Sun, 04 May 2008 09:20:46 +0000
Bright Lights of Tokyo Index Cooling my Heels
Why the hell am I in Singapore? Described as "the only shopping mall with a seat at the United Nations", it is, while quite a nice place in its way, not somewhere I want to spend any time. I really want to visit Kuala Lumpur. And now that I think about it, I could easily have gotten Lufthansa to pay to fly me there instead of dumping me here. But somehow I got flustered when I was speaking to the guy on the telephone, I went for the easy option instead of trying to push my ticket to the limit, and here I am.
Specifically, I'm in "Costa Sands Resort", which seems to be a waterslide park with an attached motel. I'm paying EUR55 for a room designed to house a family of four in discomfort. I chose this place because it seemed to be the only Hostelling International affiliated hotel in Singapore, but this was clearly a mistake. I should have just found an independent hostel, of which there are many. In fact, I've booked myself into just such a hostel for tomorrow night.
Worse, my plans for getting to Sumatra don't seem to be working out. I had read that there are ferries to the Riau Islands, and ferries from there to Pelambang on Sumatra. But the Riau Islands are all overpriced resorts, so staying overnight would be even more expensive than staying here - if I could even get a room at such short notice. And the ferry to Pelambang only runs once every four days. So I'm going to have to figure out something else. An alternative would be to go straight to Kuala Lumpur, but I need to be in Kuala Lumpur at very specific dates to get my Iranian visa, so I may end up being stuck there for a week. And I really want to visit Sumatra. Something's gonna have to give here.
But I'll figure that out tomorrow. For the moment, I think I'll just relax. Get some food from the crappy but extensive food court, read some news, watch some TV. As I understand it, this is precisely what normal people consider to be the ideal holiday. Myself, I can tolerate this kind of life, maybe even enjoy it, but I have to tally this up as lost time.