Singapore Trip Recap

Pictures to be uploaded to my Multiply soon. But first, I have to find my Flash Disk, Memory Card Reader and Driver's License.

Anyways...

Day 1

Wednesday
Got up rather early and had breakfast. Thanks Dad! It's like a tradition to have breakfast with him. Then off we went to Clark.

As I was walking around the line I saw Serg, Jiro, and friends! Nice to see familiar faces. Everything went smoothly from then. Serg sat with me on the plane while Ryan, Jiro and his bro playtested at the back row. After a couple of jokes and banter the disembarkment card was passed around and this sparked our lively conversation with the Aussie beside me. He didn't have a pen, I lent him one then we started talking. We exhausted all possible topics: life in Philippines, life in Australia, politics, religion, erm sports is a no-no for me, business, life, philosophy. It was fun and I was able to gain a lot of new insights and some direction, I hope. Either way, let's just say an alternative opened up.

We arrived at the budget terminal. It was raining... HARD. As in typhoon quality. The staff of Tiger Air lent us some umbrellas to traverse the distance from the plane to the terminal and it was ok. Now when I hear the word "budget," I expect low quality, paint peeling etc. (no offense to Team Budget lol) but damn! That is one beautiful terminal!

I had gone ahead since my Pinoy buddies had to get their stuff as a group. I found a bunch of brochures at the side about Singapore. They were FREE! Free maps, events guides, district maps! I'm liking this country already!

As we stepped out of the terminal, we decided to part ways since we were staying in different places anyway. So I took the shuttle to Terminal 1, then rode the MRT to erm, forgot the place then took that to City Hall then took that to Dhoby Gaut where I got down. As I stepped out of the station I was shouting YATA! in my head! (think Hiro from Heroes.) I made my way to YMCA, checked in and went into my room.

When I got to the hostel room, there was a Korean there, sleeping. Oops, woke him up. He turned out to be pretty cool anyway so he didn't mind. I started to settle in and found the charger for my dead celphone and.. #@$&! These are different sockets. And different voltages. I was told to purchase a transformer at a nearby mall, Plaza Singapura. It was raining hard so I stopped by the YMCa internet cafe to do my histo paper. DAMN s$1 per 10 minutes. What a freakin rip-off! s$1=P32 so there... Then a Chinese man came into the cafe and we talked for a while. turns out he was in need of a charger as well and was hungry too. We decided to wait the rain out in the internet cafe. It didn't stop so we had to have our dinner in the Y Cafe. Yeah prices on foodstuffs were double their outside value but we had no choice. The food's great though. Excellent service quality in YMCA. Anyway turns out that Chinese guy is a traditional doctor from Zhi Jiang. I still know where that is, thanks to Di Li. LOL. It was rather funny when we conversed as I was noticably trying to practice my chinese and he wanted to practice his english with me. Good times. Things are pretty good I guess, I mean at least I wasn't having my dinner alone. Whne we finished dinner he decided to go to bed, I was desperate to chrage my phone so as to be able to contact Franz and co. I opted to walk out of the building in the pouring rain. After five seconds I realized I needed an umbrella. Good thing there was a nearby 7-11 (note for some reason 7-11s don't really stay open 24 hours.) and bought an umbrella... GR WASTING MONEY! So I went over to Plaza Singapura looking for a hardware store. I found one then found the transformers then my jaw dropped. Each one was worth upwards to s$235, I can't afford that, I mean I have other expenses so I kinda panicked. I didn't know what happened but the idea of buying a celphone charger would be better. So I did, for s$25. Yeah small price to pay for communication lines. Then I looked around the mall and lo and behold I chanced upon a Comic Alley-like establishment. When I entered, it was Anime heaven ad I immediately asked for the Samurai X manga. I bought 7 volumes, I only need a few to complete hte hwole Enishi story arc now :D YEY! I have 19 onwards to 28. Then I decided, on a whim, to buy a Death Note. Teh uber pimp!!! Hahaha not that I'll ever write on it or anything. Needless to sayI was grinning from ear to ear as I made my way back to my room. And that was how I spent my Wednesday.

NOTE: I opened the Death Note and I thought it was cool to see the names of the characters written there until I kept turning and read a few spoilers... DARN... Yeah It was in Chinese so I understood most of it...