11:07PM
What a day this has been. I'm typing this in the hotel room, Claire is asleep and I'm yet to shower. It feels great to be back, although technically it's not my "motherland". I've been up since about 5 o'clock. This was partly due to the sun waking me up and also due to excitedness of the trip. Finished some last minute packing and off to the airport.
Claire and I were last to join the group at the airport, but we weren't late so everything was good. We then proceeded to check in. Gary came in at the heaviest, with close to 20kg of luggage. Everyone was between 14 and 20kg. We then had a look at the duty free upstairs and decided to buy our duty free once we had cleared Customs.
After clearing Customs, I found the Tourist Refund Scheme spot. After waiting for what seemed like forever (the two people before me didn't have their goods, receipts or anything ready), we finally got to do some duty free shopping. But that was pretty much shortened due to our plane boarding. I quickly bought some cigarettes for Gary's folks and made my way to the gate.
The plane trip was pretty uneventful. During the start of the flight, there was quite a bit of turbulence, which was making my stomach uneasy. I think Carley wasn't too happy either as I heard her speaking with Ants. Lunch was at around 2PM, which wasn't too bad I guess. I had the pork, in a mushroom sauce with some salad with lemon dressing, cheese and crackers and some yoghurt. I ate the salad thinking that there was f*ck all lemon or dressing and then later stumbled upon the dressing satchel :)
After we landed, we then went to collect our luggage and head towards Starbucks in Terminal 2. It was here that our cousin Chee Kiong had outsmarted us and had sucessfully guessed our flight plans, and was eagerly waiting for us along with his daughter Ying Ying. We had only provided the dates in which we were arriving and he deduced that we would not depart in the afternoon as it would waste a day. It was a great surprise and goes to show that we Aussies are too predictable :) It was at this point where I walked outside with Carley so she could experience "the wall". Her reaction to the instant humidity was a cracker.
We headed on the Skytrain to Terminal 2 and eagerly went around the bend to get our first Starbucks. However, it seems that even the airport traffic was not enough to sustain business, and there was another coffee shop in its place. A bit disappointed, we headed to the MRT station where I checked the balance of the Ezylink card that Mum had given me. It had over $33 left on it. The MRT ride was getting more busy as we headed towards the city. After a long walk with our suitcases, 3 interchanges, and another long walk, we finally reached the hotel.
After dumping our stuff in the hotel room, we decided to eat at Toa Payoh with Chee Kiong. We caught the 139 bus from Little India to Toa Payoh station and we met up with him at Fork and Spoon. I had ordered a fried Kway Teow (#1 on my list), along with soya bean. This meal totalled $4.50 ... $3 for the noodles and $1.50 for the soya bean. The noodles were hot and fresh, with just the right amount of chilli for me. The cockles were a bit too fishy for my liking but I have never been a real big fan of them anyway. Gary, Ants, Carley and Chee Kiong all had carrot cake, Claire had Yong Tau Foo and Ag had hor-fun. Ag said that the hor-fun was good, so I might have to give that a try next time we are there.
After dinner we went to NTUC Fairprice to get some goodies. Bottles of water, chocolate biscuits, prawn crackers etc, they were all bought. We marvelled at the range and at the price, it seemed like deja vu. After stocking up on 'non-essentials', I got to have another thing off my list, a McDonalds Iced Milo. At $1.95, it went down quickly and was refreshing.
On the way back, we stopped by a BBQ pork place. Chee Kiong being Chee Kiong bought a load off it and gave it to us to share. I got a pack of about 10 of the BBQ pork circles, which CB won't eat... yum. Although it's on today's entry, I won't be eating all of it today .. but slowly throughout the next 2 days :P
So that's pretty much where we're at the moment. Tomorrow, Ag, Ants, Carley and myself are meeting up at 8 to have breakfast, go down to Mustafa and hang around Little India. Ants and Carley received a smoking room, so they complained and hopefully tomorrow they can be moved elsewhere.
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