Getting lost!

Today, instead of uni I had to visit MoM (or Ministry of Manpower as they say), to get a temporary stay pass. Although in the instruction I had printed out gave directions it was all very confusing to follow. But I had seen the MoM building on Sunday, so I walked confidently toward it and went inside when the guard outside says I need to ‘take left and yadayadyada’ gesturing. And so I do follow, except I must have taken a couple of wrong turns and I ended up in some random residential area.

It was scary – yes, especially as it was 10.50 am and my appointment was for 11am. The panic must have shown in my face as I walked up and down the streets after a which a young man asked if I was lost. Thanking inwardly for his decent English, he told me it’s best I hail a taxi and helped me get one. And this taxi driver was obviously amused by my state and told me not to worry and that it’s a circular ring road of some sorts and takes me there. On time, thank goodness.

The talk with the ministry people went perfectly fine, except for the fact that I had to take my passport sized photos again, since the ones I had taken weren’t the correct format. After paying, I sighed with relief.

It was quite a surprise that as I exited the building I found that it was practically a minute away from the MRT station where I had got off and took some crazy detours. With this landmarked in my head, I explored Clarke Quay during the day which is not colourful, nor very interesting.

I headed off to eat at that same Indian restaurant not because I was craving for home food (mind you, I have an adventurous palate) but because I could shell out only 2$ for a good filling meal(my breakfast was sparse).

I decided to spend the rest of the day wandering and got off the China Town MRT station and decided to spend time looking around and exploring. The MRT station itself was quite distinctly Chinese-ified and I headed out of it to see the whole area very ethnic. The architecture seems to have mixed elements, though mostly chinese. There was also a store for Chinese medicine! I looked around, pushed through crowds thronging the market area, looked through malls (and found some odd gadgets which I had no clue what they were for). I also came across a story selling pretty silk painted bookmarks that were also, understandable expensive.

 That was my day today. Tomorrow onwards, it’s a routine of going to the lab.

Here’s a picture of an overhead walkway at Chinatown:

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