Singapore days - Part 1

I always had a dream.Whenever, I used to travel by Chennai Airport road, I would think myself, "One day, I will come here and travel through the international departure gate".

More importantly, I did not want to travel my first overseas trip to be spent from my pocket!!! Yes, I wanted to enjoy the trip with a inner proud feeling that my company is spending for me.

It was a chance that partly knocked the door and partly pushed by my efforts. What happened to be a discussion on release of one of my team guys for a new process migration turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

The management finally decided to send me to Singapore for a process migration that roughly spanned 45 days.

I, Sukesh & Anant were selected for process migration. I got to know that Singapore is a hassle free country right from the time we applied for our visas.

It roughly takes around 2 days to process your visa request and VISA will be issued on arrival. Unlike, UK or US visa, you need not visit the embassy to get your VISA stamped.

Sukesh & I had to travel  2 days earlier because of some undue delay at Singapore embassy that futrher delayed Anant's IPP approval.

We were set to travel on 17th August 2013, by Air India flight at 00:30 AM. 

We had the guy from Axis bank who gave the travel card by 16:30PM on 16th August.

By this time, I have not even started to pack the items for the travel. The most disturbing factor was that we had not booked a room in Singapore for our stay. We did not opt for the accommodation service provided by the company.

Hence, I had to search the internet for a good decent budget hotel which was near Indian restaurants in Singapore.

Honestly, this was very challenging part as the all the online bookings asked for credit card booking which I was very apprehensive about.

The question is "Is it safe?". What if we don't like the hotel after reaching Singapore? Will they refund back the money to us? What if it is a bogus one? What if the eateries are very far?

We finally zeroed on " Madras hotel eminence". We did not know if this was a Indian hotel run by a Tamilian in Singapore. But, the name "Madras" gave much needed comfort to me.

When I dialed in, I heard an old man speaking in Chinese to me. I told him " I am yet to learn Chinese, so please speak in English". He replied " I am already speaking English to you". But, I did not understand a bit. 

The conversation mostly went like " Room", "Cost", "How much dollars", etc. He then asked me to send an email to the hotel.

I wrote a lengthy email about our needs. He wrote back " Room booking confirmed". At last, I gave a sigh of relief.

We had booked the room for only 1 day, as we thought, we could decide on accommodation once we reach Singapore.

So, all set, I left my room for next 1 & half months(Of course rent paid). The journey to Singapore had officially begun.