Quite a long day, but mostly things went well. Both my flights – Lion Air – were late, which put me in at the meeting spot about an hour late, but machi muchkil – no problem.
Surprisingly, the flights themselves went well. LA is a LCC – low-cost carrier – and had no food, but I was tired both ways and just tried to sleep anyway. I got good seats on the plane, which was the surprise since my ticket had only been purchased the day before. 
Once in Singapore and after meeting the visa guy, I mostly just walked. I failed in my attempt to see “Pirates” because it was only showing at 10:30 at one theater – I got there around 1 – and then the other theater had a showing at 2:50, but I had to pick up my passport at 4, so that didn’t work either.
As a result, my entire spending came to a $2.50 magnet, a $2 Pepsi, $1.40 for tea, $1.20 for milk, $2.80 for a Coke, $2.05 for a litre and a half of water and $1.45 for a Hershey bar. That’s Singapore dollar, which is close to the USD.
The place is freaking expensive. All I did was the Orchard Road, or whatever the name of the tourist street is, and it’s like Rodeo Drive, except instead of single stores there are malls. With all the same stores, I might add. I can’t tell you how many Louis Vutton stores I saw.
Sightseeing was brutal because it was just malls. Next time I go – and since my visa is only eight months, there will be a next time – I’ll skip the shopping area and head to the zoo or something. I just wasn’t into the shopping at all. Beyond the fact I don’t need anything, I just wasn’t about to fork over $250 for shoes, even if they were Timberlands.
I had a nice lunch (paid for by the company) at some place touting itself as an American burger joint, but was really much fancier. I didn’t see many good burgers on the menu, so I got the special, which was cream of carrot soup, baked fish with some kind of cheese sauce and cauliflower, broccoli and carrots in some kind of sauce plus carrot rice and a Coke. It was very good. Even the soup, which I was a little leery about.
Met a nice Croatian-Australian fella who was working on one of the escalators. I didn’t have a lot of information about S’Pore and had to ask where the hotel was. Fortunately, he knew and then I ran into him on the way back from my little errand, too. His name was Stan.
A couple of other new-to-me things I saw: a urinal in the women’s bathroom – do not even begin to ask me how to use it; I wondered if it was a foot-washing thing but it had a urinal cake in it – and a mashed potato dispenser at the 7-11. That thoroughly disgusted me.
Toward the end of the afternoon, I started developing one of those I-didn’t-drink-enough-water migraines, hence the purchase of the litre and a half of water.
Unfortunately, I got it right as I was headed back to the airport on public transportation (Yay! Public transportation – Jakarta has none!) and they don’t allow eating or drinking on the trains or in the stations.
This being Singapore, land of caning, I didn’t risk it and as a result my headache got worse until I got to the airport. I pounded the entire thing of water but it was too late. The migraine set in and it was brutal.
My flight home was about 45 minutes late, and I thought I was going to die by head explosion in the airport. I just wanted to sleep so the headache would go away.
After waiting a while in the airport, I got up and walked around. When I got back, my seat was taken so I had to sit somewhere else. By this time, it was much closer to scheduled takeoff and there were lots of people around. I had to sit directly between two men, or at least men-children.
Oh, my God. As soon as I sat down, it I realized it was a mistake. Seriously bad BO hit me from both directions, and the talkative man-child on my left started flirting with me. Not only was his BO compounding my migraine nausea, but his breath almost killed me.
And he wanted to chat and chat. We’d both done visa runs and therefore he just bonded. Oh, man. How does this happen to me?
My head about to explode, I tried hard. He couldn’t have been over 24. Nice enough, but I can’t describe accurately how bad I was feeling at that time.
Finally we got on the plane and I managed to nap enough to get the headache to subside a little, but it didn’t go away.
Back in Jakarta, I cleared immigration quickly (although I’ve since learned I have to go into some immigration office soon to do more paperwork) and got a cab to get home.
The guy drove like a bat out of hell. On the one hand, I was thankful because I felt like my head was going to explode, but on the other, a speedy cab ride does not help migraine-induced nausea.
Fortunately, I didn’t leave anything in the back seat and got home and to bed. I took a RelPax, knowing it was probably too late for it to do any good but figured once I woke up it’d be gone. But no, I woke up at 6 with my head still pounding. I took what I think was an ibuprophin but I’m not sure – it might have been Sudafed. I dozed back off until 10 or so and then was absolutely fine.
Headed back to work Friday and now I’m off today. I’m headed back into the fitness center in a minute to get back on my routine.
On this lovely day off, everything else is domestic. I’m going to do laundry (sink) and then head to the grocery store.
I’m so glad Singapore is over. I’d go back for fun or a doctor appointment, but I’d like a little advance notice so I can bank up on the rest. The whole day I was just dead on my feet.
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