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Published: January 30th 2019
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So excited that it was time for my annual jaunt to SE Asia (Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia). The first leg of my 6 week trip didn’t go to plan, however, or at least not to the timetable.
I was bright and early at Heathrow, as usual, and was so happy to meet my buddy Martin for coffee, especially as he will be in Thailand in the same place from Saturday. We were all on the plane and ready to leave when they found a leak in a (the?) fuel pump. My tripit app kept me up to date with the succession of delays, at least 5 delayed departure times until after 4 hours they finally admitted they couldn’t fix it and we all (500 or so) would have to go to hotels for the night. New departure, 4pm the next day. A spot of googling and the leaflet BA handed out promised compensation of 600€ ( THANKS TO EU REGULATIONS!), more than the actual cost of my flight. I contacted the hotel in Singapore and they kindly agreed I could show up a day late, no cancellation charge, booked a new flight with Air Asia to Krabi and told the
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Lau Pa Sat, old with new buildings behind hotel there too. So there will be paperwork but I should be quids in.
BA organised it very well, given how many of us there were. There were a lot of sad and vocal Germans who were going to miss their cruise, or at least the departure from Singapore, which was only 4 hours after our original arrival time. No wiggle room in that schedule. They will have to be flown on to Langkawi and meet the ship there. I did feel for them. We had the choice of leaving our big bags at Heathrow and they’d be put onto the plane or take them with us. I took mine, as did about half, not trusting them not to get forgotten somehow. There were buses to take us to the Holiday Inn Express at T4, a long queue on arrival and the staff were like headless chickens, faffing about stapling things together and writing out dinner vouchers nobody wanted as it was midnight. I got to my room at 12.30, far too wound up to sleep. Back to the airport at 11.30 to do it all over again. This time we left more or less on time. Deja vu,
but at least we were in the air. The films were terrible so I didn’t bother.
We arrived in Singapore at 13.30 and my original Scoot flight to Krabi was no doubt boarding at that moment from T2 and we were at T1. I’d have had to get my bag, then check it in again and go through immigration twice, so I knew there was no chance of making it. As it was early I got the MRT, buying 2 EZ Link cards (like Oyster cards) from the service centre, which was right next to the ticket barriers. 12$ including 7$ credit and the journeys are cheaper than individual tickets. So when I come back in 4 weeks to meet Gill we will be able to use them for our 4 days.
The MRT wasn’t too busy, 2 changes but escalators everywhere so easy with my wheely bag. I walked from Clarke Quay station, down Hong Kong Street and the Quay Hotel was dead opposite, on South Bridge Road. Sure enough, no problem delaying my stay, 135$ for the night with breakfast, £77. The room is small and windowless, so super quiet and really new and clean. Fridge,
kettle, great shower. There is a roof terrace but it is pointless, no view except of walls. I’m going to have to unplug the fridge as it is very noisy.
Despite feeling like a chewed up bit of string, I forced myself out to find the nearby hawker centre, Lau Pa Sat, which we saw last year from the top of the tourist bus and also in a vlog. It‘s in Cross Street, towards China Town and left, about a 15 min walk. It was early, 5pm, so not too many people were eating and some places weren’t open. The line of satay stalls were all closed up. A few random farangs like me. It’s really easy to choose as all have menus with pictures and prices, and there’s a central beverage counter. Also public loos at the back which were manageable, 20c machine if you need paper. I had chicken rice set for 6.50$, £3.67. It was really nice but predictably a bit cold. And the usual bowl of something I wasn’t sure about, whether to drink it, pour it on the rice or wash my fingers in it. I drank it, hoping nobody was looking. It tasted
OK. See pic. A few farangs said I’ll have what she’s having, which I enjoyed a lot. Then I had a lime juice with a lot of ice for 2.20$ sitting outside in the Philippino food section. I didn’t see any street being closed off to traffic and stalls on wheels like in the vlog, maybe that isn’t every day.
Still feeling terrible, it was too early to give up and go back to the hotel so I walked along to the Fullerton Bay Hotel, saw the merlion statue and then back along the river, where there was a sort of outside aerobics session with loads of participants and an enthusiastic but dire male teacher. Everyone was absolutely loving it though, running about desperately trying to follow. I trudged back along Boat Key, full of tourists in the very overpriced riverside restaurants, £7 for a pint! There are more authentic and much cheaper offerings one street back in Circular Road and it looked like it’s closed off at night, so party time maybe.
A spot of housekeeping, checked my boarding pass for tomorrow, added a credit card to the Grab app (they have bought Uber out in SE
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Marina Bay Sands Hotel, don’t want to go there again but always an amazing sight Asia), tried unsuccessfully to get my vpn to work with the wifi. It will only connect if I use my data. I’m hoping that’s just a thing here and not in other places!
Travel day tomorrow, fly to Krabi and then get a minivan to Ao Nang, my happy place!
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