After a fairly uneventful flight that reminded me more of The Big One at Blackpool pleasure beach than floating gently on a cloud (not the pilot’s fault, flipping turbulence), I landed for the third time at Changi Airport. The route to the ATM and the MRT are now routine, as is approaching the guard to get some change for the ticket machine. As is customary, I stopped at McD’s for breakfast as the hostel doesn’t open reception till 8am and I surfed the net and chowed down on hotcakes.

My laptop decided to throw a wobbly and blue screen – the first time in about 10 months. Worst was that I lost all my bookmarks (thankfully Firefox backs these up automatically each day so they were easily replaced) and all my Firefox Extension settings, which is more of a pain. I’ve not dared look to see if anything else is jiggered yet. If you ever boot Windows and it tells you that the recycle bin is too large and you need to empty it when you know for a fact it’s empty… be afraid.

After semi-checking in (i.e. registering but not getting my bed yet), I scoured the net for details of the Vietnamese embassy. After a couple of phone calls to a very helpful guy and the aid of the (as usual) superb staff here, I located a sub-office much closer and set off to get my visa. Further details in a separate post as I think the particulars may be of use.

I took the MRT down as I needed to be there early to ensure getting the paperwork back tomorrow, but walked back which took about 40 minutes. Oncemore it struck me how Singapore is very much like London. Only cleaner, hotter and full of significantly nicer people.

I had exactly one man ask if I wanted to ride in his rickshaw (no thanks) and saw another cycle past with his seat cushion decorated with a Blackburn Rovers flag. Much as I’d like to park my posterior on them, it still wasn’t tempting enough to make me want to be pedalled around the city.

Situation as of now: I have booked a flight direct to Hanoi on Sunday. I wish I’d booked it before I set off for the embassy as it was SGD10 cheaper then! I have also hit a slight problem… to get the visa for tomorrow (i.e. 2 working days), I had to cough up SGD130. My bank account when I arrived in Singapore held SGD180. My accommodaton is SGD18 per night and they don’t take credit cards.

Now do the sums.

I already have money transferring from one account to another back home, but due to the inexplicable lag in money leaving one account and arriving in another, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to get my hands on cash money until Monday which is after I’ve left. This is soooo going to be fun to work out.