Ok, let's get started.

The first few days of my trip were by far the least interesting and least enjoyable days of my trip. Part of it was because I had already been to Singapore and Malaysia before so I didn't really get that feeling you get when you visit new country. There were also a couple of things that happened over the first few days that kind of soured my experience.

I left for my trip with the goal of trying something new every day, so each day I'll try and report on at least one 'first time' experience each day.

DAY 1

- Today was the first time I went through the back door at the airport.
- Today was the first time I really, really, really hated Christmas music.

I woke up at about 6:00 AM in my apartment in Japan. It was very cold and there was lots of snow on the ground. I didn't really want to start so early but I had to got to the immigration office in Sapporo before getting on my domestic transfer (Sapporo to Tokyo) at about 1:00 PM. Japan has this stupid policy where anyone holding a Japan visa has to get a special re-entry permit or their visa will be cancelled when they leave the country, even if they're just going for a short holiday. This means a 3 hour drive to the immigration office and a 3,000 yen fee, and this is particularly annoying as the office is only open Mon-Fri and I have to work Mon-Fri. So, I was left with no choice but to squeeze it in before my trip.

I left my apartment, drove for three hours through a snowstorm, went to the office (where I happened to run into one of my students - a Chinese kid, the only non-Japanese student I have at the moment), got my permit, drove to the airport, put my car into long term parking (which is actually not too expensive if you're staying for more than a week or two), checked in, and had just enough time to enjoy an chicken and avocado bagel before my flight to Narita. The flight to Narita was a first for me. Usually I have to fly to Haneda (the old international airport which is now the main domestic airport) then take a bus or train for the 75min+ transfer to Narita (the main international airport). This time I was booked on one of the few daily direct flights to Narita which are specifically chartered for people on certain international flights. I was able to check in my baggage directly to Singapore, which was a bonus as you can't do that with the Haneda-Narita transfer. The plane from Sapporo to Narita was by far the smallest commercial jet engine plane I had been on. There were only about 30 passengers, I think. When I booked the flight on the internet I chose one of the exit door seats (I like the legroom), but the plane was so small that my exit door turned out to be an exit window, and I had just the same leg room as everyone else.

I arrived in Narita about 2 hours before my flight to Singapore. All the passengers were sent through a special 'back door' exit control instead the main one. It was much faster than the main one.

I wandered around the terminal for a while until my flight departed at around 5:00 PM. The flight was predictably bad. The food was bad. There was no legroom. The movies were all garbage. There was a big argument between the guy sitting next to me and the lady behind him when the guy reclined his seat during the dinner meal. I was hoping to sleep during the flight but I couldn't get any sleep at all.

We arrived in Singapore at 11:55 PM. Not exactly the best time to be arriving somewhere, but it was the only flight available. Predictably, my bag was one of the last to get on the carousel (how exactly do you get your bag on early?). Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, after the success of my 'light bag' attitude to travel when I went to China, I had once againg packed lightly. I had the clothes I was wearing plus one t-shirt, a pair of shorts, 2 pairs of socks and 2 pais of undies and that was pretty much it. When I checked in my bag weighed a new personal record of about 4.5kg, which was great. On the downside, after 3 weeks of travel I was pretty dirty and a little stinky.

I got some cash from the ATM, found a taxi and went off to my hotel. Hotels in Singapore are atrociously expensive. Seeing as I was arriving so late and I was only going to be there for a short sleep, I had booked one of the cheapest available (it was still way, way more expensive than any hotel I stayed at in Malaysia, Vietnam or Cambodia). As the taxi drove through Singapore I was trying to enjoy the feeling of being in a foreign place, but I was having trouble. I was very tired and I just wanted to sleep. Oh, I forgot to mention this. The night before I left I started getting the signs of a cold - runny nose and a sore throat (great timing, eh?). By the time I had reached Singapore there was little doubt, I had a cold.

To make things worse, I had been keeping an eye on the taxi meter as we drove. $10... $10.20... $10.40... Taxis in Singapore a reasonably priced, so it wasn't the cost I was interested in. I was more interested in whether or not I would be able to pay easily with the big notes the ATM had given me. It's not a huge thing, but one of the annoyances of arriving in a new country is that you generally don't have small change. I was sure that big notes would be no problem for Singapore taxi drivers (unlike Cambodia, Vietnam etc., but we'll get to that later...), but I was hoping for some good luck to start the trip. As we got closer, the meter ticked closer and closer to $20 (I had one $20 note and some other bigger ones). $18.80... $19.00... I had given the driver the hotel address, and although the driver found the right street, he wasn't 100% sure where along the street my hotel was. $19.20... $19.40... As we drove along looking for the hotel the meter ticked on and on and I sat there clutching my $20 bill. $19.60... $19.80... Finally I saw it. "There it is", I said to the driver. He pulled over and I checked the meter.

$20.20.

This pretty much sums up the first few days of the trip.

So, I checked into my hotel at about 1:00AM. I have a feeling that it might have been a Singaporean version of a love hotel, as it was in a pretty seedy area and the walls in my room were all mirrored. The bed was ok, but the bathroom was pretty poor (one of those tiny bathroom with neither a bath nor shower, but a hose and shower head and a drain in the floor). I had a quick shower then went to bed. I was exhausted after about 20 hours or travel, I had a cold, and all I wanted was a good 7 or 8 hours of sleep. Unfortunately, I was kept awake most of the night by the Christmas music that was playing at about 1 gazillion DB in the hotel hallway. I usually enjoy Christmas, but I have never hated Christmas more than I did that night. If I had met Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer that night I would have slaughtered him and roasted him on a spit. If I had met the person who wrote Jingle Bells, I would have torn out his tongue and cut off his fingers so he would never create another Christmas song. Uhh...