We had to wake up a wee bit earlier today because of the fact that we had to check out at midday. Problem was that our flight wasn't until midnight, so we had 12 hours to occupy somehow. We had all of our stuff packed by 11am and then watched Pokemon on TV until 12. We tried to book a cab for 3pm, but the number I called was an automated service and a taxi was sent immediately and at 11:10, the obnoxious reception woman called us and shouted 'Your taxi here!!' and we had to apologise and say we didn't want it.
At 12, we checked out and paid $375. We left our bags in reception while we tried to pass some time in town. First stop was McDonalds for lunch, which we ate very slowly. Next, we wandered into the Bugis Junction shopping mall and showed Hannah the goodies we had found the day before, like the secret arcade. Inevitably, in trying to waste time, we spent money. I bought a cool t-shirt from a store called Slurping Ape and the girls got some stickers. I got lost for a bit when the girls wandered off but they soon came back.
When we could waste no more time in Bugis Junction, we went back to the hotel and into the internet cafe next door for an hour. After this, we hailed a cab to the airport. The driver asked us which terminal, we told him number 3, but then he started insisting that we needed terminal 2 for flights to Tokyo. We were very sure it was terminal 3, but it took some pursuading to make him realise this.
We arrived at Terminal 3 at 3pm; just in time, because the heavens opened just as we walked through the door. We were concernedas to how we were going to occupy the 4 hours before check-in opened. The girls went to the loo and I, in desperate hope, checked to see if we could check in early.
'Which flight, sir?' a little Singapore-airlines lady asked.
'Tokyo 2340. Long shot, I know.' I replied.
'No, you can check in now!' she said with a smile.
I was so surprised. I ran towards the girls as they emerged from the toilets to tell them the good news. They were excited too. We checked in with the ever-helpful staff of Singapore Airlines and wandered through into the departures lounge, getting another immigration stamp on the way. The lounge was enormous- it must take a good 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other. There were lots of very expensive shops and restaurants. We looked in a few boook stores before plonking ourselves in front of some TVs showing Jay Leno with speakers in the seats. I bought an awesome cheesecake and had to try and explain to a Singaporean lady what a croissant was.
Hours passed quickly. We changed some dollars into Yen and bought a pack of Uno cards. We then played a game of Uno followed by a celebrity name game. Before we knew it, we had to board.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Day 21- Friday 21st March- Singapore
Another breakfast at Toastbox was very nice indeed; I had thick toast with honey this time and it had a lovely buttery taste. After this, we walked back to the hotel quickly before hopping onto the internet. I was trying to organise an MSN rendezvous with Anna and we'd agreed on 8pm that night, so I only went on for 20 minutes at this point. I head back up to the room while the girls finished their 2 hours on the internet. I spent this time writing my journal, listening to Adam and Joe and watching Always Sunny.
When the girls came back, we listened to music before, at 5, I decided I was completely bored and wanted to go into town. Sarah decided to join me, even though she knew she would spend money that she didn't have. First, we went to a store called Astroboy which only sold clothes with the video game character, Astroboy, on. The stuff was pretty cool and they had a 30% off deal on, so I bought a cool holographic t-shirt for about £5! We continued looking around, finding a massive, chaotic arcade in the basement of a shopping mall. We also discovered a neat little comic book store which had a lot of awesome merchandise, including a plush Meatwad and an 18" Patrick Bateman. I saw some Lost figures and was tempted, but they were about $50, or £20. It's a good thing they didn't have any Jack Bauer figures because I would have been unable to stop myself.
We head back to the hotel for about 7:15 and then head straight out to the food court around the corner for another dose of delicious duck noodles. At 8, it was time for the MSN rendezvous. The cafe was full up so I had to use the internet in the hotel lobby, but Anna never turned up! Ho hum. We watched Starsky and Hutch before bed at midnight.
