there. That made me appreciate one more time how good we have it with mom and dad both doing as great as they are.
The pool is only two blocks away and I had a swim interrupted by a great conversation with David from Australia who works for Quantas Airlines. The lap lanes were 50 meters which is normally a long way to swim without a break and, having not swam for months, it was a REALLY long but refreshing swim.
Photo of my Indian “brother” from last night and the hostel here. Lovely hostel and staff. The only real complaint is competition for the few bathroom/showers on each floor.
Now, I’m wrapping my my stay at the hostel here preparing to head back to the airport. I asked about the other MRT station which is direct to the interchange with the airport. Chenel sounded concerned that it’s a much longer walk to Lavendar Station. I found it last night and it’s 10 minutes walk from the hostel. The concept of “long walk” is all relative. The route from there to the airport is about 30 minutes compared to the hour plus and the other walking on the route I took yesterday.
Wandering into the edge of Little India last night, I found a bubbly and energetic little restaurant on the corner, fresh nan flying out of their clay oven, friendly faces encouraging me to come sit. What a great meal! I’ll be back here in a month and will spend more time wandering about Little India!
Now to the airport and onward to Bali. Sounds like many of you are experiencing a storm there at home. I’m experiencing a cool wave myself as its barely 90° today…brrrr!
PS…quick here to the airport on the alternate route. I left the hotel around 1:00, stopped for a bite to eat and by 2:10 was checked in and through immigration. Amazingly efficient here.
Ciao….