Friday morning and I am all set to go. Calvin is more excited by my new Chevrolet Malibu that I rented from Hertz. He also wants to know what car I will get when I get back. I arrive in Eugene and find myself in the midst of ducks the team is on its way to a game somewhere. My flight is delayed and I have to wait it out. It finally takes off at I make it to SFO with 20 mins to spare to catch my next flight. I run to the international terminal and am the last one to board the flight. 'Your luggage is not going to make it' the attendant informs me. Great!
It's a long flight to Singapore. 11 Hours to Seoul, a one hour break and another 6 hour flight. Singapore Airlines has cleaned up their act. Nice plane, lots of leg room, good food, individual TV monitors, excellent service - I am impressed. The attendant was right. I end up at the hotel without my baggage but richer vy $120. The bag arrives later in the day, delivered to my room. It's not a bad deal, when I think about it; $120 for lazing around in a bathrobe all day.
Lots of things are different in Singapore. I open the wrong door of the cab. The cars are right hand drive here and the driver of the cab looks at me wide eyed as I yank open his door - he thought I wanted to hijack his car! I also involuntarily brace myself as he does a fast turn into the left side of the road and I find myself wishing that I had sat in the back seat instead. I have been away from home too long; I am forgetting the basic skills of driving in Asia - it's about keeping your nerves. The hotel is nice and I sleep off my jet lag with a little help from Mr. Walker - Mr. Johnny Walker. He's a real helpful guy when you want to sleep; or for any other problem, for that matter. In the evening I go for a walk and come across an old Chinese gentleman who advertises the best foot massages in the world. I watch from the window as he works his magic on a middle aged woman. The look of sheer bliss on her face is enough to convince me that he may indeed be what his ad professes. I have a fetish for foot massages. For years, I have been trying to convince my family - first my wife and then my son - that it's good karma to give out free foot maggages. Either they don't care for the karma or they see right through me. I suspect it is the latter though both of them are too decent to tell me that to my face. I pay the man $40 for 30 minutes and I am walking on air when I leave. I don't need much help from Mr. Walker to fall back to sleep.
My new find also shows me another place where I can get a unique kind of foot treatment. Fish therapy is where you stick your feet into a tank full of fish and let them bite the dead skin and dirt off. I go back the next day with Shreekant. We change into shorts which are provided by the establishment and tentatively dip a toe into the water. The fish are on it like a flash. We put our whole feet in and there are scores of fish on it in a couple of seconds. It's ticklish as hell and I am laughing uncontrollably. There are a few more people there and soon we are all laughing - laughter therapy comes as a free add on, I guess.
I see evidence everywhere of what a fine city Singapore is (to repeat an old joke). $500 fine for littering, $200 fine for smoking and even $300 for 'urinating in the elevator'. I'm not joking, I really saw the sign. Does it mean that it is so common a practice that one needs a special fine for it? I was told by a friend just before I left that the girls in Singapore have a lot of 'other' skills. I don't know what she actually meant by that and she didn't elaborate. Well, so far, the girls here look the same as everywhere else in the world. Or maybe she meant that there are a lot of 'others' here, others as in 'Ladies, Gentlemen and Others'. I saw a bunch of them today and they were trying to solicit cash from passers by. I cross the street in a hurry - I have nothing against them; it's just that I like them better from across the street.
Work takes over. We leave everyday at 9 in the morning and return late at night. Twice I go out for Indian dinners; I'm eating dum biriyani after a long time and it feels good. Lunch is usually Chinese with the people from work - chicken
rice is a particular favorite until I discover that it could be 'anything' rice such as sweet and sour pork rice, lemon chicken rice or even barbequed pork ribs rice. Hopefully, we will be able to take Friday afternoon off and go see
some signts. Right now, it's not looking good. I will be working until it's time to leave for the airport :-(
More tomorrow...
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1 comment:
great to know that you are enjoying your trip. I liked the blog but I was skeptical about one sentence. I think truth would have been this :-
"In the evening I go for a walk and come across a beautiful woman who advertises the best foot massages in the world. I watch from the window as she works her magic on an old Chinese gentleman"
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