Beware of falling durians

Trip Start Nov 07, 2005

Trip End Nov 04, 2006

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Flag of Singapore Singapore, Singapore
Sunday, November 20, 2005

Left Bangkok and ventured to Singapore. First time in a new place so was quite excited but my first impressions weren't great. Probably my own fault. For some reason I decided to get the MRT (like tube/subway/metro) from the airport to the station near where I was staying. Why? Cos it was cheap. I didn't factor in that it actually took quite a long while, it was rush hour, and the station wasn't all that close to the hostel I'd booked. Oh and the fact my backpack weighed half my body weight and I'd be squashed between loads of people throughout the journey.
I don't think I'd ever even contemplate getting the tube from Heathrow to home with a backpack in rush hour, so why the hell I thought it would be a good idea in Singapore I really don't know. So 5 hours after my flight landed I arrived at my hostel, partly due to the aforementioned train ride - where I couldn't even have a sip of my water as its illegal - and partly due to me being a bit lazy and waiting for 2 hours for a taxi to the hostel.

Next day me and another girl decided to go exploring to see what Singapore had to offer and it turned out not to be much. It's great for shopping but not a whole lot else. We got one of those hop-on, hop-off buses but we only hopped twice so it was a bit of a waste. The bus driver stopped the bus in some random place and muttered something about the air-conditioning not working then told us he was just going to get it fixed. 5 minutes later along comes another guy and gets into the drivers seat and drives off without doing anything to the air-conditioning.

beware the life-threatening durians

I figured the original bus driver just wanted his lunch break but maybe its illegal to say that in Singapore, along with everything else. The chewing gum and no litter ban is cool though cos it is the cleanest city I've ever seen. Bizarrely though, where you would normally find chewing at the counter in chops in England, in Singapore they have condoms. I just hope no one ever picks them up thinking its gum.

I've got a new found love for sushi now, having been to the coolest sushi bar ever in Singapore where the little plates of food go round on a conveyor belt and you get to pick whatever you want. I know theres loads of places that do that all over the world but its a novelty for me so let me be excited.

By my third day I was getting somewhat bored by the city so I headed up to Bukit Timah nature reserve which was amazing. To find partial rainforest in the middle of a city was great, and to see macaques in the wild was even better. According to signs I had to beware of the falling durians (kind of disgusting fruit) though the only ones I saw were about the size of lemons so I'm not quite sure whether they were some kind of rogue durians that were armed with nunchukas (sp?).

Met up with Amy (of Wildlife Friends of Thailand rescue centre featured in my SE Asia 2003 travelpod fame) and Louis for dinner which was great. It was nice to see a friendly face and reminisce. I can't believe it was two years ago, it seems like yesterday.
Amy and Louis are doing some great animal education work whilst trying to set up Singapore's first rescue/rehab centre - visit WWW.ACRES.ORG.SG

I'd pretty much had enough of Singapore by the day I was due to leave so, sad and pathetic as it may seem, I decided to spend the majority of the day at the airport. Why, you ask? This is no ordinary airport, its got EVERYTHING (within reason) - a swimming pool, gym, movie lounge, countless restaurants & cafes, places to sleep, hairdressers, the works. So I got there at 11am hoping to spend most of the day at the pool and found out I couldn't check my bag in or go through to the goodies area until 2pm. Bugger. And once I got there I had to go to the doctor cos I was feeling poopy and by the time I finally got to the pool it was pretty windy and swarming with kids. Well there were like 4 kids but thats 4 too many for me.

So...Singapore's great if you like to shop and get excited by sushi on conveyor belts. After that I think the magic might wear off.