My flight from San Francisco via Hong Kong landed around noon and I had just short of 7 hours before my connecting flight. I decided to take the Free Singapore Tour from the airport. Indian nationals in transit through Singapore are visa-exempt for 96 hours, provided they hold a valid visa issued for USA. I registered for the 1:30 PM Heritage Tour and it was fully booked soon after. I would not have been able to take the 4:00 PM tour so it was good that I signed up just in time.
The group followed the person in charge as we were led to immigration. The immigration officer checked my visa for the USA and before I could say anything he took a pen and circled the expiration date. I was incensed that he needed to mark my visa for the USA while entering Singapore. The same thing happened to the person behind me in the immigration line, so at least I knew I wasn’t the only one. But unfortunately this incident weighed down on me and I was distraught for the rest of the trip thinking that this guy had ruined my chances of using the visa to enter the USA again. I got into the bus with the others and tried to distract myself but to no avail. We drove out from the airport as our tour guide told us about Singapore’s history. Our first stop was the Queen Elizabeth Walk. We had some time here to walk around and go see the famous Merlion.
There were also great views of the Singapore Flyer, the Helix Bridge and the Benjamin Sheares Bridge. We could also see the Art Science Museum and the Marina Bay Sands across the water.
After spending some time there we got back on the bus and drove past the Little India neighbourhood. It was all decorated for Diwali.
Our next stop was the Sultan Mosque where we got some time to grab something to eat or do some souvenir shopping.
We then boarded the bus and headed back to the airport. All of us also were given a scented candle for Diwali which was a nice touch.
On reaching, I thanked the tour guide and the driver for the tour and headed inside. I would have definitely enjoyed this transit tour if the incident with the visa had not happened but it did and that tainted my first visit to Singapore. I passed through security check and immigration and boarded my flight to Mumbai at 6:55 PM.