We landed at Changi Airport around 2 AM and got through customs without a hitch. I hadn't paid fully for my hostel yet so I needed to get to an ATM before leaving the airport. The airport lobby is huge, with a lot of empty modern spaces. I asked a Hertz rep where an ATM could be found, and after locating it, I pocketed my cash. When I looked up from the ATM, my eyes popped open. A police officer and two soldiers, armed with assault rifles/submachine guns, were walking directly towards me. I looked at them with blanked eyes and then they turned around and walked the opposite direction. Whew.

It took slightly longer than expected to get to Beary Nice! (BN!), the hostel I'm staying at, because the taxi driver had no idea where Smith Street, Chinatown was located. BN!'s a very welcoming place, there are teddy bears everywhere, the walls are painted bright green, red, orange, yellow..., the beds are clean, the bathrooms are spotless, and there's free coffee! 

By the time I got all situated, it was already 4AM. I snoozed for 3 hours, woke up, showered, grabbed a map, and headed out. My first impression when I walked out into Chinatown was that it was the cleanest Chinatown I've ever seen. The cleanest. It was crowded as expected as I squeezed my way out onto South Bridge Road.

My first goal was to head to Marina Bay Sands, a three-tower resort on top of which is the Sands SkyPark - a one hectare sky terrace. But of course, being me, I got lost and ended up wandering around for an hour and a half until I found my way. This turned out to be a good thing, however, as I got the chance to explore the less "touristy" part of town. 

Singapore is an interesting place, especially with regard to the languages. While English is the official main language, every other person I turned to spoke something else - Cantonese, Mandarin, Tamil, Malay...This of course means that, me being Asian, everyone assumes I speak Cantonese and Mandarin. While the former is correct, the latter results in some confusing conversations until they realize that I'm not responding in Mandarin. 

The western/British influence is strong - evident in their driving on the left side of the road! Then of course, there's the Lady Gaga and Backstreet Boys playing outside in Chinatown. Although Singaporeans sure know how to one up westerners - turning Burger King from an old fashion fast food restaurant into a "Whopper Bar" - fully stocked with your liquor and burger needs.

After a bit of wandering, I finally caught sight of Marina Bay Sands, rising above the other towers surrounding it. At that point, it was just about walking towards the building.

I took a detour into the Marina Bay luxury mall, an extravagant place for people with deep pockets. One thing I've noticed at all the mall complexes is that there are no places to sit like in American malls. In Singapore, you are there to shop, even if your legs are about to drop. But back to the point, I finally made it up to SkyPark (SGD20). The day was a bit hazy, but take a look at the amazing views.

Up next was Clarke Quay, a bustling area along the Singapore River. It's made up of five blocks of pastel-color painted warehouses that now feature over 50 restaurants/pubs. Take a look.

I made my way back towards Chinatown, but in the process, ended up detouring into several mall complexes, including China Square Central, Chinatown Point, among many others whose names I've forgotten.

The Flight

It started out well Friday morning - getting up at 6 AM after finishing packing at 4 AM to head to the Bolt Bus. The bus arrived in NY just in time for me to catch the 8:09 LIRR to Jamaica and from there to JFK. I was surprised to learn that the first leg of my flight - from JFK to Tokyo - would arrive an hour early! What a pleasant surprise. ANA was the carrier for that leg. I've never heard of or flown with ANA, and so was a bit wary of spending 12 hours on one of its planes. It turned out I had nothing to worry about. The plane's interior appeared relatively new (or very well kept) and the service was better than I could have expected (not once did I see any of the flight attendants or pilots not smile...it was contagious). It was also a big plus that we were able to choose among a selection of movies - most of which were recently released, e.g., Tron, Town, etc. The high res map tracking the plane's flight confirmed that we were indeed chugging along despite the seemingly constant sky outside the window.

Moon, just 30,000 feet closer

12 hours later, we landed in Tokyo an hour earlier as promised.
  

What I saw when I opened the stall at the Tokyo airport.

3 hours later, I was boarded on a United flight (leaving an hour earlier than scheduled due to our early arrival into Tokyo) for Singapore. By this time, I was already jet lagged and dozing in and out. As soon as I sat down in my seat, I was asleep. I woke up when the pilot went on the PA to announce that our takeoff would be delayed 15 minutes because the cargo door wouldn't close...then I dozed off again...only to be awaken by the pilot again saying sorry for the delay but at least "now" we should have enough fuel to get to Singapore (say what!). Once again, I fell asleep and once again, the pilot went on the PA to say sorry for the delay...this time I fell asleep too fast to hear why. We arrived 2 hours late. ANA 1, United 0.

After 24 hours and over 10k miles - Singapore. Here's a pic from the hostel I'm staying at. More to come.

Got an early start...quite early considering I finished packing at 4AM.

6AM Bolt bus
8AM LIRR
9AM JFK

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3 continents. 8 countries. 19 cities.

My round-the-world trip begins today! Check out the map below to see some of the places where I'll be heading. Be sure to come back to my blog for updates and follow me on my journey as I transit across the globe.


View Round-the-world trip in a larger map

It's been a few weeks since the idea of trotting around the globe first came to me. Now that it's only a few days until I begin my hop around the world, I wanted to share a few thoughts/tidbits to anyone who's thinking about their own round-the-world (RTW) trip.

1. It takes a lot more work and time than you think! 
2. Figure out where you want to go. A great way to start is to look at the airline alliances' websites as they have great planning tools to let you know which routes are feasible and which are not for a RTW ticket (to learn more about what RTW tickets are, check out this site). The alliances include oneworld, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam.
3. After you figured out where you want to go, contact a travel agent to confirm your routes or to get ideas on routes. I've found it to be enormously cheaper to buy from third-party travel agents and not from the airline alliances themselves. AirTreks and Air Brokers International are both good places to check out - although I've found AirTreks to be cheaper. AirTreks also includes travel insurance on all its tickets.
4. Just because you have flight tickets doesn't mean you're going anywhere. Check out the State Department's website to figure out whether you'll need a visa for the countries you're heading to, how to get the visas if needed, and how much (believe me, this can eat away at your time/money if you're not careful)!
5. Some folks may want to wait until they land at the airport to figure out where to stay and some may want to plan ahead. Even for the former, it's a good idea to virtually scout a few places ahead of time to get a sense of what's to be expected. TripAdvisor, Agoda, and Hostels.com are a few good places to start.
6. After you've landed, transportation is just as important. Depending on where you're going, taxis won't necessarily be around every corner. Seat61 is an invaluable resource for learning how to travel via train in many regions of the world - e.g., train schedules, how to bypass certain restrictions, etc. 
7. If you're surface traveling within the European Union, then it may be cost effective to purchase an Eurail ticket. Depending on the pass you select, it'll let you travel to basically any country within the EU without having to make a separate purchase each time - at the full price. Be forewarned, for some routes you'll still have to make an advanced reservation and hand over a small fee to do so. To see if the routes you're planning to take require a reservation, check out SCOTTY.
8. It's time for coffee, so to be continued...