Singapore, Part 1: Veni

I could not wait any longer for the Singapore photos from Tiffany, so I'm breaking up the story of my Singapore trip into few parts. And this is part 1...

Nov 11, 2006: My trip to journey to Singapore begun with some hiccups upon my arrival at the Singapore Customs. Well, it was partly my fault for not finding out the proper procedures when entering the country because I was considered carrying an illegal item... my weapons.

At the Singapore Customs, I wanted to declare my weapons but there was only one "Nothing to declare" counter opened, so I just put my luggage into the scanner... sigh... here's where the problem began.

Without any permit or letter of participation, I was totally clueless of what I should be doing. One of the officer asked for some documentation which I obviously do not have. So, he asked me to call my team manager which, sadly, I did not have his contact no. So I had to call Tiff instead... at 4am in the morning.

With her quarter-awaken self, I was lucky that she sent me the right numbers. I then called my team manager who luckily has my details with him. So after he could verify my name and NRIC no., I was let off. Fortunately only spent 15-20 minutes there. Lucky too the bus driver was also willing to wait for me for a while. If it had taken longer, I'd probably have to ask him to leave without me. I'll have to figure my own way around should things happened that way.

Surprised, surprised... I also met up with a old friend at the Customs... also from Wushu, Chris from the Selangor team. Don't think he trains anymore. We were actually sitting in the same bus but he was actually going to the Singapore airport to go to Australia. Seems that he's now working there.

Anyway, the bus soon arrived at the intended destination, the Copthorne Orchid Hotel at Dunearn Road. Here was where Chris took a cab to the airport while I waited for my father's friend to pick me up. It was only 0500 in the morning (we arrived 30 mins early), so I waited until around 0630 before actually contacting my father's friend. I was reluctant to bother him at first and had wanted to take the cab to the place myself. But my father had already made an arrangement with him and I think relying on a family friend for transportation would be better than relying on a public service in a country unknown to you. I don't even know how he looked like but he was in KL and met with my parents and brother when I was away to China. So I'm guessing that he should recognise me instead, since ya know, my bro and I looked the same.

He took me for breakfast at a nearby coffee shop before we actually started looking for the competition arena at Republic Polytechnic Campus, Sports & Swimming Complex... a place where he wasn't even sure himself.

The coffee shop owner told us that the place is at Avenue 1 but after driving along Avenue 1 we still could not find the place. We then asked for directions at a petrol kiosk who didn't even know but fortunately for me, another customer who heard our conversation told me that it is at Avenue 9. And it didn't take us long to find the place. The time - 0815, ample time for me to rest, warm up and prepare for 'war'.

Today only me and one of my junior are competing. Tiff completed both her events the day before, but sadly, no good news from her this time and our definition of no good news means that she did not win any gold medal. The other girl, May Ooi, who was making her debut, has already competed in the same 2 events as Tiff's and will have her last event today.