Smoke billowing on the Air Asia flight to Singapore
A short 50 min flight from KL's "poor people's" airport and I've landed in Changi Airport, Singapore. It is luxury compared to KL LCCT. Carpets, wide marble floored malls, proper air conditioning and plenty of space.
I passed through immigration and then got stopped at customs, but in a very 'smiley' way. Up to now all the people I have interacted with have been jolly....
To keep the cost down I decided to take the MRT into town and straight to the stop in Little India, a charming man at the ticket machine not only showed me how to use it, he also changed a 50 Singapore dollar bill I had just extracted from an ATM.
The journey into town was quick and efficient. As I was sitting on the train I happened to look down at my feet, I had travelled from Borneo in flip flops.
1) because they are comfortable
2) the daily 5k yomps with Bill had given me blisters from wearing my walking boots.
3) bastard sand flys had taken a liking to me and I had a number of bites. The twats always seem to go for my ankles or knuckles and they were itching like mad.
As I glanced down at my feet I noticed my toe nails had been painted!
Not some bright pink, rather a clear, albeit very glossy nail polish. The girl at the pedicure must have done it while I dozed off. A bit embarrassing, I'm a backpacker for fucks sake! She had asked if I wanted it on my hands and I had gracefully declined.
According to the hotel location, I had a choice of two stations to alight the MRT. Both, it claimed were only 10 mins walk from the hotel. Of course, I got off at the wrong one and ended up in a huge shopping mall, struggling to find an exit. When I did find an exit I could not reconcile my position on my map so guessing I was quite close thought I would jump in a cab. Although in my 'backpack' I had less for a month travelling than I would usually take for a weekend away:-
5 t shirts
Walking boots
I pair of shorts
Swimmers
5 pairs of underpants
3 pairs of socks
1 waterproof jacket
In 100% humidity and 38 degrees one does tend to overheat a tad and after only a few minutes I was soaking wet.
I wandered over to the taxi rank and told a rather pissed off looking driver I wanted to go to the Madras Hotel in Madras St, Little India. He looked at me as if I had just asked him for a shag.
' Don't know it'
' OK' in said,
I took out my iPhone and showed him the location
' No' he muttered
' No what?'
' Still don't know where it is'
' Do you have GPS'
' Yes' he replied.
At that point I decided he probably was not interested in a fair and moved onto the next Taxi. He didn't know it either, but at least tried to be helpful. He told me to hop in and 10 mins later I was outside the hotel with a list of local attractions he had shared with me.
My hotel is in Little India, I'm now going to try and stay within budget after splashing out in KL staying at the traders. It is positioned right in the middle of Little India with loads of backpackers places around and. Quite basic inside but clean and free WiFi.
Sorted....
The room at the Madras hotel.
Off for a bit of exploring and dinner out. Might plump for an Indian curry me thinks.
Tomorrow I need to sort my train tickets out and do the Singapore Hop On, Hop Off bus.
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Location:Madras St,Singapore,Singapore
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