Singapore …

For those who know me would probably know the story* about why I don't like use 'Flight Centre' and I was pretty adamant that I will never use them again. However I went against my own wish and decided to book my flight through 'Flight Centre Rangiora'. My mother uses them for all her travel needs and so far they haven't fucked it up for her yet. Well when I arrived in Singapore it seemed that my fears about 'Flight Centre' was reconfirmed, however let me start at the beginning.

I landed in Singapore rather early in the morning the Idea behind this was so that I can go explore the city before flying out the next morning. So one of those hop on hop off city tour bus things was organized for me to do during the day and in the evening I was going to go to a night Safari at the Zoo.

The first time I realized that something was wrong was when the Taxi dropped me off at the hotel and I asked them to confirm my booking with the Zoo. The guy at reception informed me that it was a public holiday and that he was pretty sure the Zoo would be shut but will give them a call anyways. Well it turns out he was right as he couldn't get hold of them. He told me to be back at the hotel when they where meant to pick me up and hope they do. Now the reason I needed to confirm the booking was because I didn't know what time they would pick me up. Annoyed I went up to my room and had a shower because at least I had the City Tour Bus left.

I studied the map that was given to me by 'Flight Centre' for the route the bus takes and saw that the Botanic Gardens was semi close to me and that it had a stop there for me to get on. So I got a cab there as it was a bit to far to walk. The main entrance into the park was that busy that the taxi driver told me he will go to the other side of the park where it should be more quiet and easier to drop me off, after all it was a public holiday and everyone in Singapore was out and about. I spent some time wondering across the park to my bus stop and if you like plants the park is well worth the visit.

I got to the the sign post that matched the details somewhat on my voucher for the bus and waited in the hot weather. Finally the bus got there and I hopped on so to speak. The bus driver informed me that I was on the wrong bus and that I should get the double decker one at the main gate. So I hopped of again and wandered down to the main gate trying to figure out where the bus actually stops. Finally it arrived and I presented my voucher to the driver who informed me that he doesn't think its part of his company but to stay on the bus till they get to their depot and then to hop of. So while the bus was driving through the city I started studying the map again and saw that in fact they where going the same direction as my bus was meant to go. When we stopped at their depot I realised we where in the wrong side of town that I wanted to be in. So I hoped of again and with the help of a very limited map tried to find my way to the next stop 'The Singapore Flyer'.

After a lot of wondering and getting stuck in a mall and not being able to find the exit I finally made it to the Flyer. On route there I passed their soccer stadium which is pretty much just a stand on the side of a bay and the field that's floats out in the water. When I got to the flyer, which is basically just a big wheel with compartments hanging of it. I decided to go spin around on it to see the city views it was only when my compartment made it to the top that the thought of Earthquakes crossed my mind. In that moment hanging of a big metal wheel being 100's of meters up in the sky I wanted out and I wanted out immediately. I survived the ordeal of the wheel and got to take some cool pictures from that high up. You could see all the boats lying of the coast of Singapore waiting on their turn to enter the harbour.

 

After my 'Singapore Flyer experience I went to where all the buses stop in search for my hop on and hop off bus again. Well after checking with a number of operators no one could tell me which imaginary bus service I was with. So in the end I had to use the very limited map and just start walking. I spend most of the day walking and angrily texting my mother back in New Zealand to go kick 'Flight Centre' up the ass as I was not amused. After a rather long day of walking I finally caught a taxi back to my hotel and possibly the hope of going to the Zoo. I got back to the Hotel around 5:30pm and no-one came looking for me and I never did make it to the Zoo. As I was falling asleep that night after checking my alarm clock like 400 times to make sure it was set for the right time in the morning. I hoped that my 2 nights in Dubai will fare better then Singapore.

*Story of why I didn't want to use Flight Centre.

In 2006ish me and my then partner decided to head over to Africa to go see where I was spawned. Even though it's a long and backwards way of doing it I decided I wanted to go through Dubai as you have to stop over somewhere on your way to the Republic thats South. So off I went to book with our local 'Flight Centre'. I booked our accommodation in Dubai and the fact the ex didn't eat meat. They told me since there was no connecting flight on the day we where traveling through Dubai that Emirates will put us up in a hotel for the night and I was like sweeeeet.

When we where about to leave Christchurch something told me to check the vegetarian status of our flight. It turns out that my beloved was going to starve all the way to Dubai. I was assured that even thought they couldn't change it for our flight from Christchurch to Sydney the rest of our flight will state that he was a Vego, well long story short only the flight form Dubai to Jo'burg actually had the right details but to the credit of the Crew on Emirates they made sure Mr Grumpy had food each time.

When we arrived in Dubai I was expecting a sign with my name on it spelt very badly but there was nothing so after a while I grabbed Mr Extremely Grumps at that stage's phone and told him to go outside and have a cigarette while I called Flight Centre. It turned out that because of demand Emirates added a new flight a few hours after our plane landed and that we no longer have accommodation and that our travel agent should have told us this. So after a few selected words I informed them that we where stuck in a country that barely speaks English and they better sort it. The idiot on the other side said they could hold 2 seats for me but I would have to book them on my side at the counter. Bear in mind though hat this plane was meant to leave in a couple of hours.

So I ran around like a mad idiot pushing into lines going through security the wrong way and finally got to book the flights and with some luck hoping to get our bags in South Africa at the same time as us. In the international lounge I had to inform my family we will be a day early. On our way back we had a flight from Port Elizabeth to Jo'burg I handed over my e-ticket which turned out to be nothing more then a piece of paper. So I had to buy our tickets again to get on the flight. Luckily the rest for the flying went ok except for that I got food poising in Dubai and the ex got gout in his foot so our 2 days there was pretty much ruined too.

Personally I'm starting to think I should just book all my flights and activities myself in the future.