What do you do when you're on a Night Train??

Playtest of course!!!!! (OK, in case you didn't notice, this is basically part 3 of the Singapore trip 2007).

Andy, NebNeb & Emil went for the bunkers (i.e. night beds). Me, Azmin, Bryan and Ahmad decided to go el cheapo and pay RM13 less for seats. Bryan and Ahmad were sharing a row, so no issues for them. Azmin happily explained that he had a cute chinese girl as company, who unfortunately alighted well before I could bother to go validate his story. My guess it has something to do with his ability to rest his head on his OWN shoulder and in the process sound like the train. In other words, he has breathing issues while asleep. (Or, he could have been naughty and the girl left him the first chance she got. It was a multiple city stop train, anyway...)

Myself, I had to share with an elderly who was about my size bar the height. Let's just say later that night I took the first opportunity I got to takeover empty seats further behind so as to allow both of us sufficient sleeping area.

Once we settled in (except for me), we proceeded to commune at the cafeteria which is located in the middle of the train. This was where 2 years ago myself and Ahmad went GOLDBerg VS FBI head to head like 7 times throughout the night. This time however, we had backup. Suprisingly there were quite a number of passengers also using the cafeteria. There was a Korean family, several other local families, some groupies and of course, us (who took up 3 out of like 11 tables). Not that we cared, though Azmin and his Diva Victoria may or may not have gotten a stare or two with her, ahem, image. Andy tweaked his Big Freakin' Machine to much more devastating success, while we faced Emil's Ken Kennedy for the first time. Unluckily for KK, my Eugene top-decked a DTTAH (Don't Try This At Home, that's a card, btw..) with a 4 card draw while Mr. PPV just looked for it with my R-V-D. We playtested for a number of hours (we started playtesting about 11pm, I think and only ended about 3am..If my memory serves me right) eventually leaving just myself and Andy still having some attention to continue playing.

Oh, did I mentioned I left my paid seat in search for a cosier seat elsewhere? By about 4am some passengers alighted of and I hostile tookover their seats. Later the officer came over and asked for my ticket again, presumably knowing there shouldn't be anyone in those seats now.

Also, did I mention that this trip was almost cancelled because we had fears over the flood situation? Actually, I was always confident the train lines weren't affected, but this NebNeb was worried sick enough to post (where else but on YFF) and question my insistence on taking the train. Almost made me tell him to sod off, but he is after all the funny looking stranded guy in the VIOS ad (I got it right this time around!!). In any case, either it was too dark (which I believe is the case) or there weren't really any flood at all down south. I had this conspiracy theory that the whole flood thing could be a Wag the Dog plot, you know, the movie which had Dustin Hoffman play a Hollywood producer who helped the US Goverment into cooking up a non-existent war to divert the public attention from the President's misdemeanors? Anyway, a little fast forward, it seems the floods are as real as it gets, so apologies...

The train was suppose to leave KL Sentral at 10.00pm and arrive at 8.20am. Despite leaving late, we actually arrived early in Singapore, which I believe is about 7.30am? Before I close of this post (which doesn't finish off the whole trip story, actually), I should mentioned that Azmin, much like me, needs to get married. That way we cease to become a danger to ourselves while we attempt to get lucky (and I'm not even talking about sex, haha!) You see, while lining up for Singapore Immigration, Azmin spotted the only youthful looking female officer amongst all the boring and old male officers available. So he swiftly moved over to that line, I presume for a closer look. 2 more persons to go, the lady actually changed shifts! So all that waiting almost went to waste, but lo and behold, yet another youthful female officer took over! (though I'm quite sure Azmin would have preferred the earlier one). Not to mention, when it was finally Azmin's turn, that previous officer was still around, hanging out for god knows what! However, Azmin's flirtatious nature got him into some inconvenience when some roaming officer (male, of course!) decides to take interest in his passport and took over. I blame his multiple visits to Indonesia, but I think the truth is he could be hitting on that officer's girl!! Haha!. So after like 10 minutes it was decided they didn't have enough to hold Azmin, so he finally got through Immigration.

As for myself, I had the arse luck of waiting behind some Vietnamese passengers, which I thought would hold up the line, only to move to another line where some Indian family's passport got extra scrutiny, making me having to jump back to my previous line, at a lower queue. (So patience isn't exactly always my virtue, ok!)

Enough about the train and passing thorugh Immigration, on to trying to find our lodging!


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