So we are on our annual balikbayan trip, this year in Singapore. Since we still do not have much money, we decided to just stay at the airport for 24 hours, 45 minutes until our flight back. As far as airports go, it’s a nice place to stay. They have 24-hour restaurants, 24-hour money changers and even places to sleep. If you want to pay extra they have very nice accommodations to sleep and/or just wait it out. Or, if you don’t mind sleeping in public, they have a Snooze Lounge with long chairs pretty close to the 24-hour restaurants. Or you are allowed to sleep where ever, just not on the floor. We found a nice long couch under a set of escalators and we crashed there. I didn’t think I would go to sleep, I normally do not, but I did. I must have been more tired than I figured.
Lita insisted on buying souvenirs for some of the relatives. A lot of the shops had just closed and would not open until early the next day. She couldn’t wait though. We ended up spending a bit more than I wanted, but it wasn’t too terrible. Although 1 baseball cap at one of the 24-hour stores costs as much as 2 tee shirts at one store that was closed. I wanted to get the tee shirts, she wanted the hats. We got the hats.
We did eat when we woke up. I went to Burger King and got 2 of their breakfast sandwiches. One with egg and ham and the other with egg and bacon. The ham one was actually better. After a bit more of pushing her around in the wheelchair and going up and down in the elevator, it was time for lunch, our last meal before the flight. It was still about 5 hours to the flight, but we were running out of Singapore Dollars (SGD) and I didn’t want to get anymore. In fact, this last meal turned out pretty good, especially for Lita. She found a Thai restaurant and what she ordered, she really liked. I tasted a bit of it, just the beef in there, and it was pretty good. As for me, I found out that at Subway they have a special. If you order one of the 4 sandwiches they have listed, you get a 6-inch sandwich, a drink (I got water) and a cookie (oatmeal raisin) for 5.90. A regular 6-inch sandwich there is 6.00, so that’s a good deal. I wanted the chicken bacon sandwich, but they didn’t have the chicken. They did offer me double bacon instead, so that’s what I got. I had 7.40 left and the last thing I wanted at Burger King was 7.50. The lady at the counter said, “That’s close enough”. That was the end of our SGD. That last thing was like a double cheeseburger on a potato bread bun. It was good.
We waited in front of one of the boards waiting for them to say which gate we needed to be at. They do not post the gate number until 4-hours before the flight. Just as soon as the gate number came up, we headed that way. On the way we passed a Texas Chicken. I wished we still had some SGD to get some, but we didn’t. Oh well!
We were the first ones to our gate (Gate 17). I mean who else would be at their gate 4 hours before their flight? No sane people would be. Eventually, another person showed up, a Filipina, and they got to talking. I’m glad she had someone to talk with. I can go without talking for a long time, so I was content, although I did chime in from time to time when they directed questions to me.
After what seemed like ages, it was time to board the flight. More on that and the rest of the story in the last post on this journey.
Salamat Y’all