After arrival in Singapore, we checked in with the tour desk for our pre-booked tour, and asked them about a small issue we had identified that might cause trouble. namely, Gillian was 3 days over the "6 month validity" on her passport, which was a requirement for entry into Singapore. They told us to check with the immigration officials, who have a "trouble shooting" desk at the automatic immigration gates, but the only way to get in the queue to see them was to attempt entry and get rejected. This would have meant sitting outside the entry and waiting for hours until the tour, so we decided we would just wait and see whether being in transit would be sufficient for them to let us in.
Once the tour group assembled, we all headed to immigration where, sure enough, Gillian was refused entry by the automatic gates. We got diverted to the desk with real people, but were still sitting there when the tour group departed. After finally getting to see someone, they gave us clearance to enter after a very brief discussion, but by that stage it wasn't such an attractive option if it meant having to figure out what we were doing for ourselves - planning fatigue had totally taken over by that stage and we figured that Changi airport had enough attractions to keep us entertained until 2am, when our flight departed.
The end result was that our big trip included just 9 countries (😉), and a very long wait in Changi airport. We checked out the robot bartender, went to the butterfly enclosure, the cactus farm and every shop in the place (some of them twice). We considered the free movie theatre but decided against on the grounds that there was nothing interesting on and the risk of falling asleep and missing our flight was way too high. We had the most expensive glass of beer and glass of wine ever, and found a comfortable seating area where we could ignore each other and watch Netflix until it was time for the flight.
We got on the plane very tired, and managed to nap on the 7.5 hour flight to Sydney. Budget airlines don't provide great seats for sleeping (or any pillows), but the cheap price was adequate compensation. Upon arrival in Sydney we were a little surprised that our boots were deemed clean enough to go through Customs without required disinfecting after numerous jungle hikes. This also meant that we could get an earlier bus back to Canberra, where we were fortunate to find cheese in the fridge and wine in the wine rack. And a comfortable bed for our first night at home in 101 days.
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