VISA Run to Singapore

It was time for another VISA Run abroad and I decided to go this time to Singapore. One reason of that decision was to bring my boss Rechel, who never was outside the Philippines and I thought it might be nice for her to visit a clean big city or in the case of Singapore a country. She knows Manila and Cebu so has an idea about the big stinky cities in the Philippines.

I booked online a flight to Singapore with tiger airways and did some research about Hotels. Well, Singapore is a rather expensive City and my budget is very limited, so I ended up in Amrise Hotel in Geylang, not the Hilton, but for a few days it was good enough. I didn’t have the plan to spend much time in the Hotel anyway.

Out of curiosity I checked with Cebu Pathetic if there are any specials for Dumaguete-Cebu and found a 1 Peso flight, which ended up with 1.2k after adding tax and whatever other surcharge. However, still better than starting the trip in a 5 hours Ceres Bus  to Cebu, with another half hour taxi to a hotel and taxi to the airport for the flight to Singapore.

Miraculously the Dumaguete- Cebu Flight left in time early morning from Dumaguete to Cebu and we got some breakfast at Cebu International Airport.

The check-in was pretty fast, but the passport stamp for the Boss needed a little time. Pretty much ridiculous what the immigration want to know and how many papers they want to see.  Having a good dose of coffee over the last few hours, I was rather calm and friendly and smiled to all of that. We went through 3 detectors and my notebook got scanned at least 4 times, just to find out later in the Hotel that I actually had a Swiss Army knife in my Laptop-Case which I took with me into the cabin. Maybe they just trusted me, as I look anyway like an angel who sends a prayer to the lord for each ant I step on in my garden.

The flight to Singapore was calm and we landed in time. Immigration was done in the blink of an eye and when we walked out of the immigration zone, the Boss could not believe her eyes, how clean and nice a mass-transportation terminal could be.

It was great to see my bosses eye after she got her immigration stamp and touched the grounds of a foreign country for the first time. We strolled through the terminal and got our luggage. Now a bite to eat, as I got really hungry. I know it is a kind of stupid, but as it was one of the first food-outlets we were passing, we ended to have some McDonalds. Well, coming from Dumaguete, a McDonalds is certainly not the same all over the world. The burger as well as the fries tasted almost really good compared to the local outlet in Dumaguete.

After a quick meal, I changed some money and we were on the way to the Taxi stand. Our quick bite had the advantage, that there were no waiting lines and we got a Taxi which brought us to the Amrise Hotel in Geylang. The price-range of the Taxi was already announced on a signboard in the airport, so no surprise here.

I know I repeat myself, but it was great to see Rechel like a little kid with big eyes, trying to catch each and everything in the surroundings. It was fairly difficult, because despite the fact that it was rush-hour, there was no traffic jam and we drove rather fast on the highway.

After 20 minutes we reached the hotel and checked in. The front-desk guy was very friendly and it took only a minute or so. Our room was in the 3^rd floor, no elevator, so I carried our suitcase up. Remember it is a budget hotel, so we did not expect that much. The room was small, but had a Queen size bed with comfortable spring mattress, had aircon and hot shower with good water pressure. Complimentary drinking water and coffee was next to the water heater.

The aircon was working fine and not too noisy and it took about 5 minutes to have the room to an acceptable temperature… acceptable for me, that is, while the boss was freezing. I checked the internet and could connect right away after entering the password. Just want to mention that the guy at the front-desk gave the password while we were checking in, without I even asked for, and saved me another 4 floors climbing the narrow steps. Yeah, it’s the small things which make one happy.

Of course our 2 monsters at home were online and we had a quick chat that all is fine. Understandable that they use the chance to the fullest to surf around 25.5 hours a day…. I would have done the same when I was a kid, but no internet back then, so I only had TV and my daddies adult magazine collection…

It was time to get ready for exploring Singapore and Rechel’s shower and paint-job was surprisingly fast done, obviously also excited to have her first night out in a foreign country.