No Bursting My Babble

Day 1

After the most inefficient check-in process, huffingandpuffing (and cursing a blue streak) through a walk that led us through mazy hithers and yons (when we could have lined up just once!), we found ourselves in the lounge of NAIA Terminal 3, waiting to plane off.

I promised Annsley I’d commit to writing the 206 bones I had to pick with that Cebu Pacific flight, but I do not want to nitpick (oh yes, I do). Suffice it to say that the plane was newish but offered little else apart from flight attendants with messy hair, wrinkled shirts and a general air of unkemptness. To Cebu Pacific’s (only) credit, we arrived on time.

This is the bird’s eye view of the surprisingly green lung (hazy gray was all that my trusty cam could manage) that is Singapore.

Armed with maps and guides and the sheer ignorance of first-time visitors, we almost hired-- at a heart attack price-- limo services to the hotel, but found a queue of cabs just a ways off. The cabbie seemed intent on thwarting my plans to take any decent photo, so I only managed these

The trip to the hotel gave me the impression that the city-state was fairly anodyne. It was a noticeably quiet, clinically clean, and superbly shipshape city. There was no traffic, no pollution, no litter, no loiterers, no ambulant vendors, no jaywalkers, no suicidal motorists. To one used to the carnival that is home, everything was in unnerving order and seemed strangely lifeless.

I realized soon enough that I had no reason to worry. The city center was a thrumming difference… And one that looked set to keep me occupied for the next few days.

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