Singapore has some great public transportation. I was talking to a taxi driver just last week and he told me that there are over 30,000 taxis on the road at any given time in Singapore. That is a lot of taxis for an Island 15x24 miles.
With that many taxis you would think that it would not be a problem to get somewhere and usually that is the case, however, if you want to go somewhere in the morning say around 8:45..... good luck.
Today we had a doctors appointment, originally the appointment was at 2:00 this afternoon but the office called and changed it to 9:00 this morning. I knew that getting a taxi might be a problem. We could not take the bus because my son just had surgery on his foot and this time of day your foot will get stepped on on the bus.
I was short on cash becauseI have to pay my grocery bill for the month. The plan was to take a taxi to the doctor, take a taxi home to drop off my son then take a taxi to go and get some cash.
Getting to the doctor was no easy feat. I booked a taxi with my I phone app and it was taking a long time to process this is never a good sign. Sure enough I got a message saying there are no taxis available try back in ten minutes. I then called a different taxi company and after waiting got the same message, there are not taxis available. All of this calling has now taken me 20 minutes; we for sure are going to be late to our appointment.
I decided to call the doctor and just tell them we needed to reschedule because I cannot get a taxi, they said "oh no problem, just come when you can, this happens all the time, we will see you later." Ok so we kept calling and in 15 minutes had a booking confirmation.
As we were waiting for the elevator to go and meet our taxi my phone rang. It was the taxi driver he was wondering where we lived. I told him, then I told him again and then again to which he replied "ok ok ok" and then hung up. Uh oh we are not sure now if the taxi will come or not. Our only choice is to head out into the sun and wait for him. Luckily he did end up coming after about 12 minutes.
As you can imagine we are now really late for our doctor appointment but I don't feel stressed over that because they told us it was ok.
We enter the taxi to find that we were lucky enough to get a "stinky taxi" and a very negative talking aggressive driving taxi driver.
Traffic was horrible so our normal five minute ride took 17 minutes and due to the time of day and traffic our normal $6.00 taxi fare was $12.00.
Whew. All of this just too simply go to the doctor. Some days it can get very frustrating to try and get anything done as nothing seems as simple as it should be.
We really miss the freedom of our car, the ability to go to stores that have what we need when we need it and people who understand you and what you are saying.
So when you get in your car this week and head out to Target be grateful that you will be able to get done what you have set out to do.
We are very grateful for the opportunity to live here in Singapore and it has been a very positive experience for our family but we want to keep this blog real and really there are some frustrating days.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
A Lesson In Civics...Whoes Embassy Is It?
We live a mere ten minutes from the U.S. Embassy here in Singapore, this is an obvious field trip choice for any home school family. We have studied our government many times over the years and wanted to learn first hand what an embassy can do for it's citizens.
Boy did we ever get a lesson in U.S. Government over seas but not the lesson we expected and certainly not a lesson we are in any way pleased with.
We took a taxi as our embassy does not have parking available. Upon exiting the taxi you are met by two smiling but very much not American guards that speak ok English if you listen closely.
I explained that we were citizens and we are here to see our embassy. Do you have passport business they asked, no we said. Do you have an appointment? No.
We before going to the embassy looked on the web site and did see that for citizen services we need an appointment but we simply wanted to go into the lobby, we were not even asking for a tour, just simply to enter OUR embassy.
The guard gave us a phone number and said we needed to call and get permission to enter. So I took out my cell phone, called the number, got another foreign person this time with poor English skills and after each of us repeating ourselves several times to understand what was being said she told me that we are citizens and we can just enter the embassy directly.
Ok, this is what I thought, it is our right as citizens of The United States to enter our embassy.
We went back to the guards by the door and told them of our conversation and she said ok, you may enter.
Upon entering you are met with a picture of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton along with more foreign workers and the security scanner.
We were all set, passports out, all phones, bracelets watches removed.....and then they looked at Keegan's insulin pump. They have no clue what it is, remember foreign workers at my embassy who don't speak great English, how frustrating to try and explain he needs it because it is giving him medication.
One guard understood and said it is no problem we just need the supervisors ok and because you are citizens you may enter after we get clearance please step aside and wait. Ok no problem we appreciate that there is good security so we don't see this as any big deal.
We wait, and wait, finally I said, excuse me, someone is coming to clear us right, then the phone rings and the guard from outside comes in and tells us that we do not have an appointment so we may not enter the embassy at all. WHAT?!?!
She then says who did you talk to on the phone did you get her name, I said of course I could not get her name she did not speak good English. But she took our passport numbers and birth dates and e-mail address, put us on hold, then told us that we are citizens so it is not a problem we can just go into OUR embassy. To this the foreign guard said I am sorry mam but you can not go in. You have to call the number and then be escorted by an American into the embassy. So there must be Americans in there somewhere?
There you have it your tax dollars paying foreign workers at our government facilities to not communicate so well with U.S. Citizens.
Like I said we learned a lesson in civics today and now pray we never truly need our embassy because really I have no confidence that they know what they are doing over there. So frustrating, whose embassy is it anyway?
Boy did we ever get a lesson in U.S. Government over seas but not the lesson we expected and certainly not a lesson we are in any way pleased with.
We took a taxi as our embassy does not have parking available. Upon exiting the taxi you are met by two smiling but very much not American guards that speak ok English if you listen closely.
I explained that we were citizens and we are here to see our embassy. Do you have passport business they asked, no we said. Do you have an appointment? No.
We before going to the embassy looked on the web site and did see that for citizen services we need an appointment but we simply wanted to go into the lobby, we were not even asking for a tour, just simply to enter OUR embassy.
The guard gave us a phone number and said we needed to call and get permission to enter. So I took out my cell phone, called the number, got another foreign person this time with poor English skills and after each of us repeating ourselves several times to understand what was being said she told me that we are citizens and we can just enter the embassy directly.
Ok, this is what I thought, it is our right as citizens of The United States to enter our embassy.
We went back to the guards by the door and told them of our conversation and she said ok, you may enter.
Upon entering you are met with a picture of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton along with more foreign workers and the security scanner.
We were all set, passports out, all phones, bracelets watches removed.....and then they looked at Keegan's insulin pump. They have no clue what it is, remember foreign workers at my embassy who don't speak great English, how frustrating to try and explain he needs it because it is giving him medication.
One guard understood and said it is no problem we just need the supervisors ok and because you are citizens you may enter after we get clearance please step aside and wait. Ok no problem we appreciate that there is good security so we don't see this as any big deal.
We wait, and wait, finally I said, excuse me, someone is coming to clear us right, then the phone rings and the guard from outside comes in and tells us that we do not have an appointment so we may not enter the embassy at all. WHAT?!?!
She then says who did you talk to on the phone did you get her name, I said of course I could not get her name she did not speak good English. But she took our passport numbers and birth dates and e-mail address, put us on hold, then told us that we are citizens so it is not a problem we can just go into OUR embassy. To this the foreign guard said I am sorry mam but you can not go in. You have to call the number and then be escorted by an American into the embassy. So there must be Americans in there somewhere?
There you have it your tax dollars paying foreign workers at our government facilities to not communicate so well with U.S. Citizens.
Like I said we learned a lesson in civics today and now pray we never truly need our embassy because really I have no confidence that they know what they are doing over there. So frustrating, whose embassy is it anyway?
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