Published on
Sunday, October 5th, 2008 in
Singapore.
I made it to Singapore. After a surprisingly tolerable seven-and-a-bit hour flight I left the plane and was through immigration and customs and standing outside the airport within about ten minutes. Amazing. Admittedly I had to go back inside to buy a ticket for the shuttle to the hotel I’m staying at, but that’s a mere technicality.
This looks like a nice place. Very Disneyland-ish, though. The place I’m staying at is pretty good. It’s called the Hangout @ Mt. Emily, and it’s located well, but it’s also pretty quiet for being in the centre of the city. There’s a great view from the rooftop that my camera refuses to capture.
My first meal in Singapore wasn’t particularly authentic, but given the circumstances I should be able to justify it: two mini beef burgers and French fries. They were good, and unsurprisingly four of the locally brewed Tiger beer taste much better than the Australian sourced Tiger and performed an admirable job of washing everything down.
Given that it’s dark, I’m in a strange city and there isn’t much nearby except, conveniently, a bar next door, I think that’s OK.
I expect to do better tomorrow night!
After a relatively painless process to leave Australia (total waiting time… 30 seconds), I now have the pleasure of waiting around for my plane to leave in two hours time. Thankfully Internode have thoughtfully provided wireless to their customers (and even non customers, too) so I have something to do whilst watching aircraft arrive and depart.
Here’s my ride.
It’s shiny. I just wanted to test how easy the whole photograph to gallery thing is. It’s not so bad, although I will hunt down an XD card to USB adaptor for maximum ease of use – no cables.
Next stop: Singapore!
I’ve finished packing. Check it out:
I’m not taking the Vegemite (I hate the stuff) but it’s there for scale. Total weight for about four months is 13.5kg, inclusive of clothes, cables, laptop, book, and everything else. The small bag looks big at the moment because it’s got a Polarfleece inside, but as soon as that goes in the big bag in one of those vacuum bag things the small bag will really be a small bag. The two bags zip together with a bit of rearranging, too.
Thanks to the power of the Internet and some good work by Singapore Airlines, I’ve checked in for my flight to Singapore 43 hours before I board the plane.
Some old fashioned technology is also helping: plastic bags. Not the supermarket variety, but the type with a valve at one end and a sealable opening at the other that can be used to expel air from clothing, to result in a brick of clothes that takes up far less space than the uncompressed clothes would.
Technology is awesome.
I leave in five days. As usual, I’m leaving a lot of stuff to the last minute – random bits of clothing, changes of bookings, packing… but it’s all good.
With regards to some bits and pieces I’ve already purchased, I’m not particularly happy with the image quality of the Olympus 1030SW camera I have, but I guess I can live with image quality being sacrificed for durability and ruggedness. The EEE subnotebook I have works well (although it can be a bit slow!) and should prove valuable for both work and fun whilst adventuring.
I still have a bit of stuff to do in the office before I leave, but that’s mostly under control – same goes for house work and other assorted preparations.
This time next month (as in the first Sunday of October) I’ll be midway between Adelaide and Singapore.
I’m glad I have a month to wait, because I still have plenty to purchase, arrange, and do for both the adventure and for work. My new camera arrived this week, as did some decent canalphones for my iPod… it turns out I’m severely lacking in the clothing department, so I need to buy some shorts and pants suitable for travel… and some new socks.
Everything is falling in to place, though. A friend will be in Singapore for almost the exact dates I’ll be there, I’ve arranged to meet a friend in Kuala Lumpur when I’m there the first time, and after Thailand another friend will be in Kuala Lumpur so we’re all going to try to meet up for a few days.
This should be awesome.
Well, today I booked a return Adelaide to Singapore flight with Singapore Airlines – departing Adelaide on October 5 and returning from Singapore on January 23. I guess it’s really going to happen now…
The original plan of the adventure was to head from Adelaide to Tokyo overland, but that would have taken a lot more time than I can afford… so an abbreviated adventure was formulated. I’ll now visit Singapore, Malaysia (both Peninsular and Borneo), Laos, and Thailand.
I leave in 46 days. I have a lot to do before then…
Mission: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos.
When: October 2008 to January 2009.
Who: Me!
