Changi Airport, Singapore

OK. I'm using the free internet access (thank you Samsung) provided here at the airport to update my blog and to try to find a flight from Chennai to Delhi. It looks like I'm not going to be able to book a flight until I get to the airport in Chennai because you can't use any website that I've seen to book a flight in less than 24 hours. That sucks. And it will probably be expensive at the last minute. Maybe a train is the way to go?

My Indian visa is fucked up. Actually, everything about the Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur is fucked up. I tried to start the process on the 3rd (what was to be my last day in Kuala Lumpur) but arrived one passport-sized photo short and 20 minutes prior to closing time (it turns out closing time is noon). The only place to get my picture taken was a 10-minute cab ride away, so I gave up. The next day I got there with my forms in order and the right number of photos (it's 3 by the way, unlike every other visa I've gotten so far) so everything went a little smoother. I received a receipt for the 40 MYR processing fee I paid and on this receipt it said that I could return at 4:30pm but failed to say which day or to do what. I asked the guy behind the counter and he said next Tuesday I could return and I assumed that meant to pick up my visa. I DID NOT give him my passport. This is important.

After that I took off on a jaunt through the countryside. I visited the tea plantations of Cameron Highlands and saw the oldest rainforest in the world (including its tapir, crocodiles, monitor lizards, enormous spiders, and leeches) at Taman Negara. I returned on Tuesday at 4:30pm to pick up my visa. The woman behind the counter took one look at me and said "and how are we supposed to give you your visa when you have your passport in your hand?" An excellent question. One that had escaped me. I told her I had no idea and I had assumed that the visa would be placed in my passport when I arrived today. She said that I had to give her my passport and then return the following day at 4:30 to pick it up. This was annoying because I had already paid $150 for my 6:50am flight from Singapore. "Why on earth did you not take my passport the first time I was here?" We fell into arguing and I learned that they have a weird protocol where they can't hold any foreigners' passport for more than 24 hours so to get a visa is a 3-step process. None of this was explained to me on the first day I was there, despite their insistence on the opposite.

I lost my temper but got them to promise to rush it the following day so I could catch my flight (it leaves in an hour and 20 minutes by the way). I got the visa at noon and paid an additional 228 ringgit, pocketed my passport, and hurried to the bus station. It was in the cab on the way there that I realized it was fucked up. They marked down 'single entry' instead of 'mulitple entries' which is what I need. I'm meeting Luke in Delhi and we're leaving India to see Nepal first. Then we'll return to India and he'll fly home mid-May. Without a multiple-entry visa I'll need to reapply all over again in Kathmandu and then pay again as well. This all sounds very annoying and I'd like to avoid it. When I land in India in 4 and a half hours I'll try to get some help in straightening it out. I'm hopeful.

Oh yeah, and I'll try to buy a plane ticket while I'm there. Has anyone that reads this blog ever done that? Who just shows up at an airport looking for a flight?