Wednesday – travel day

We headed out to the airport to make the to trip to Singapore. We were all on the first flight together and then for the flight from Jakarta to Singapore we were on separate flights. Due to the late departure of the flight from Jogja, Katherine and I had to make a mad dash to get to the next flight. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare…time enough for Dawna to buy Dave a magnet, but not for Katherine to get a coffee.

When we got to Singapore we were happy to see Roy Won at the airport. Katherine and I had met Roy in Toronto in November when he came to tour TPL for a couple of weeks. We discovered that our flight flew into one terminal and the Indonesian team was on a flight coming into a different terminal. It was actually the first day that this new terminal, T3 was open. We took a couple of trams to get there and meet them.

When we got there the Indonesians were nowhere to be found. The luggage carousel for their flight had stopped and there was no one left to come off the plane. We paged for Simon, the FCM staff person who was traveling with the Indonesia team. We waited and waited. Katherine and Roy went back to our original terminal, thinking that perhaps we had missed them and they were trying to find us. Four hours passed!

Eventually another fight from Jakarta came through and the team was on it. We had used Roy’s cell phone to call Simon and we were able to get through to Simon once they had landed. Our relief was palpable and it was so good to see them after the long wait. Lesson learned – we should all travel together and we should have cell phones to keep in touch when plans go astray. We were so thankful to have Roy with us, logically working through the steps until we were all reunited.

We taxied to the Pan Pacific hotel. It was a tremendously grand hotel and we were all in awe. The elevators were liked jewelled globes going up the interior and exterior of the building. We checked in and had to explain the rigorous no smoking laws and the fact that one would be charged for even touching a bottle in the mini-bar. (There was an electronic sensor in the mini-bar…you had to call room service to get it deactivated and emptied in order to use the fridge to keep your own stuff cooled.)

Roy took us all out for a walk and orientation around Singapore. We were able to walk from the hotel through a maze of shops and covered walkways to the MRT (subway system). He gave us an overview of how to use the MRT and also walked us to the National Library where our first scheduled meeting was set for Thursday. We walked back to a food court where we had our dinner and then found a money changer.

By the end of the day we were all exhausted but keen to get ready for the days of touring in front of us. Katherine and I stopped by Club Sev (7-11, where you can buy beer at a price much cheaper than any bar or restaurant) and had a relaxing drink in one of our rooms before we called it a day.