Karmic Debt

I wound up transiting through SIN overnight to get to HKG today. Normally it works like this:
Fly SQ1 from SFO-HKG-SIN, stopping over in HKG and continuing on to SIN a few days later.
However, SQ1 was sold out so I wound up on SQ15 which leaves SFO at 1245 and arrives at SIN two days later at 0100! Technically it’s “two” days later since we arrived after midnight…
Anyway, my original plan was to stay overnight at Changi Airport’s Transit Hotel then head into town via MRT in the morning. I really had a craving for kaya toast and sock coffee. Still do.
Sounds easy and stress free, right? This is me, remember?? Don’t count on it.
First off, the Transit Hotel was sold out. Period. Second, there’s not a lot of moderate (>US$100) lodging in Singapore. Basically, Singapore lodging works like this: There’s a lot of hostels then boutique hotels and then the big ass fancy awesome get laid hotels that costs as much as your air ticket.
For that bracket inbetween the hostels and boutique hotels are a couple of local no-frills hotel chains: Fragrance and Hotel 81. They’re spread all about the island but their critical mass is in Geylang where you can check in at 0200 and get a single room to crash in.
Besides the odd traveler, these Geylang hotels also attract working girls and their johns for *ahem* business. Not necessarily the *business traveler* type! If you tell your Singapore frens that you stayed in Geylang, be prepared for lots of jokes about “cleaning up”. AHEM…
Anyway when I took the taxi last night to get to the hotel, I inadvertently left my handphone in the cab. I realized this after I checked into the hotel and promptly went into panic mode.
I panic VERY WELL. I asked the hotel clerk to ring my phone for an hour straight.
Anyway, there’s a happy ending to the story when my phone was recovered by the cab driver and turned in to his office. Apparently, when my phone started to ring on the back seat, the cab driver heard it and kept it with him. If he picked up another passenger and the phone was just sitting there the chances that my phone would have walked off were high. Really high. How high? Well, answer this question: Do I like EQMs? Yes? Well that’s how certain my phone would have walked away but for the driver rescuing my phone. I collected it on my way out to Changi Airport for my flight to HKG.
So I just emptied my karma pot for this trip. Best try to refill it on this trip…