And the Blind now SEE.......

We arrived early at the backpackers...There was this random white guy who was outside the entrance (it was locked electronically so we needed someone to let us in from the inside. We eventually got the passcode though). Seeing so many of us he remarked that the inn is full. The Anal Planner (a ridiculous nickname I recently acquired) retorted, "I've already made bookings..." Random white guy duly shut up. (see the advantages of planning ahead, punks??)

Getting inside, the receptionist was a 'nice' chinese girl which took Azmin less than 1 second to start doing his thing on her (no, Azmin never managed to get laid, if that's what you're thinking, There were seven of us, remember? He'll have to wait in line, haha!!)(Ok, most of that caption was untrue, so you decide which part!). We were told that check in was at 12pm, but we could place our luggage at the store. Oh, and we could also cook our own breakfast if we wanted as breakfast was inclusive. In the store were more luggage AND an insane amount of bread (loaves) with Margerine and Jam (No, they're not already ready to eat!)... Oh, did I mention? Inclusive breakfast - only bread with margerine and jam plus your choice of 3 in 1 coffee or tea bags. Anything else, buy yourself. What were you expecting from a Backpacker's Inn??

There were already a bunch of people near the kitchen, so half of us decided to look for our friendly neighbourhood spider...sorry, mamak store and the other half chose to wait and wash their eyes...Actually they waited in line so that they could use the kitchen for a free breakfast, but really, the sight all around.....hmmmm (would have used yum, but after awhile, yum became normal, so maybe not.) I was part of the group that went food hunting elsewhere; the view while nice, doesn't particularly interest me, especially if I'm hungry. So 4 of us ( Brian, Emil, NebNeb & I) went around the block and found something we could call home, a mamak store. A couple of Roti Telur's later, we were well fed. The other 3 (Ahmad, Andy & Azmin) stayed and had their first meal on the Inn.

Returning to the Inn, we were informed that we will be located at another building (the old one) and we have to wait till about 12.30pm before we could see our abodes. With a couple of hours to kill, what do some of us do? Chor Tai Ti! (they stayed off the monies though, I doubt gambling would have been allowed). Fast forward to moving into our rooms/beds, my haste resulted in me choosing the first available room only to have Emil pick up the 'Presidential Suite' of the Inn, a double bed + single bed room with attached bathroom. Myself and Ahmad shared one room (just like 2 years ago) and Emil had to wait for Loco, his roommate. The others moved upstairs where the dorm was and the bathrooms and toilet (there were 2 toilets, but the if you close the outer door toilet, you can't access the inner toilet) were too. (un)Luckily, Emil later complained that the attached bathroom had no hot water (mine had no attached bath, by the way). Once settled and accepted that you get peanuts when you pay peanuts (i.e. SGD 24 per night), we contacted our resident RAW DEAL agent/trader who's Malaysian but working in Singapore, Herman.

Funny thing is, he doesn't know Little India much. So it was quite a task to coordinate meeting up with him since I didn't know Little India myself (now that I've spent a weekend there, I would have little problem moving about). After several phonecalls ( I haven't used the public phones for awhile since I owned a mobile phone...Reminded me of my school days where I'd call my friends with a public phone for hours at one go....) we finally met up and proceeded to have lunch, which was just next door! All of us were too hungry to find anything nicer so Nasi Daun Pisang (I think..) at SGD 3.80 it is!. After lunch, Herman suggested we head to a regular Raw Deal retailer to scout at decks and maybe play in a local tournament. We all agreed and Serene Centre was our next destination.

To get there, however, we had to go on 2 cabs. Little India isn't really a developed area, much like Petaling Street in KL, so we had to walk to a nearby shopping complex to hail our cabs. Now, to think we're in Singapore, were they have laws against chewing gum, you'd think that they'd insist on people hailing cabs at proper taxi stands and not 25 metres away from a bus stop just around the corner of a road. Well, that's where we had to queue in an invisible line to hail our cabs. As if it isn't already apparent that Singaporeans are a kiasu (not willing to lose) lot, this elderly (not that old, around late fifties. Looks frail but physically quite alright) man jumps queue by moving ahead of the (invisible) line and hailed the cab ahead of us, all eight young, big and strong (ok, the strong part maybe a little exagerrated, but the big part applies to a number of us) men. How do you beat that kind of kiasu-ness??

Apart from that mishap, eventually we managed to get on our cabs and Serene Centre is next....But this post has gone a little to long, so to be continued...ok..