Hi Steemians! I'm back! Your official travel buddy. Lol! Anyways, I was about to write the continuation of my Ilocos trip but I decided to keep you hanging for the mean time.

I will be blogging about my first trip abroad. YES! Out of the country it is! My first travel was a memorable one because I did not just visit one country but three countries. YES! I'm not kidding! I'm Darwin! Lol! Actually, my destination was in Bangkok, Thailand but we had a layover in Singapore going there and in Malaysia going back to the Philippines. I couldn't imagine I got this chance roaming to three different countries with different cultures in one amazing trip. I know it will be tedious in my part if I write my whole adventure here. I will just tell a few here especially my first encounter with the immigration.

They say it's scary going out of the country especially if it's your first time. Not because of the long hour plane trip but because of the possibility that you could be offloaded from the plane. Yes! You heard it right. You can be removed out of the aircraft even you have all the proper documents with you. Others were disallowed to board the plane. Do you know who these people are? They are the immigration officers. No one could go out of the country without meeting these people. They are the ones who will check your passport, your hotel booking, your plane tickets. They will ask you some questions regarding your trip. I will be listing some of my observations and tips on how to meet these people.

1. Don't be late. You should be at the airport 4 hours before your scheduled flight.
2. You should bring all the necessary documents especially passport obviously, your plane tickets, your hotel booking, valid IDs and yourself. 
3. Greet them nicely as if you're greeting a friend. 
4. Answer their questions properly with confidence. Don't lie. They can sense that. 

Sometimes, they will need a valid ID to support all your documents. During my time, they asked me about my job. I said that I am an engineer but currently teaching in a university so I presented my PRC license and my faculty ID. Then they asked me the purpose of going to Thailand. I answered them I am going for a convention. One thing, it is best to go with a group rather than going solo. They will no longer scrutinize you especially if you're last in the immigration area. Hahaha... It's better to have someone in the group who I think is not shy or has confidence. And luckily we have one. So we let her do the first chitchat with the immigration officer. It took them a couple of minutes about 10 minutes I guess. So when my time came, it was just short following a last question, Are you going with them? (pointing to my peers who were ahead of me) Obviously, I said yes. And that's it my official stamp mark in my passport. That was a bit scary. But for solo travelers, you don't have to worry. Just bring all the things you need and answer their queries as truthful as possible. And for my final tip, just enjoy every place you'll visit. :)

By the way, before we went to Thailand we had a 5 hour layover in Singapore. Thanks to Scoot for a nice ride. We departed Cebu at around 1 PM and after almost 4 hours in the air, we finally arrived in Singapore, the gateway to the world. I was in awe when I saw their airport. It was beautiful. Sad to say, far from our international airports. When we arrived at the Immigration Area, we were informed that we couldn't do a quick tour of the city. A 5-hour layover is not advisable for transient passengers. We felt sad. I thought I could get a photo with the Merlion and the Marina Bay Sands. Anyways, what we did was we just toured the airport and took dinner in Kopitiam, a local canteen just outside the airport.



![SINGAPORE1.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSLXUsYrCK96XMPFTGmvBkFhnXhW3Z9T3QWaP2u7PWzRg/SINGAPORE1.jpg)
My first plane ticket outside Philippines. Hehe..

![SINGAPORE8.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmY5yVBHSU6cVc1mXvNNH5JLk4oVoCmgBAYtfYHezcQDuX/SINGAPORE8.jpg)
I just took this photo on our way to the Immigration. They have an amazing airport and a hallway covered in carpets.

![SINGAPORE5.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmdFn1TqHSZASCaNFEiPwnqZL1ZWs75ur47DCX6jB62WVG/SINGAPORE5.jpg)
This was my dinner in Kopitiam. Sad to sorry I forgot the name of this food. It costs about 4 SGD or around P150. 1 SGD  = P37. Their food are somewhat expensive. The soya milk costs 1 SGD.

![SINGAPORE7.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmR1ALQjB9UfWueNQEDXhQ4VT2Hr9Tg63SSmmNfnrg7PaY/SINGAPORE7.jpg)
At least I saw the Merlion in this photo. Hehe..

![SINGAPORE2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXXtXRLMi4ndy7p6H9evt9i7iDnni2EQhfPdyRDFU3oZp/SINGAPORE2.jpg)

![SINGAPORE3.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYX8nmweGjZChFce84t8KHwm9haMWY5LSgLBHdinacdDt/SINGAPORE3.jpg)
These were my travel buddies in Thailand.

That's it for now! I hope you learned something from this blog. 

This is DarwinTheExplorer and see you in my next travel adventure.