"Never again" I think to myself. One of those moments you hate when it happens but in retrospect you'd do it again. "Travel is glamourous only in retrospect" is a famous quote by Paul Theroux. My harrowing account of how I got to Singapore last night is one of those which is glamourous only when you look back on it. My friend Delia said today "travel is gritty and earthy." She's right!
Initially I was thinking of hitchhiking to Singapore but I got lazy and decided to take the bus. Jonathan told me the buses leave from KL Sentral but it turned out they leave from a bus terminal five metro stations away. There I was, with 18 queues a half of a kilometre long! I just couldn't believe it! In line I was miserably for the better part of two hours, only to be told that all the tickets were sold out. Bloody hell! They told me to go to another counter across the terminal and there was nothing they could do. Jonathan left for Jakarta this morning and I wasn't willing to spend a sleepless night in a bus terminal. I've already been to KL a lot longer than I should have. Thankfully, a passenger had an extra ticket because he was going to bring his nephew with him and he had to cancel due to work, so I bought his ticket for a few ringgit less than he paid for it. Damn, was I lucky or what? And I almost lost the ticket in the process. This is seriously the most disorganized bus terminal I've ever experienced! And that's after being at bus terminals in Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru, and many other places. On the bus we went at a snail's pace toward Johor Bahru, the border town with Singapore. I got to the bus terminal at 1 PM, waited in line until after 3 PM, and finally got on the bus after 4:30 (the bus was delayed by about 40 minutes). Finding a CS host in Singapore has been nigh impossible as well; I've probably sent more requests to people in Singapore than I have anywhere else! By contrast, I posted my plans in KL and got four invites in one day! When we stopped for a 30-minute break I got some beef noodles and this tea which has mushrooms in it. There is some interesting food and drink in these parts, and you have to be observant, unless you either want to bite into an eyeball, a bit of tongue, a super hot chili, or something abnormal. I learned that the hard way in Japan after getting a kebab that had the most vile aftertaste! Alexander is a CS host who's already hosting someone but he's agreed to meet me tomorrow. When the bus got to Johor I had to wait in a long queue for another bus that was packed solid, and then the line to exit Malaysia was a half hour long. We had to re-board the bus and that line was even longer! This is by far the most difficult and crowded border crossing ever, making returning from Mexico to the US a piece of cake in camparison. Over the causeway we drove and into Singapore. Drug trafficking in Singapore is punished with death and being a foreigner will not save you from the gallows, so don't let your bags out of your sight and don't carry bags for strangers unless you want to be hanged! Thankfully the line to enter Singapore wasn't nearly as long and getting through customs and reboarding the bus was a simple matter. The bathroom at the border was absolutely disgusting; something I didn't expect in Singapore. Drifting in and out of sleep on the bus I awoke when the driver was punched by somebody yelling in Malay. Getting dropped off I could feel the icky humidity. It was after 1 AM and the only two hostels nearby were full. To make matters worse I broke the strap on my laptop bag earlier, so now it's much more difficult carrying my gear! Near Queen St. there's a huge selection of 24-hour massage clinics. I called at one of them, hoping that if I got a massage I could fall asleep for a few hours. The massage was great but I couldn't stay and fall asleep so I was on the streets again. Travel can really be tiring at homes! This is what I mean when I say it's not all glitz and glamour, because some nights I don't even know where the hell I'm staying. It's even more difficult when you're lugging around all of your gear with a broken strap and it's very humid. Finally I found a hostel at 3:45 AM and, much to my surprise again in Singapore, there were blood stains on the sheets. Singapore has not given me an excellent first impression, but I at least got to sleep for a few hours.
This morning I had to make a move; I wasn't ready to sleep on blood-stained sheets again. Going online for a bit at the hotel across the way I found in area where there's a few hostels. Singapore seems like a somewhat cleaner and substantially more expensive version of Kuala Lumpur. There's a wide variety of restaurants and shops but be prepared to bust your wallet wide open if you're coming from Malaysia, Thailand, or Indonesia. Still without a CS host I didn't know what to do. Finally an Indian man named Akshay agreed to host me for tonight but not tomorrow night since he was already hosting someone. He invited me to a trivia competition at the Boomerang pub. Doing some writing and catching up on some work I made my way slowly with all my gear. Durians aren't allowed on the metro since they smell to high hell (although I don't find the smell nearly as bad as a scuzzy bathroom like I experienced last night). Even after walking all over with all my gear, the trivia night was a lot of fun! One category was countries, and that was an easy one for me. Another category was movies, and Akshay and his friends being Indian got all of them right! After all, India's movie industry is much larger than that of America. Hopefully all the drama is over and I can soak up Singapore tomorrow!