When the girls came back, we listened to music before, at 5, I decided I was completely bored and wanted to go into town. Sarah decided to join me, even though she knew she would spend money that she didn't have. First, we went to a store called Astroboy which only sold clothes with the video game character, Astroboy, on. The stuff was pretty cool and they had a 30% off deal on, so I bought a cool holographic t-shirt for about £5! We continued looking around, finding a massive, chaotic arcade in the basement of a shopping mall. We also discovered a neat little comic book store which had a lot of awesome merchandise, including a plush Meatwad and an 18" Patrick Bateman. I saw some Lost figures and was tempted, but they were about $50, or £20. It's a good thing they didn't have any Jack Bauer figures because I would have been unable to stop myself.
We head back to the hotel for about 7:15 and then head straight out to the food court around the corner for another dose of delicious duck noodles. At 8, it was time for the MSN rendezvous. The cafe was full up so I had to use the internet in the hotel lobby, but Anna never turned up! Ho hum. We watched Starsky and Hutch before bed at midnight.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Day 20- Thursday 20th March- Singapore
Sarah was up early, coughing a lot. Her cough seems to be getting better now, but she has the occasional fit when around air conditioning. Hannah and I woke up at 10:30ish and I was very hungry indeed. We decided to walk to Toastbox, a toast restaurant, for breakfast. It was about 10 minutes away, aw=round the corner from Topshop and Starbucks. It was a nice little place; I ordered 'Traditional toast', which was like a toasted sandwich with honey in the middle. The girls got 'Thick toast' which had been cut up into little toasty cubes. After this, we went back to the hotel.
About midday, I went by myself to try and find the post office to send Anna's birthday present. It was difficult to find it, seeing as I couldn't understand the obnoxious hotel receptionist's directions. I asked a man if he knew where it was, but before that, I asked if he spoke english and he seemed offended and therefore unwilling to help. I continued searching, looking for a large building, but eventually found it as a small branch inside a shopping centre. I sent Anna's stuff off as well as a few postc ards. Back at the hotel, we plugged into our iPods for a bit before setting off for an evening out.
We caught the MRT at Bugis to 'Harbourfront', where we found ourselves in a huge shopping mall called 'Vivocity'. From here, we bought tickets to Sentosa.
Sentosa is an island off the south coast of Singapore. It has been turned into a theme-park-resort kind of thing and is pretty much Singapore's main tourist attraction. It is also the most southern point of con
tinental Asia apparently. To get to Sentosa, we had to catch a monorail train for $3. This monorail took us over the channel that separated Sentosa from Singapore and also took us over a huge building site where parts of the resort were still being completed. The views over the city were spectacular. We passed the 'Merlion'- a statue of a lion with the tail of a fish; Singapore's top tourism symbol. This confused me somewhat because I had sent out postcards depicting the merlion as a 10 foot tall fountain in the city. This Merlion was not in the city. Nor was it a fountain. Oh, and it was a hundred feet tall.
We got off the train at the beach and the first thing we did was buy tickets for the 'songs of the sea' show later on. We then walked up towards the Merlion, which was wholly underwhelming. You could go to the top of it for $8, but we decided this would be a waste of money. We continued exploring, finding few attractions and far between. Sarah wanted to go on the luge ride, but $9 is ridiculous. We found
a gift shop, but once again, everything in it was a waste of money. I looked at some '3D photo blocks', which were blocks of glass with 3D images engr aved into them with lasers. I chatted to the man selling them about how they were made. He seemed desperate for someone to buy one.
The only exciting part of the park we could find was a Subway, where we had dinner. By now it was 6:30 and we walked to where the show was being held an hour later and waited. The park had
been exhilaratingly rubbish, so we didn't expect high things from the 'Sounds of the Sea' show. We were very surprised. As the sun set in an orange blaze, a mist filled the stage which was set up out in the ocean. The amphitheatre was nearly full and eight very annoying actors came out and mimed a pre-recorder soundtrack. Out on the stage at sea, impressive pyrotechnics were set off and lasers were projected into the mis
ts to create 3D images in mid air. The plot and actors of the show were dire, but the effects used were genuinely very impressive.
