Immigration
So… I am on the plane and I hear “Hey you gotta fill out a thing that says you’re not bringing stuff into SG.” Then I look at the form on the web when I get here and it’s like, pretty strict. NO VAPES, NO CIGS, NO CIG VAPORIZERS. It’s kinda insane. So they threaten a bunch of jail time and fines AND FURTHERMORE they threaten death to any drug smugglers. If you have over a tiny tiny amount you get murdered by the state.
I met these two cute college girls on the plane in the way to Bali from Japan. I really need to learn Japanese better lol. We struggle through a conversation for the last 2 hours of the flight and talk about anime.
Landing in Singapore, I come clean at the gates. Being like hey, I have cigs and I have this rash from being out of shape. And they’re like, “Ok we’re gonna pull you aside and look at you” and it’s like 2 hours before a doc looks at me and is like, “Yeah dude you’re just super out of shape and need to work on that.” and so I am like, “Yeah I know.” Then I go to the immigration and am like, “I gotta declare this tobacco.” And I had it destroyed even though I bought this cool vaporizer for $30 USD in Japan. The fine for smuggling it in is like well into the thousands and I think trying to bring in a vape is just straight jail time(?).
Stressful!
After that, I go like, “Hey, can I just go through?” And they’re like “yeah.” So I enter SG and I’m kinda lost. I buy some tourist pass Bus Card and leave the airport. I was later watching a video with Bryt and that bus pass is a big mistake and waste of money apparently lol.
Welcome to Changi
I leave the airport via tram eventually, ignoring the walkthrough (I’ll see it on the way back. Edit Spoiler: I did not) and just try to get to the hotel where my friend is waiting. He shows up late and we greet then move into the room. It’s kinda sweet! He ordered 2 beds and there’s a single bed on two mattresses.
We’re like uhhh, well whatever. So we will just sleep on opposite sides and set up the pillow barrier. If you’ve slept with a friend in the same bed, you know what I mean.
Then we notice the shower is a huge shower with a WINDOW INTO THE BEDROOM. It’s like literally made for you to press your ham against or something. Lol I have no idea why we ended up with that as a “feature” in our room. We find out there’s a curtain. It’s a draw down via cord so its not like it’s gonna bust back up if you bump into it.
Thank God.
So we make our peace and I put in earplugs and put on a sleep mask and it’s time for bed at 9pm. This is Day 1 mind you. I’m like… Ready to pass out.
Day 2
Wake up! Gather my things and pretend I have it all together until my roommate leaves. I put my stuff on and go to the tourney. Sign ups are happening.
I get absolute cooked. I won’t go into details or I’ll get mad lol.
Day 2 is over. Day 3 is about to start. I’m out of the running. I’m typing this at the end of day 3. Had a fine time. Ready to turn in for the night.
I mostly typed this to give y’all an update. They announced a bunch of stuff and I’ve said what I needed to. I’m surprised they didn’t hit certain stuff with B&R so I’m very saddened by that. Oh well.
Tomorrow we go to the Zoo for my last day. It’s been kind of a blur these past few days, so whatever. I tried cancelling my flight home and can’t without calling a bunch and just forfeiting the cash lol. I wish I didn’t have to go home to America but for $880 I guess I do. I kinda wanna skiplag it or whatever it’s called where you “miss” your connection, but I won’t. I’m just sad. America is so expensive, exploitative and less friendly by comparison. I wish people would just get along.
I’ll be looking for a way to move to Japan over the next year / year and a half. I can’t not. It’s incredible.
See you all in a few days.
Edit: I’ll try to type up a new blog post about my trip to the zoo. It was awesome.
