Sparkly Smiles: YourSingapore! (Day 1)

To those of you who don't know this yet, I received the President's Scholarship after getting 1st place in A'level National Top Ten, which means the government will sponsor me to study ANYTHING I want, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME I want! I chose Australia as it has been my dream to study there, since I was 15! ;)

So as part of my attempt to get placement from Australian Universities, I had to sit UMAT (Undergraduate Medicine and health sciences Admission Test).

The closest test centre to Maldives was Singapore and therefore, Scholarship Division arranged for me to go to Singapore on 24th July 2012, returning on 27th July 2012. Here is a brief account of what happened. (Sadly, my camera in which I had all the memories of my trip to Singapore was lost in a cab on the day of departure. It was so heart-breaking not to have any pictures of all the great places I went and all the fun I had. I have included some "Googled" pictures here and I humbly apologise that I couldn't upload the real pictures!)

The uncle who I love the most, Thuhthu, took me to the airport on 23rd July 2012 at 18.15. It was Ramzan time and we broke our fast on the ferry, sharing some short eats and pineapple juice.

Image Credits

He waved me goodbye at the then GMR IbrahimNasir International Airport's International Terminal. I went and checked in at the counter and cleared Emigrations just in time for the opening of Boarding.

Image Credits

Since I was all alone, I entertained myself by observing the people around me. As far as I could see, almost all the passengers were Chinese or of similar race. I was particularly enthralled by two Chinese children (about 4 and 6, if I had to hazard a guess at their ages) who were running around the place, having so much fun. Seeing their joyous laughter made me laugh myself. Even though I spent two hours before finally boarding the plane to Colombo, Sri Lanka (My flight was transiting in Lanka), I never even felt the time fly by because I was spell-bound by the magic of the children having the time of their lives at the end of their vacation before finally going back home.

From London Tour

Once in the plane, I tried to sleep, but I couldn't! I was too pumped up with adrenaline at the prospect of going to Singapore, the place I've heard so much about. I could hardly wait to see for myself the greenery of the Island-country and the well known super efficiency that it boasts.

From London Tour

When I landed in Sri Lanka, I was already late for my check-in for the Air Lanka flight to Singapore. I rushed through the formalities and hurried to the boarding gate. The transit went on smoothly except for the small hiccup that was the Airport personnel telling me that the flight I was supposed to be on was booked full and that I had no seats for it. I was so anxious, but there was nobody I knew there, I was all alone. I was really scared and was at a total loss as what to do next. I went to another guy and told him about the mistake, showing him my ticket.

Image credits

After a tense 10 minutes, he gave me my boarding pass and told me that it was indeed a mistake and that I was all clear to go board my plane. I was so relieved that I literally ran to the boarding gate. I had just 5 minutes left to reach there. Luckily, there was a slight delay with the procedures (probably due to the plane being fully booked) so I wasn't THAT late. In fact, I had to wait there for about 15 minutes as well.
Again I took to observing the people around me and guessing where they might be coming from. I couldn't see any Singaporeans (it would have been totally cool to get a new friend so that he/she can help me once I actually get there ;) ). But I did recognise some Indians- no, they were probably Pakistani. Their skin tones gave them away.

I also spied a European kid of about 12 and a man who I at first thought to be his father, who I later figured must be his brother, by their interactions with each other. I was of course being cautious not to let them catch me staring at them ,trying to find out anything that would indicate their home country! :D
And then it was finally time to board the plane to Singapore! I was just so very excited and could barely contain my elation.

At first, I was seated next to a Singaporean. But then, this dude from Lanka asked him to switch seats so he could sit with his friends. So I ended up sitting next to them. The guy next to me was quite nice. My headphone was broken, so he lent me his, insisting that he wouldn't need it any way as he would sleep the whole way. I spent the whole night watching movies and it was 0545 on 24th July when we finally landed in the beautiful Changi Airport of Singapore. Every inch of the airport was stunningly green, with a uniqueness to it, the likes of which I have seen only in pictures. I roamed around the airport before clearing Immigration, snapping pictures of the beauty around me.

I end the post of Day 1 in Singapore with these beautiful pictures to soothe your minds! Hope you'd wait around to find out about the rest of my journey, after I landed in Singapore! xD