We left Sentosa, happy with the show, but also very happy to be leaving such an awful theme park. I really don't understand why so many people were there. It was like Singapore's equivalent of the Millennium Dome.
About midday, I went by myself to try and find the post office to send Anna's birthday present. It was difficult to find it, seeing as I couldn't understand the obnoxious hotel receptionist's directions. I asked a man if he knew where it was, but before that, I asked if he spoke english and he seemed offended and therefore unwilling to help. I continued searching, looking for a large building, but eventually found it as a small branch inside a shopping centre. I sent Anna's stuff off as well as a few postc ards. Back at the hotel, we plugged into our iPods for a bit before setting off for an evening out.
We caught the MRT at Bugis to 'Harbourfront', where we found ourselves in a huge shopping mall called 'Vivocity'. From here, we bought tickets to Sentosa.
Sentosa is an island off the south coast of Singapore. It has been turned into a theme-park-resort kind of thing and is pretty much Singapore's main tourist attraction. It is also the most southern point of con
tinental Asia apparently. To get to Sentosa, we had to catch a monorail train for $3. This monorail took us over the channel that separated Sentosa from Singapore and also took us over a huge building site where parts of the resort were still being completed. The views over the city were spectacular. We passed the 'Merlion'- a statue of a lion with the tail of a fish; Singapore's top tourism symbol. This confused me somewhat because I had sent out postcards depicting the merlion as a 10 foot tall fountain in the city. This Merlion was not in the city. Nor was it a fountain. Oh, and it was a hundred feet tall.We got off the train at the beach and the first thing we did was buy tickets for the 'songs of the sea' show later on. We then walked up towards the Merlion, which was wholly underwhelming. You could go to the top of it for $8, but we decided this would be a waste of money. We continued exploring, finding few attractions and far between. Sarah wanted to go on the luge ride, but $9 is ridiculous. We found
a gift shop, but once again, everything in it was a waste of money. I looked at some '3D photo blocks', which were blocks of glass with 3D images engr aved into them with lasers. I chatted to the man selling them about how they were made. He seemed desperate for someone to buy one.The only exciting part of the park we could find was a Subway, where we had dinner. By now it was 6:30 and we walked to where the show was being held an hour later and waited. The park had
ts to create 3D images in mid air. The plot and actors of the show were dire, but the effects used were genuinely very impressive.We left Sentosa, happy with the show, but also very happy to be leaving such an awful theme park. I really don't understand why so many people were there. It was like Singapore's equivalent of the Millennium Dome.
Day 19- Wednesday 19th March- Singapore
Today we left Thailand. We all kind of sighed a sigh of relief at this because we were all thouroughly bored of it.
We woke up at 6am and did some final packing before having our final Thai breakfast at 6:30. Sarah dropped a slice of pineapple in her cereal. At 6:50, we were in the hotel lobby, paying our room service bill, which came to an impressive 8000THB, which is about £130. This is quite a lot for a room service bill for the three of us, but it was pretty much our only expenditure on food for the week and works out at about £30 below my budget, so quids in! Our car arrived at 7 and we set off for the airport.
We arrived at the airport about an hour later and were confused to find a huge queue. We joined it and it disappated pretty quickly. Check in was painless and we had a Dunkin' Donut afterwards, before joining the very long immigration queue which took age to pass, but rewarded us with a nice purple stamp in our passports. The departures lounge was wholly unexciting, but we only had a short wait before we had to board.
The flight was fine. Lovely views over the ocean and islands on the way out, but turbulence as we came into cloudy Singapore.
At Singapore airport, we had a sneaky Burger King before getting a cab to our hotel. Hannah observed that it wasn't raining and minutes later, the heavens opened. As we go
t into the city, we passed Bugis station, where we had sheltered from the rain a week previous. Shortly afterwards, we arrived at our hotel.
