Journey to Singapore

It took me 14 hours to travel from Bali to Singapore. This is about the same amount of time it takes to get to London. It was ridiculous. Don't ask me how I managed to take this long, because the answer is, I really, truly, do not know. However I kept myself amused with some interesting cultural differences. The first being in the departure lounge in Bali's domestic airport. Most airports no longer have any smoking area left, they were phased out ages ago. Bali's domestic terminal smoking "room" consists of a corner of the departure lounge, with a six foot tall screen round it, this kept me entertained for a while. So long in fact that I completely missed the boarding calls for my flight until I heard my name being called over the loud speaker. Here I would like to point out that this was nothing to do with my incompetence. The screen with my flight's gate number had a different number to one my boarding pass. Unlike all the other passengers who chose to believe the boarding pass, I chose to believe the screen. All the other flights on the screen were boarding, but still nothing came up for mine, so I assumed it must be on "rubber time". Thing was that the screen was actually broken, the announcement for boarding could only be heard at the actual gate itself, and I was sat, totally oblivious, on the wrong side of the terminal. I know it sounds typical of me, but it wasn't my fault.

Anyways I made the flight just about, despite some annoyed stares from the passengers who had been kept waiting. I just grinned back at them and found myself ready for my next source of amusement. I was flying "Value Air" a VERY budget Asian airline, and like Air Asia in that when they take off and land they play music over the speakers. Fittingly for a budget Asian airline, the song playing during take off was the old disco song "Staying Alive."

Things were pretty boring after this until I got to Singapore airport and the ATM started talking to me. Up until this point I hadn't really wanted to come to Singapore, I was just here for visa reasons, but this made me rethink - if this was what the rest of Singapore is going to be like, I am going to be extremely entertained. So the ATM politely, and in the Queen's English I might point out, thanked me for using it and made sure I took my card, money and receipt. I couldn't help but wishing it would have come out with the phrase "You don't have enough gold!" in a very computer-game-esque, deep, knight's-of-the-round-table-type voice.

On the MRT (underground train) next to the no smoking, no eating or drinking, and no explosives signs complete with their fine warnings, there was a sign for no Durians. A durian is a rather smelly type of tropical fruit. This kept me laughing all the way to my hostel. Perhaps I am too easily amused.