so after my morning routine of sending out online applications, i went to out to go to Lucky Plaza. i was quite confident because i know that all i need to do is board bus #65 at the bus stop in front of the st. therese convent. going there was a breeze since the stop where im going to alight was just in front of the mall.
lesson #3: never trust a fellow filipino because some of them will still rip you off wherever in the world they are.
i went to the basement first to look for a reliable money changer. almost forgot that in singapore all of th money changers here are legit. they even have the digital screen that shows the exchange rates of different currencies that i normally see in sm forex counters
as i was not able to check online what the globe kababayan sim looks like, i went around the shops first to ask how much the sim was. my friends told me that it sells for around $18. most of the shops at the 1st & 2nd levels sold it for $20. so i went up to the 3rd level where most of the filipino shops sold it for $25 waaaaaaa. so i went back to the 2nd level. there i found a singaporean uncle who asked me "ano hanap?" with really cute chinese accent. he was really friendly and looked like he really wanted to help. so i asked him how much a globe kababayan sim costs. he sold it for $20 as well and he even explained that the load or top up as they call it here is also $20. i went ahead and bought the sim from him which he then gave to his assistant who is a filipina. to my surprise she asked for my passport, uncle then explained to me that prepaid sims are registered here in singapore. so i gave her my passport, she entered all the necessary details. it took a while for the registration to push thru. she said that it normally takes just a few minutes, mine took about 15 - 20 mins. so she cancelled the transaction and repeated the registration. this time the registration was completed. everything seems to be fine, until we tried making an outgoing call. i can receive & send sms and receive phone calls but whenever we try doing an outgoing call an error message: check caller id sending service appears. the filipina auntie told me that it was because my fone was from the philippines and that it was locked to a certain network. so i needed to buy a new fone in sg. just i explained to here that it was not the case since my fone is open to all networks and that if it were the case no signal would appear and we will not be able to use the sim for sms or incoming calls. so the uncle called customer service on my behalf. unfortunately i have to bring it to the nearest singtel shop so that they could take a look at it and see what the problem is. it took us around 2 hrs until i finally decided to just go to the shop the next day. uncle was really nice while we were waiting for the reps that were helping us out, he constantly told me "don't fret, everything will be fine." before i left uncle was telling me to pay for service charges because he did a lot for me, when i asked him how much it was, he said $10. i told him that i don't have anymore money. he then smiled and told me to just buy him halo2 from the filipino eatery just a few shops away. i asked him how much it was, he said $2. i said ok and he told me to buy 2 but when i was about to leave he laughed and said that one was enough. when i came back i told him that i bought him the special kind, the with with ice cream on top, which was for $3, he laughed out loud and told me "you're very kind u know, very mabait." but i think is the one who was very kind because he actually gave the halo2 to his assistant. i would have protested because she was not able to help me out nor was willing to extend her help. but i just went away and txted uncle "thank you so much 4 ur help uncle" to which he sent me a smiley as his reply.
so off i went around the 3 malls interconnected by an underpass. i was enjoying the experience and was texting my family & friends in the philippines. since i was indoors and was having a blast, i lost track of the time. i just noticed that it was already late, when ate amy txted me. so i rushed towards nearest exit to know which mall i was in. waaaaaa i got confused. where was that bus stop again???
the bus stop that i should go to is at the back of wisma atria, but since i can't find my way thru the underpass i decided to just board the bus at the stop where i alighted earlier. since sg is such a small country, i guess it would still pass by the convent in no time. but guess what, what should have been a 10 min trip home, lasted for about an hour & a half because the route that i took went back to the central bus station in tampines where i took another bus #65 going the opposite route
. good thing edwin gave me a bus & a street directory of sg earlier. i used it as my guide if i was near my bus stop or not. fortunately the transportation system here in sg is very organized and as long as u know the bus #s and the bus station where you would alight, you're safe. it was only then that i found out that the area where i will alight is called lower delta and not telok blangah hehehe. by 11:30pm i was safe at home.lesson #4: experience is the best teacher
although i got lost, i was still very proud of the experience because i was able to have a grand tour of the tampines, harbour view area hahaha and was able to understand how to use the directories that were given to me. along with the appreciation of how beautiful this country is.
9 comments:
Post a Comment