The Madras Hotel was nice and modern; it had only opened in January. The woman behind the counter was a bit obnoxious as she told us we had managed to only book a single room, so we had to wait as they changed the reservation. We were then shown to our room and it bore a striking similarity to out Phuket room. We settled in for a bit, waiting for the rain to stop. It didn't happen, so we ventured out into the rain to the local 7-Eleven. We bought more goodies and the girls bought umbrellas. We then walked into town for a browse.
We were very cultured and went into Topshop first. Sarah bought some shorts. Then we walked into the adjoining mall and had a look in some designer stores. There were some cool shirts which I couldn't really afford, but the girls bought some for $30 each. We then walked back to the hotel.
Later, we walked to a food court around the corner and had some awesome duck noodles for $3 each. This was pretty much the first local cuisine we'd eaten in over a week. After dinner, we popped into an internet cafe. $2 for one hour in a little cubicle with webcam and all. We chatted to each other on MSN about how the cubicles were a bit odd. I looked in the recently viewed sites and found a lot of porn, which made me feel a fair bit uneasy in my cubicle. I sent a few emails and checked my facebook.
Back at the hotel, we watched a (rubbish) British comedy show called 'Just for Laughs' and then the girls watched American Idol as I fell asleep.
We woke up at 6am and did some final packing before having our final Thai breakfast at 6:30. Sarah dropped a slice of pineapple in her cereal. At 6:50, we were in the hotel lobby, paying our room service bill, which came to an impressive 8000THB, which is about £130. This is quite a lot for a room service bill for the three of us, but it was pretty much our only expenditure on food for the week and works out at about £30 below my budget, so quids in! Our car arrived at 7 and we set off for the airport.
We arrived at the airport about an hour later and were confused to find a huge queue. We joined it and it disappated pretty quickly. Check in was painless and we had a Dunkin' Donut afterwards, before joining the very long immigration queue which took age to pass, but rewarded us with a nice purple stamp in our passports. The departures lounge was wholly unexciting, but we only had a short wait before we had to board.
The flight was fine. Lovely views over the ocean and islands on the way out, but turbulence as we came into cloudy Singapore.
At Singapore airport, we had a sneaky Burger King before getting a cab to our hotel. Hannah observed that it wasn't raining and minutes later, the heavens opened. As we go
t into the city, we passed Bugis station, where we had sheltered from the rain a week previous. Shortly afterwards, we arrived at our hotel.The Madras Hotel was nice and modern; it had only opened in January. The woman behind the counter was a bit obnoxious as she told us we had managed to only book a single room, so we had to wait as they changed the reservation. We were then shown to our room and it bore a striking similarity to out Phuket room. We settled in for a bit, waiting for the rain to stop. It didn't happen, so we ventured out into the rain to the local 7-Eleven. We bought more goodies and the girls bought umbrellas. We then walked into town for a browse.
We were very cultured and went into Topshop first. Sarah bought some shorts. Then we walked into the adjoining mall and had a look in some designer stores. There were some cool shirts which I couldn't really afford, but the girls bought some for $30 each. We then walked back to the hotel.
Later, we walked to a food court around the corner and had some awesome duck noodles for $3 each. This was pretty much the first local cuisine we'd eaten in over a week. After dinner, we popped into an internet cafe. $2 for one hour in a little cubicle with webcam and all. We chatted to each other on MSN about how the cubicles were a bit odd. I looked in the recently viewed sites and found a lot of porn, which made me feel a fair bit uneasy in my cubicle. I sent a few emails and checked my facebook.
Back at the hotel, we watched a (rubbish) British comedy show called 'Just for Laughs' and then the girls watched American Idol as I fell asleep.
