Monday, August 09, 2010

Singapore-First thoughts

A trip to Singapore was on the anvil since March. After a long wait, my boss came up to me and said that the tentative date was Friday, July 23rd. My VISA processing took up extra time because of which I had to get it postponed to Sunday 25th . That meant 2 bad things – (a) I was losing out on allowance for 2 days. Given that allowance per day was substantial, the loss was actually not a small amount (b) The wretched Singapore Airlines flight leaves at 11-30 PM IST and arrives at 3-30 AM IST, which is 6AM SG time. So effectively Monday is screwed.I flirted with the idea of taking a Jet Airways flight on Sunday morning.3 of us were going, so on further persistence from team-mates, I ditched the plan and stuck to Spore Airlines.I packed more than necessary baggage for my first international trip and also weighed it to ensure I didn't end up discarding stuff due to excess baggage. I had another uphill task on Sunday - vacating my Kilpauk house. We were vacating in the 1st week of August to T.Nagar. I did the packing for Spore and shifting simultaneously and conveniently handed over the task of shifting my baggage to my roomies since I would be away on 7th.The usual hourly update calls from parents took place."Did you weigh your baggage?". "Double check the passport,ticket,hotel reservation.Take enough forex on hand.Call up paati before leaving,OK?" and so on were the instructions given over phone.I finally finished both the packing in the last moment and called out for a taxi. Since the taxi travel would be reimbursed, I explicitly mentioned "AC car", with the tone of a person who has never travelled in non-AC.I had fended off a few calls by friends in the day due to my hectic schedule. I spent the travel time to airport in catching up with the calls.Finally I reached the Anna International airport.

The airport looked anything but international. However, it is under renovation so a major overhaul can be expected.We finished the check-in early and had lots of time to kill in the waiting hall.The smoking zone there had equal no of firangi females-this was my first sign of things to come.I spent my time on phone and finally boarded the beautiful plane of Singapore airlines.The air hostesses were smoking hot chinkis.I just imagined saree clad fully decked air hostesses namasteying me and immediately patted myself on the back for not choosing Jet Airways.After settling down,I noticed the uncle beside me watching Vikram's Kandasamy, a wannabe Sivaji.Shriya was hotter than the chinki airhostess,so I just played around with the remote to catch the give-up movie, all along pretending that I was a seasoned traveler. Despite my best pretending,I just couldn't spot the movie.I thought the movies were different for each seat (:P) and continued surfing to spot other good movies. I finally gave up after wading through stupid movies
and asked the uncle for Kandasamy.He showed some option,with a look on his face which suggested that it was easier than adding 2 and 2. I grinned and started the movie.I was already damn hungry by then.I also had to sleep considering that I would land at 6AM and had to go to work straight from hotel.But hunger kept me awake.The usual welcome drink was served but food was nowhere in sight.I was swaying from hunger to sleep and back.I half dozed off, but keeping my nostrils wide open to smell food.It finally arrived after what seemed like years and I gobbled it up.It was just tomato rice and raitha,but hunger doesn't know taste.It was yummy and I finally dozed off.

It was very odd to wake up in 2hrs as I was sleepy and full.Changi International airport was simply superb.Now that was truly international.The first thing that struck me at the taxi stand was the ordered and structured taxis and people in queue.We got into a plush Sonata , which was the most common taxi.The slightly less common were Innovas,Mercedes,Corollas etc.I was still groggy and dawn did not break out yet.The roads were broad and clean,with a good dose of greenery.It anyway was a highway, so I couln't make much of a difference. I didn't even see my hotel properly.I just went along to the reception, did the formalities but had to wait as my room still had an occupant. I directly went to my colleague's room and just jumped onto the king size bed.I didn't know anything else for 2 hours.I was finally woken up at 8-30AM by my TL.I slowly woke up and went near the window.The sight really woke me up with a jolt.I was on the 16th floor with a skyscraper in front of me and a swimming pool on the 5th floor.I was thoroughly excited.This, was a kick-ass start! Further kickassery continued when the female beside me in office was in micro minis. And it is called formal western wear. me ogle at the chinki beauties for a 3 weeks before returning to Thamilselvis with jasmine pinned to the hair.