My Journey to Ministry of Foreign Affairs

It was one of the most painful journeys I had in Singapore. I mean, I did my research before going to the place. It’s located at Tanglin, near the area of embassies. I know that area is not very walking-friendly, but I have been to many embassies before and I thought that all were still bearable. After all, how hard can it be to find a Ministry of Foreign Affairs? It’s a government office and should be more accessible to public.

I still don’t understand where my logic went wrong. It’s indeed a government office, but the place is so… secluded. Never mind the lousy iphone map. I managed to stop at the right bus stop by combining the input from goggle map + street directory + go there.

Yet, it took me 15 mins to walk to the front gate… just to realize that it’s locked. There was a sign asking me to use the entrance at some other road, but the road and direction was nowhere to be found. I walked around the area for 15 mins trying to find the other entrance, but then the gardener spotted me jaywalking and asked me to go back to the first entrance. I told him I can’t find any path there but he insisted that the entrance it there, yet he didn’t want to bring me there. So. Frustated.

The MFA entrance as shown in the website

But... it's closed! T_T And no single soul to ask for the first 15 mins

In the end, another guard came by and showed me the “shortcut”. Of course I missed it. It’s not a proper path. It’s a forest path. “There you go, be careful of snakes on your way”. Its muddy and I was wearing high heels. I believed I did some cursing before deciding to go through it anyway. After what seems to be like endless walk, I finally reached the main road and managed to find the other entrance. I met the guard again and he asked what took me so long =__=’

The walk path to the other gate :s :s

Oh well, at least, I managed to settle what I came for. I finally get to go in and get a stamp, which took less than 1min. I asked them for the nearest bus stop around, and they gave me the direction, which cost me another 25 mins walk. Reached the bus stop, I had to wait for 50 mins for my SMRT 106 to come. Just to give you a hint of how long it was, it’s long enough for rain to come and stop and rain again. I ended up late for my meet up with Cit :(

Thanks for the lesson. Next time, if there is next time, I’m just going to take a cab.
ED