SAFRApore I: Tok Haji Taxi, Pokemon Paradise & Owl Cafe

Normally, when I had to get to the airport, I would make a call to my regular taxi driver. But he has since moved on to the frozen seafood business, I had to look for alternatives. Not wanting to pay RM100 for his MPV airport limo buddies, I decided to try out kliataxilimo.com, whose ad appeared at the top of the list. Wasn't too sure about their service so I tried doing some research on the Low Yat forums. Found nothing. Risking it, I did the booking anyway via the website. Received a confirmation email but no booking number. They were supposed to call me, but they never did. In the back of mind, I had Uber as a plan B. To my surprise, I was only contacted at 3:00 AM on Friday (nearly 7 hours before my booking time) via What's App and e-mail, two days after I made the booking. Once I confirmed, a taxi driver called me at 9:00 AM. Ad hoc arrangements.



My taxi driver arrived at my front door some 10 minutes late. Did not expect him to be the jubah-serban-beard-manliner type. He introduced himself as Isma, which shouldn't have come as any shock to me. He was an amiable and chatty fella.  Our topics ranged from bribery at PUSPAKOM to the Haj pilgrimage balloting. In a resigned voice, he said he was given a slot in 2051 by Tabung Haji and was skeptical the he'd still be alive by then. Sarcastically, he talked about VIPs who made the trip multiple times and cut queues wondering if they would receive Allah's blessings. Although we started late, we arrived at the airport on time.





Check-in didn't take long and we had an hour to spare at Plaza Premium Lounge. This time, we tried the lounge at GATEWAY@KLIA2. In terms of food and cleanliness, it was much better than the lounge at Terminal L. Our flight to Singapore was pretty rocky. Although the seat belt sign had been turned off, I found myself rocking from front to back while pissing. From T1, we took the MRT to Tanah Merah where MoonlighPiggy was waiting for us. Immediately noticed the horrible air quality. Subsequently, we travelled to Paya Lebar where our AirBnB was located. It was located above an old row of shop houses at Tanjong Katong Road. All the doors were secured by access codes with no host. Very self service. Our room was located on the third floor, one of the seven rooms distributed over two floors. Three common bathrooms and a pantry were located on the second floor.





First stop was to visit MoonlightPiggy's mum at Yishun. When I saw the front door, I thought I had arrived at a temple! Very red, very heartland. And I thought the people at Klang were traditional. I was an uninvited guest to dinner. MoonlightPiggy didn't want to tell her lest she cook more than usual, which is usually already too much. Wonder if she suspected who I was. On the dining table was roast duck, sweet and sour fish, broccoli with mock duck, oyster sauce chicken, abacus seeds,  steamed Tofu with minced pork, stir fried eggplant and old cucumber soup. Over dinner, I could see how KH interacted with MoonlighPiggy's mum. He had such a challenging time expressing himself in Mandarin. When dinner was over, we retired to the living room which was heavily decorated with all things symbolic to prosperity and wealth in the Chinese culture. Huat much.







Wasn't long before MoonlightPiggy and KH were itching to catch Pokemon, so we hunting around the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Yishun Pond. But the hotshot was really at the nearby Yishun Park. A whole lotta people were just loitering there catching Pokemon, some on foot, some on bicycles. Even a couple of police officers came along, which I thought were to disperse the 'illegal assembly', but actually to shoo away some illegal hawkers selling drinks and ice cream there.





Once satisfied, we went over to MoonlightPiggy's brand new HDB at Dawson. These new BTO HDBs look like high class condos just that anyone can walk in. MoonlightPiggy's spent a pretty penny on the design and renovations. I nearly choked when I heard the price tag of the Italian coffee table. The end result was a home that looked like an owl-themed Cafe with a very woody feel. Her hubby had a glass-walled study that doubled as a Lego City display. She made us coffee (Owl brand of course) and we stayed around till 9-ish. She brought us up to the sky garden on the 47th floor to look at the hazy city line. Surprised that they decided to mar the design theme with colorful tables and chairs that scream McDonald's.









It had been a long day, but we had one more stop to go-- Tater. Like KH, Tater was in Singapore to run in the SAFRA Army Half Marathon. Earlier in the week, MoonlightPiggy had helped them to pick up the race packs. Took a long cab ride to Intercontinental Hotel, Bugis where we bumped into ZR at the lounge. Spent about half an hour at Tater's hotel room figuring out some logistics for the race day. And Tater passed us some lovely home-baked soft chocolate chip cookies and caramel scones.



Back at the AirBnB, we nearly collapsed on bed without showering. But somehow we found the energy to shower and wash off a day's worth of grime. Although both of us said that we were tired, we still found reserves to skank. Hopefully my moans didn't bother the neighbours. But we didn't care, they were noisy b*tches anyway.