Singapore Stopover

Published on May 4, 2006 in Singapore

I’m finally starting to feel settled down! Let me explain.

After New Zealand Ben headed back to L.A. while Yan-Shih and I carried on to Singapore. My flight was routed through KL, so I sat in the airport chatting for a few hours on some open WAP (it belonged to some airline too, oops). I arrived in Singapore quite late at night, and Yan-Shih (who arrived earlier than I did) met me at the airport. We judged the price of a taxi vs. taxi shuttle down, and jumped into the shuttle.

The shuttle ride was quite interesting. As some of you whom have read my entries know, I have had a wonderful time in Singapore. This trip started out slightly different. The taxi bus driver kept suggesting really nice hotels to stay at. Sorry driver, I have been traveling for almost two months, and am pretty darn broke. Then “less expensive” hotels. Well, what he did realize is that while he was speaking Taiwanese to whoever he was calling, somebody else in the bus could understand him. Yan-Shih validated my thoughts that he was less than good — the hotels would say “oh oh, $35 total” then he would say “I have a nice hotel for you to stay at for $50.” We already had a list of hostels to go stay at, so just didn’t need his help.

Upon arrival we looked and looked for a hostel, but they were all closed! Indeed it was almost 1:00am, but you would think! We took a quick taxi ride over to the hostel I stayed at before, checked in at like 1:30am, and quickly fell asleep.

When we woke up I was soooooooooo excited. Curry time! For those of you that don’t know this about me, I literally have a fetish for curry. And there is a place in Singapore where I will always eat curry — it is so inexpensive, and so yum. I can taste it now. We at there like 6 times the few days we were in Singapore.

Overall this trip to Singapore was decent, despite the rough start. We wandered around Little India, went over to Sentago (a holiday island next to Singapore, which has a super cool light show), and visited my cousin, whom I’ve never really met before. Lot’s of walking, lot’s of curry, and a pretty good time.

The Basement Internet Cafe

Published on Oct. 16, 2005 in Singapore

Bus travel could never have been nice. Please take a look at the photos in my gallery if you don’t believe me: each seat had a little TV screen with movies and CDs playing. The 5 or 6 hour bus ride flew by. I arrived in Singapore with no money and no map “ expecting to be dropped off in a central location, I as instead dropped off at a hotel at the outer edge of the city. I found a taxi to give me a ride ot a few hotels I had listed and we took off. Finding an ATM I gave him some money and checked in. Unfortunatly all the hotel rooms were booked, but a œbackpackers? area was available and I could get a room the next night. That was fine by me, especially at $7.50USD/night. Interestingly I stayed every night in the big room, saving some money and “ heck, I was by myself and I’m not picky when it comes to hotel rooms! There was only one other person in there each night.

Singapore was an interesting adventure all in itself. Partially I regret the amount of work I was doing “ I didn’t fully get to explore the city. I learned that I had a cousin living in Singapore (who I regretably didn’t get to see, but she had a child the day after I left, so I’m sure was a little preoccupied!) The first day I walked for hours and hours trying to locate an Internet cafe. I purchased a pre-paid card for Starbucks, which at $6USD/hr was something I decided I would avoid using much of. Instead I located a much less expensive place around the corner. Their website said œlaptop/notebook users? except upon arriving it became quickly apparent that the cafe was solely for gamers. I talked to the guys behind the desk and they quickly allowed me to sit with them (I even sometimes covered for them while they were out, that is how much time I spent in there). I met everybody who worked there I was there so much. Luckily I got close to being caught up.

One eye-opening experience wasn’t seeing sites necessarily, but was reading a book. My third night my eyes were quite sore from looking at my laptop so much and I decided to read a book “ unfortunatly, all my books are computer related, which, I just wanted a œnormal? book. I found a book in the hotel called œno money, no honey.? Interesting, I thought. Upon opening the book I quickly realized that the book was about prostitution in Singapore. Certainly this became one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time! Neither glamorizing nor condemning the trade, the book explored the logistical, moral and economical aspect of prostitution. Many stories were told (12) and examples given. The next day when I wandered around my eyes were unglued to the reality of a discreet business. I had noticed several œmassage upstairs? signs and figured what those could resemble. Less massage, more something else “ unless you don’t want something else, even after saying œgirlfriend,? then you just get more of a crappy massage… I laughed when, while possibly legit, I passed a shady hotel titled œTai Hoe Hotel.? Once again, possibly legit, but considering a œmassage lounge? was to the right and left, possibly not. Either way, my eyes were opened to a different reality.

Wow, a paragraph about prostitution, way to go Kelvin.

Another interesting highlight was a video conference I had between my cousin in London and my friend, Yan-Shih, in Taiwan. Three parts of the world were covered, I was feeling quite international. Cheers to both of them, they were two of the people I talked to most while in Singapore!

I started to recognize a pattern regarding international travel: everywhere I have gone I have created procrastination before getting on the plane. For instance, LAX: woke up in the car at 7:00am, flight leaving at 10:00am (it actually left at 11:00) “ Seoul: Walking around for 1 hour trying to find the bus, arriving at the airport a meager hour before the flight left. But Singapore takes the cake. I arrive at the airport four and a half hours before my flight “ not wishing to stay in the airport for that long, I drop my bag off and head downtown. There was an IT Mall that I wanted to look for cell phones in. Well, IT and Kelvin get along very well, it is like cocaine. I lost track of time in a bookstore (trying to avoid buying any books) and when I asked what time it was, they replied: œOh, it is 6:29.? Oh, shit. My flight leaves at 8:00pm. I run to the metro station, getting slightly lost when I first ran out of the mall, ran down the escalator and jumped on the metro. 10 minutes on the metro I switched trains at a transitition station, then at 7:15 I finally arrived at the airport. Running up the escalators I was praying œplease, be delayed, be delayed, please!? Looking at the Departure board Sydney: Last Call. Oh, shit. To make things worse, I still had to get my bag AND travel to the other terminal. I arrive at Terminal 1 around 7:27, almost feeling discouraged myself that I wouldn’t be making the flight. Knowing that I had to lay on the charm, the check-in (younger lady, I made sure) luckily spoke English. She got up and asked her manager what to do, and they let me get my ticket and go past security!! Belt off and all metal our I quickly ran through security and ran to the last gate. My luck was that a school group was boarding the plane, and taking a while. I even had to wait in line for a few moments! Security was continually staring me down because I was sweating, but I got on the plane.

The plane was an adventure as well. After sitting down I somehow had a window seat. In the middle was a Malaysian woman with a sticker that said œI require assistance.? Soon I learned why: she spoke no English, read no English, spoke broken Chinese and couldn’t read Chinese very well. So when her Immigration Card needed to be filled out, well, take a guess who helped her. Drawing pictures to illustrate what each field meant (try drawing a picture and using non-verbal language to describe œnationality? and œresidence in Australia?) she was able to complete the card. I said goodbye to her and the Aussie sitting in the Isle (I was rewarded by all her deserts and all the food she couldn’t eat) and headed to my transfer. Quickly going through security again I had to wait 20 minutes for my flight to board. Three bumpy hours later I arrived in New Zealand.