Use It Up!

I've just visited Saigon, Vietnam for the third time and the vacation trip was totally amazing. I met lots of friends (old and new) and made newer ones, including members of Talking With The Tourist – as Cong Vien 23 Thang 9 (23/9 Park) is such a strong magnet for this Chinese Indonesian that I kept going there over and over.

I won't write every experience I had there but, instead, I am going to share a little lesson that I learned from this small part of my life.

February 24, 2016 was a day that I had been waiting for. It had been around two years since I realized I loved this huge city. I woke up around 6:30 in the morning and got prepared. Next, my father took me to the bus station from which we set out to Soekarno-Hatta Airport. I didn't book a direct flight ticket; I had to stop over at Singapore and then continued my journey to Saigon. Everything went well at the airport and I departed from Jakarta to Singapore at about 9:20 a.m. with Tigerair – it is an airline that I trust; I have always flown to Saigon with Tigerair and I have always been satisfied by its service.

I landed in Singapore at probably 11:30 a.m. Jakarta time or 12:30 p.m. Singapore time. Afterwards, I had lunch and, after doing some research on must-visit attractions in Changi Airport, I decided to take some hopefully eye-catching photos. My next flight was at 4:05 p.m. Singapore time and I thought I still had abundant time. What would happen next?

Changi Airport has so many beautiful spots, such as Sunflower Garden and Butterfly Garden, that I wanted to eternalize many moments there. At approximately 3 p.m., after collecting quite a lot of photos, I went to the information desk to ask for information about which gate my flight was set to leave Singapore from. The information lady told me the gate number and warned me to hurry. In response to that, I galloped to the destination gate despite a bit of doubt in my head. What is happening? As soon as I got to the gate, I was welcomed with confusion of the person I was trying to talk with. Then, another man turned up and told me that I had missed my flight – I saw a Tigerair airplane moving away, which was very likely my flight.

I was shocked to the marrow! I'd thought it would be a phenomenal trip but THIS "calamity" happened! As a result of this, I had to book another ticket – I spent more or less 75 USD on the next day's flight. I believe you know that the blunder was caused by me mistaking my cellphone clock time (Jakarta time) for a Singapore time.

So, what am I trying to say through this article? In spite of the horrible stuff, I decided to make this trip fantastic; I didn't want to miss out on great moments I should have in Saigon. I set a positive attitude towards everything and the trip turned out to be WOW!

Make the most of everything. Bad things happen but it is not the end of the world. Keep smiling and "use it up"! :)