Just Forty Winks
The bus was getting closer to the Singapore immigration gate as we passed Johor-Singapore Causeway which was completed in 1923 and has been connecting both country since then. Street lights were supplying a beam of light while the sun was still timid to rise. The sky was leaden with overcast, and the patter of rain started to hit the windshield of the bus. The squeaking noise from the windshield wipers woke other passangers and one by one they asked, “where are we?” A sign saying “Welcome to Singapore” welcomed us as the driver told us to prepare the documents needed to enter our destination.
After passing a few blocks from Lavender bus terminal, my friends and I finally found the hostel in Tyrwhitt Road. It's located strategically between two MRT stations with less than 10 minutes walking to Lavender MRT station and Farrer Park MRT station. Across the hostel we could see Jalan Besar Stadium, the current home stadium of Young Lions, a S.League football team. In front of the stadium there's a house decorated with red lanterns hung around the house and gold-colored chinese characters at the front door that covered by the smoke from the burning incense. I shuddered a bit after hearing it's a mortuary.
In the midst of Singapore's deep sleep, people gathered and sat around some round tables on the first floor of a building in front of the hostel. Women in their early 20s put on their attractive dresses and sat gracefully. They chatted casually with some flamboyant middle-aged men while quaffing a beer or having a smoke. Young women accompanied a bunch of men and laughed out loud with them. Some women with beautiful makeup sipped a bowl of hot noodles and looked animated every time someone served them snacks or sodas. At a table in the corner two drunk men looked fatigued and their companion seemed like needing a sleep. She might want to go home after escorting those men in the nearest KTV all night.
I was tired too. I just wished the hostel would open soon.
