It was difficult to sleep in the front row. There was no foot rest so I kept sliding down my chair. I couldn’t curl up into my usual fetal position because I irritated my long term leg injury recently. The acupuncturist said I walked too much. There was also too much leftover excitement from almost missing my bus. I couldn’t get much rest the first night.
We had two rest stops. At the first one, I got a can of hot tea from the vending machine and took a look at the souvenirs. I was surprised to see ultraman on a keychain representing Ehime. I found Ace on a nail clipper. I bought it. At the second rest stop, I bought a pizza man from Lawson’s.
We arrived at 5:00 in the morning. I usually take the bus from Osaka station to the airport, but Tenshing thought we should take the train. I followed him to buy tickets. The trains weren’t running yet. The first one would be an hour from now. It would be better to take the bus. There were signs, but we asked for directions anyway. The bus station was close. We missed the 5:18 bus, but the next one was soon, at 5:43.
We got to the airport at 6:45. We walked around, but the shops were not open yet. Check in was at 7:30. We waited by the gate (G20) so we could drop off our luggage before finding some breakfast. I called my mother while we waited.
I had a few errands I wanted to run before we went through customs. First was breakfast. We decided to eat at Subway. I got a toasted cheese roasted chicken sub on honey oats bread. I like the cream cheese dressing sauce they have.
Then, I checked out Tsutaya. Paul recently started to read “Remember the Kanji”. I wanted a copy of the book, but there was no time to order from Amazon before I left. I was hoping I could find it at the airport. Unfortunately, the selection of English books was very small.
We briefly checked out Daiso. i picked up a bag for my camera. Tenshing got a small towel to wash his face. We tried the drugstore for a muscle cream that he recommended, but we couldn’t find it. I picked up an eyelash curler because mine broke last night. There were no batteries, so we went back to Daiso for some.
Customs was a breeze, though there was a line up like always. We got to our gate 33 at 8:50 and boarded at 9:10. On the plane, I slept right away and woke up with the plane in the air. We had a brunch of fried rice, a bun with butter, a slice of each fruit (kiwi, grape, apple, orange) chocolate cake for dessert, and a small sealed cup of water. I was surprised there were no chopsticks with our rice even though we flied on a Chinese airline.
I felt much refreshed after my brief power nap upon boarding. Before my trip, I had deleted all the music on my computer and started again, but I was feeling like listening to the recent mixes on my phone. I took a very very long trip down memory lane, all the way back to elementary school, with Tenshing’s music instead.
We had a six hour stop in Shanghai. I excitedly stuck on the transfer sticker I received at check in. We were traveling with the same airline, China Eastern, so we didn’t have to worry about luggage. It would meet us in Singapore. I think a stopover in China is troublesome but immigration was smooth and I remembered to throw out my lighter for customs. Though I was sad to say goodbye to it because it was a lighter I got from a friend in Thailand.
I spent the time checking my email, charging my phone, playing poi and watched a Cantonese film showing by the gate. I started watching near the end so it was confusing, but fortunately, it looped and I was able to watch from the beginning. Everybody dies in the movie, but it wasn’t so spoiled because the movie was intense the whole time.
Our flight was delayed for an hour, but they didn’t tell us what the problem was. We emailed the hostel to tell them we would be late. I was so hungry by the time we boarded our flight. I couldn’t sleep because I was just thinking about food and hoping they would hurry up and serve us.
We arrived at Changi airport in Singapore at 10:10pm. I grabbed a Singapore map. Fortunately, Tenshing noticed I took the Korean version so I could exchange it for an English one. We waited at immigrations. A new line opened up. The immigration office randomly picked people from surrounding lines. It was just based on whoever she liked. The crowd grumbled at her discrimination. I wasn’t impressed either.
The line up took a while. The hostel charges an extra 5 dollars if you check in after midnight. We tried to rush. At baggage claim, I was happy to see my new bag survived. I’ve never checked in anything so small before and had this feeling that it might get lost. Outside, we both exchanged money. I changed 10000 yen into Singapore dollars.
I went to pee while Tenshing called the hostel. There was a digital evaluation feedback box in the washroom. You could select from five different emoticons on the cleanliness of the washroom. It was really funny but I didn’t think to take a photo.
When I came back, Tenshing was still trying to call the hostel to tell them we’ve arrived in Singapore. I went to information, who directed me to the next booth, ground transport, to get airport shuttle bus tickets. It was $9 each. I got two blue stickers and was asked to sit and wait.
Tenshing came from the payphone and said the hostel suggested we take a taxi, but I had already bought the bus tickets. With two people, the taxi fare wouldn’t be as expensive and we would probably be able to make it before midnight. It was 11:00. The bus takes an hour, so we might be stuck with the after midnight $5 fee. I was surprised the hostel owners suggested we take a taxi.. because I’m sure the difference would cost more than $5. It didn’t give me a good impression of them, but I let it drop because the bus tickets were bought anyway.
We waited for about 10 minutes. Then someone came and herded us onto a little van. The two of us were the only ones on the bus! I was hopeful that we would make it to the hostel before midnight. However, it turned out that we were just the first stop. We went to three more terminal stops before the van drove into the city and dropped people off at their respective hotels and hostels.
Lucky Lucky! We made it to Travellers Inn with 5 minutes to spare. Daniel and Jenny, the husband and wife that ran the hostel, greeted us at the front desk. They were able to answer all our questions about our itinerary for tomorrow and led us to our 6 person dorm room. The other four hadn’t arrived yet and were due at 1 in the morning. I needed to pack for tomorrow and also take a shower so the late arrival didn’t cut into my sleep time.
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