no tropical island setting and thankfully, no plane crash, either. this is not the hit tv show. it is a jungle, alright. singapore's subway system is, after all, one big cosmopolitan jungle for a first-time tourist.
the group is lost, no doubt about it. in a subway. in a city far away from home. at ten in the evening. you come from a city without a subway system. without trains. sure you have buses plying your busy streets but your bus drivers are not disciplined. they stop wherever they want to stop. you can cross to the other side of the road whenever you want to. that is unheard of in this city you are visiting.
you get off the train. you need to get on a bus that would take you back to your hotel. the bus is on the other side. you are told to use the subway. the group goes down. animated still. make several right and left turns, walk several hundred meters. see a flight of stairs and decide to use that. walk. turn around. walk again. go down again. up again. on ground level once more. you take a moment and heave a big sigh of relief. you explore your surroundings and it hits you. you are back to where you started. tempers a-flaring. nobody is smiling.
BUS INTERCHANGE!!
an hour into all the circuitous wanderings and just when you are ready to give up from exhaustion, you look up and see the sign. the group rejoices!
it would be a few minutes before midnight when you finally get back to your hotel. seeing the light of at the end of the tunnel. make that the light at the end of the subway. isn't that awesome?
Ano ba yan! Nanna, you are a worldly traveler and you could not navigate the subway. Looks as if I need to get there and retrain you! Ha ha, good times, good times! But, I am happy to know you made it on your own (well, sort of) and the trip was not "lost" :)
ReplyDeletethe special tour guide probably helped you: GTZ
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