Singapore - and preparation done for the trip

Myself and Sudhir have never been on an international trip together - hell, we have been on very few trips together :P That being said, we decided that it is good for us if we travel and see the world (everyone talks about how travel changed their lives and made them realise that there is much more to it than even money). So, we got our passports made and decided to go to Singapore as 

1. it is close by (to India)

2. there is quite a bit to see and a variety at that

3. my cousin and his wife there, so there will always be a friendly face around if needed

So we got our passport done some time last year and then 2 months back I started making our itinerary. I wanted to make sure everything to see is covered and that we have some time to relax and unwind, and take in some of the local culture. Decided that we would go there for 8 days - fly out on a Fri morning and come back Sat morning so that we have the weekend (in India) to get over the hangover of our trip :)
Spent ages figuring out what to do and where all to go, ate Shubhi's head in this process, but she was damn nice about the whole thing.. Unfortunately she and Ravi (my cousin) decided to have a baby at this time, due to which she was not going to be IN Singapore when we planned to go ... She super helped though, with the planning. I made an excel with the itinerary and sent it to both of them and we kind of finalised on one which merged what I had in mind, what Ravi said we should do, and what Shubhi said we HAVE to do :)

Applied for leave, got it approved and put those out of office emails - with so much joy I cannot begin to describe. It was my first long vacation from office (out for 9 straight days with 0 email and phone access). Once leave was approved we needed to get our visas done. We got it through an agent ('coz I don't think you can do it on your own) - the person charged us 3.2k while the visa fee is 1.5 ... Feel like we were ripped off, but I do not think there is any other way to get the visa.

The Friday before the Diwali weekend we chose as our date to fly to Singapore ! Booked tickets around 1.5 months advance through the Singapore Airlines website and got a round trip for both of us at a total of 53K INR. We booked the Silk Air one as it was around 12k cheaper (Silk Air is a codeshare airline of Singapore Airlines).

We got to the airport around 3 hours in advance (like we have been instructed to do so by our parents and the airport authorities), and noticed that none of the counters were open !! :D Goofed around a bit, while I tried to calm my nerves (I have a weird fear of flights and it began around a year or two ago when I was on a flight to Bombay and there was terrible turbulence. The plane actually made those screeching sounds while we bounced around in the clouds). I know flying is the safest mode of transport there is, but I still sh*t in my pants when I am told that I need to take a flight some where. To get over the fear, I have tried mind control but it did little to help. So what did I decide to do ? Not sleep - so that I pass out on the flight. Didn't even have coffee at the airport while we wiled away time. Once the counters opened, we checked in and completed our immigration process, exchanged some money at the airport (terrible idea) and then reached our terminal ... 

I used my cute Chumbak passport case to hold our documents, cards and some money. Oh, completely missed mentioning this point. We opened a savings account where we transfer some money every month - we made this our travel account, which we would dip into while traveling so that we don't hit our salary accounts and feel the pinch in one shot :)

While we were waiting for our flight to be announced for boarding, Sudhir's name was suddenly called out at the counter. I freaked out thinking that there was some issue and that he would not be allowed to fly. I wondered if I should pretend as though I did not know him and still board the flight, or if I should go and check what was going on and if I could be of any help. Turns out that he won some lucky draw and we got some vouchers at restaurants and spas at Singapore! yay :) (good thing I didn't ditch him :P)

Comfortable flight while going to Singapore :)

Finally boarded our flight at 10:00 AM (for a 9:45AM take off) and I prayed throughout the journey (I took a print out of the Hanuman Chalisa and was chanting it the whole time, or was at least holding the paper). No one was sitting next to us - loads of space to dump everything. In flight service was quite good, comfortable seats, enough leg room. But the in-flight entertainment was slightly sad - not much variety. We watched some random stuff and movies to kill time. 

Landed at Singapore around 15 min post our scheduled arrival. Immigration was super smooth and easy - everyone was quite helpful and it was a breeze :) Collected our luggage and spotted my cousin waiting for us at arrival. Went to his place and took some rest for a while while he cooked for us delicious potato fry in smoked paprika powder !

This is Ravi's home at Oleander Towers - Tao Payoh

Next few posts will be about the place and what all we did there and whether 8 days are enough to see everything properly as a tourist :)