A familar sign...

After 2 hours, I was so dead tired, hungry and frightened that I actually fell asleep until someone came right in front of me holding a piece of paper with my name on it. He tapped me on my shoulders and asked me, "Are you Li Jing?".

"Yes", I answered, still a bit teary eyed
"OK Good, follow me!". No emotions, no apology for being 2+hours late...

I wanted to ask him why he was late but I felt this wasn't the most appropriate moment. Afterall, I was also glad that someone finally came. I'd rather he be late than I be stranded.

"Are you my Agent?"
"No, I work for them". He was obviously in no mood to talk as it was already close to midnight. I bet he was longing for home too.

"Where are you taking me to?"
"To your accomodation"
"Where is this?"
"Joo Chiat" although I haven't the faintest idea where that was.

After about 15 mins in the car, I dozed off again... until I heard the car stopped and nudge me.
"Follow me"

He opened the car boot and unloaded my suitcase and handcarry bag... but did not help me with them. I had to pull them across the rocky path. My room was on the third floor and there were no elevator, so I had to pull up my luggage. With my tummy grumbling and growling, I stopped at the second flight of steps and finally gave in.

"Can you help me with this?"

He reluctantly walked the few steps down to help me with my luggage.
When we reached the third storey, he opened it with a key. There were still 3 bare bodied men playing cards and drinking beer in hall. Peanut shells were strewn all over the floor. They looked up but did not speak a word. The place looked kind of untidy but he motioned me to the second room where he again turned on the lights. Someone stirred and I could see that there were 4 double decker beds (capable of sleeping eight people), and 5 girls were already asleep. She showed me to my bunk which was the lower one (thank goodness, I did not think that I had the strength to climb to the higher one!). But I almost cried... we are poor and our accommodations are not that clean in China but I've never slept in a room with 8 others! Anyway, all I wanted was to get some sleep.

Once we were done with the bunk, he showed me where the toilets and kitchen were. The floor was rather filthy and sticky on my bare feet.

He told me that he will be back to get me the next morning and pass the set of keys he used to me. I had to go for a medical check-up and finalize some other documents. That night was the worst night of my life. I was completely lost. I did not even dare to shower and went to rest after changing to a T-shirt. I sobbed myself to sleep that night!