Day 18- Tuesday 18th March- Phuket, Thailand
We ventured out after breakfast to find an ATM to get some moneys to pay off the massive bill we were expecting when we left the hotel. We found out that there was one ten minutes down the coast, across a very busy road. As we stood at the side of said busy road, looking gormless, a traffic warden saw us, walked into the middle of the road and blasted his whistle angrily as if to say 'SLOW THE FUCK DOWN' to the traffic, which it did. He then ushered us across.
The ATM was located outside a 7-Eleven store. We've grown to love 7-eleven since we first found one in Singapore. They're everywhere in Asia; they're a bit like Londis stores, which is a godsend since it means easy access to fizzy drinks and chocolate. We bought some goodies and postcards and went back to the hotel.
I have no clue what we did for the rest of the day. I was starving so we had a very early dinner and then we watched Spirited Away in preparation for the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo.
Sleep after this. That's all I remember.
The ATM was located outside a 7-Eleven store. We've grown to love 7-eleven since we first found one in Singapore. They're everywhere in Asia; they're a bit like Londis stores, which is a godsend since it means easy access to fizzy drinks and chocolate. We bought some goodies and postcards and went back to the hotel.
I have no clue what we did for the rest of the day. I was starving so we had a very early dinner and then we watched Spirited Away in preparation for the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo.
Sleep after this. That's all I remember.
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Day 17- Monday 17th March- Phuket, Thailand
Another book saver day!
10am was such an effort today. I also put too much on my plate for breakfast and couldn't be bothered to finish it. Straight after breakfast, we hit the pool. We found a nice shady spot and listened to our iPods for a few hours. At 2, we ordered the usual lunch to our poolside spots. Sarah and I went on the internet for a bit.
In the evening, we rushed down to see the sunset again, but it was too cloudy and the sun disappeared before it got impressive. At 8, we watched Bowfinger with Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin, before an early night.
10am was such an effort today. I also put too much on my plate for breakfast and couldn't be bothered to finish it. Straight after breakfast, we hit the pool. We found a nice shady spot and listened to our iPods for a few hours. At 2, we ordered the usual lunch to our poolside spots. Sarah and I went on the internet for a bit.
In the evening, we rushed down to see the sunset again, but it was too cloudy and the sun disappeared before it got impressive. At 8, we watched Bowfinger with Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin, before an early night.
Day 16- Sunday 16th March- Phuket, Thailand
I may as well save some book space here by being brief. It's not like I'll miss anything since we didn't do anything.
Breakfast at 10:10 and there was nothing left, so we went back to the room and back to sleep until 11:30. Went on the internet for a bit- nobody had sent me anything :(. Hannah and I went to the beach across the road. The sand was ridiculously hot and the sun incredibly bright. After twenty minutes on the sun loungers, a woman came up to us and told us we need to rent the loungers for 200THB (about £4), so we left and went back to the hotel.
We watched Curious George on HBO movies at 6pm, but at 6:30, I went by myself to the beach again to watch the sunset and took a time lapse video. After Curious George, we went down to the restaurant for some dinner and Mr. Dingh, then back up to the room to watch 'Stranger Than Fiction', which was good. The girls then watched 'Elizabethtown' and I fell asleep.
God bless HBO movies. We'd be very bored without it.
SUNSET VIDEO:
Breakfast at 10:10 and there was nothing left, so we went back to the room and back to sleep until 11:30. Went on the internet for a bit- nobody had sent me anything :(. Hannah and I went to the beach across the road. The sand was ridiculously hot and the sun incredibly bright. After twenty minutes on the sun loungers, a woman came up to us and told us we need to rent the loungers for 200THB (about £4), so we left and went back to the hotel.
We watched Curious George on HBO movies at 6pm, but at 6:30, I went by myself to the beach again to watch the sunset and took a time lapse video. After Curious George, we went down to the restaurant for some dinner and Mr. Dingh, then back up to the room to watch 'Stranger Than Fiction', which was good. The girls then watched 'Elizabethtown' and I fell asleep.
God bless HBO movies. We'd be very bored without it.
SUNSET VIDEO:
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