Leaving Malaysia - Singapore!

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Part 1 - leaving Malaysia 😞

I have just embarked on the final leg of my south east Asia trip so thought I would start writing my final Asia blog entry. At the moment I am on board the night train from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to Singapore,
an 11 hour train journey which plan to spend sleeping. I'll start from where I feft off on my last entry.

I spent today sorting out my luggage ready for my next flight, checked out of my room at 12 and put my bags into storage. I took a walk to the anuja for one last time for an orange juice, an ice mill, a roti
canai and rice with chiken! I said goodbye to the staff and returned to the hostel. I then sorted out my insurance as it turns out up until now I've been uninsured.... Whoops. Thank goodness I havnt been I'll
or anything!!! That took a fairly long time with phonecalls home and emails flying all over the place but eventually it was resolved...Sort of.
After that was done n dusted I stocked up on water and cookies for the long journey ahead of me and just laid back watching a film on the TV in the common area.
Had a game of pool with a guy from Sri Lanka, I won 2/3 which was good!! Then I had a chat with 5 guys from France about there trip and mine. Turns out we were all staying at the same hostel back in
Bangkok! Small world.
Eventually the time came to go in search of a taxi to take me to KL Sentral for my train. It seems prices double when it turns 8pm so... I had to pay the huge price of £2.80! Rip off haha.
I arrived at the station and went in search of the platform. I was quite early so I was told to sit in the waiting area. Something came to me when I was sitting there that I hadn't looked at my ticket since I got it, I was interested to read what was on it... I was reading about the rules of the ticket etc, you no the normal t's and c's when I read, to my horror, that the ticket I held wasn't for tonight but for tomorrow night which was to late!!!! Panic hit me like a fist to the face and the fear of life ran through me... I can't leave tomorrow night I'll miss my flight... I legged it to the ticket office with panic stamped on my face praying they could do something about it. The ticket guy just laughed at me as I squeeled in a high pitch tone "help me"... He just took my ticket off me, ripped it in half and printed me one for tonight. Clearly he
was amused at my potensial chaos and disaster but at least it was sorted!!
At this point I would like to add that I am doing this on my own and there is no one here to take any of the weight off my shoulders so I feel like I'm allowed to make a few mistakes. 😊

So... Now I am on the night train, I have a comfy bed, a nice clean pillow however when I took my clothes off ready to call it a night I had failed to notice the window next to me with people walking past to board the train... Hmm... I should arrive in Singapore at 8am in the morning and I think im sharing a taxi to the airport with 2 guys from the states. Saves on costs and everything. I found out the airport has a movie theater, free tours offered to go round Singapore, shops, gardens, even a butterfly farm so I have my day cut out for me. At some point I'll upload this there aswell! So for now night night 😊

Part 2 - arriving in Singapore

So at about 6am a guy came round to take our malaysian immigration cards from us and give us Singapore cards to fill out. I was exhausted as I hadn't slept much and someone in a bed near me was snorring so loud it was driving me insane!!! I nodded back to sleep after filling out my card only to be woken up by a guy wanting to see my passport... Then I was laying in bed unaware that we were at the immigration checkpoint and everyone was getting off the train!! Luckily one of the American guys I met came over and told me, I jumped out of bed in a panic and ran to catch up with them. I had my passport stamped and bags scanned etc and now we are back on the train heading to the station.

Part 3 - After the train jouney - Singapore

So we arrived at the Singapore station, I packed up all my things and made sure I hadn't left anything behind then walked through the station to the outside!
Me and the 2 american guys just stood there for a moment wondering what we should do... they had a flight to catch in a few hours and I was planning on going to the airport early to check in and everything so but right then we wern't to sure what to do.
A guy came along asking us if we wanted to be taken anywhere etc but we had no idea where to go. We started walking in search of a tube station to catch a train to the airport but also wanted to find some food. The 1st place we found was Burger King... I honestly didn't want to eat normal food but seeing as Singapore is about as pricey as England and everything seemed very similar to home, I decided that really my Asia experience had already ended.
I had a burger and hash browns with a coke which cost me about the same price as a 5* hotel in Thailand, honestly!!! Never mind ay!
Singapore has free wifi available accross the entire city, its quite something!! Its such a purpose built place, everything is built exactly right, nothings been left out, a great transport system, internet everywhere, all the roads are designed perfectly. Very efficient city!!

After my burger we walked to the tube station, bought a ticket and headed for Changi Airport... the journey didn't take long and we had a great view of the city as the train left the underground network, was really interesting.. not to mention how much room there is on these trains... again another well thought of plan.
We changed trains as the one we were on didn't go straight to the airport. Didn't have to wait long as trains run every 2 minutes!!
We arrived at the airport and I said bye to the guys. I checked my big bag in, checked that if i was to enter the airport that i would be allowed back out again and the member of staff was convinced I could so off I went through immigration and security into the airport.

Changi Airport - Singapore
So this airport is incredible, it really is something else. Free internet stations all over the place, free wifi throughout the airport, free games consoles, movies, tv's, food, shops, swimming pools, everything!!!
I walked around for ages just exploring, was great.
Then the horrible news came!!! As I was sorting out going for the city tour I was told that because I had already entered the airport... I couldn't leave again!!!! I was stuck... for 24 hours!! In an Airport!!
I was gutted! Had no idea what I was going to do for 24 hours, even if the airport is amazing..
I tried to ask if there was anything they could do... i even went to see if i could get on an earlier flight but nope.. i was stuck!
I went and got some food to think about what I could do to pass the time. I went all around the airport, through the gardens they had, out to the viewing platform where you see planes landing and taking off, watch a film but nothing really that exciting!
I stayed up basically all night but did manage to get a couple hours sleep.. I had more food, bought some chocolate and some duty free stuff for Kate in Australia and then just sat down counting down the seconds for my flight.
Eventually after hours and hours of waiting the time came to get on the flight to Australia and i just felt so relieved.
I hated that experience, more than anything, I was so stressed and annoyed at the whole thing but I can now say that i've lived in an airport for an entire day and night haha.

The End of Asia!!!!

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Comments

[Helen]

Just being Nosy
Hi Nathan, I have been reading your blog as l am thinking of travelling to Asia myself next year. It's interesting how you are meeting people along the way which is good. As l will be travelling alone myself. It has taken a lot of courage to make the decision but l will do this now.. So keep up the entertaining blogs. It's giving me a good insight as to what to expect.