There were a lot of things I noticed that made this place a far more cry from thePhilippines aside from the clean surroundings. Last night on our way to the airport, the taxi driver asked for a flat rate fare of P250 instead of running his meter. I despise taxi drivers in our country because I never had any good experience with them. To continue my story, my bestfriend asked that he run the meter but he still insisted on us adding P50 pesos. We both agreed to stop the argument. Why are Filipinos like that? Why are we so greedy?
When we arrived in Singapore we also rode the taxi to make our lives easier. The taxi driver doesn’t speak English that good. We can’t even understand him but he tried his best to help us. He offered to call the hostel to get direction but we gave him the landmarks. When he understood the direction, he immediately drove us to the place. Since we both don’t know the exact location, when we got to the street where the hostel should be located, he went out of the car to ask directions from the people on the streets. I was touched by the old man’s courtesy and his willingness to help. I thought of the Filipino taxi driver last night and all that I can remember is disappointment.
Buying sim card in this country is not as easy as buying candy. You must be registered first. The store owner asked for my passport and after getting my name, he started calling me by my first name during the entire conversation. As a matter of fact, when we left the freebie from the simcard that I purchased, he ran down the street and hollered for my first name. It was cool. He made me feel like we knew each other.
An on and off good/bad day started my first day here. My bestfriend and I don’t know much about the place and unfortunately our friends are busy working. We first surveyed the place where we will be staying and I got scared of the things I see around me. We wandered through Little India and the place made me feel uncomfortable, maybe because of culture shock or maybe because I’m not a fan of Indian stuff.
We both had our moments. Her tummy’s sick and I am bored. To be honest, I wasn’t really excited about this trip. I joined her because I promised and the fare’s free. We’re both burning with hot temper which is not good because we ended up mad with each other so we slept first to replenish the energy we lost.
People in this place use the train as their main transportation so we decided to buy an EZ link card that will allow us to use the train. We went to Marina Bay thinking that we’ll see the famous water-spitting merlion. Would you believe that we walked 360 degrees just to get to Merly which was located near the Fullerton Hotel? It was indeed very tiring but we can’t do anything. We’re already there. We met with a friend and later on we had another walk to theMRT station to eat and to close the day.
We spent this day walking and making ourselves familiar with the place. We saw a lot of people from different nationalities and smelled the body-odor-infected air. At least we know how to ride the train now. We’ll not get lost that I am sure of.
Surviving the first day means surviving the coming days as well.
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