Eastern promise in Singapore
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
56
93
Trip End
Jun 20, 2009
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Singapore,
Singapore
Sunday, February 1, 2009
strange if you consider that the aromas of most of the cities we've
visited on the trip so far have been a mixture of sewerage, rubbish,
unidentified cooking meats and of course thick traffic fumes! Maybe it
was because we'd just spent the past four months in the so-called
civilization of NZ and Australia, but Singapore to me also smelt exotic
and full of possibilities. It was good to be back on the road again.
First impressions of the place were as I imagined. Urban, orderly, full
of high rises. Our hostel was located near Little India, which along
with the densely populated Singapore in general, gave us a taste of
things to come. The pavements are full of people milling about, at
every hour, every day of the week, eating, buying, selling, talking.
It's like Grafton St at Christmas everywhere. Although it's a bit like
SE Asia or India lite - I imagine things are only going to get busier
and dirtier!
We spent our first full day in the city checking out some of the
typical tourist attractions, which to be honest aren't that many. We
checked out the old colonial haunt Raffles pub (named after the Brit
who laid the foundations of modern day Singapore).The decor was like
stepping back in time to pre-world war II, but the hip hop R & B
crap they had playing in the bar totally ruined the atmosphere. Not to
mention the price they charge for their cocktails.
We stayed in Little India
We both downed aSingapore sling, which is a sickly sweet concoction of cherry brandy,
grenadine and lord knows what else. Our mid afternoon aperatif set us
back a whopping 12 euros each. My advice - buy a mineral water there.
We wandered around malls and oggled the cheap electronics. 175 euro for
the latest canon.
Later that evening we met up with a Dutch couple, John and Simone, who
we met on the Ragamuffin tour in Belize who have been living in
Singapore for the last 3 years. They took us to one of their local
restaurants - they are all pretty similar here; plastic tables and
chairs laid out on the pavement with pictured plastic menus offering
all sorts of Asian fare. It's good and cheap though, as is the beer. It
was nice to reminisce and they were able to fill us in on what
Singapore is like when you're not a tourist. A dictatorship that works
was how they described it. Crime is low here, so much so the government
puts up posters warning citizens and tourists that "Low crime doesn't
mean No crime." Moyross eat your heart out. Property is incredibly
expensive to rent, especially if you are a foreigner, even more so to
buy it. They said although there are many ethnicities in Singapore,
they all are divided into separate communities, and there is very
little interaction between them. Singaporeans love to shop, which is
not hard to believe given how many department stores there are here.
The next day we hit Chinatown, which was resplendent in red lanterns,
streamers and decorations in anticipation of Chinese New Year at the
end of the month. The streets were narrow and lined with stalls on
either side, selling lanterns, meats, clothes, CDs, DVDs, handbags,
belts, perfume...pretty much everything and anything you can imagine.
We met up with John again later that evening for a few more beers,
before saying goodbye to them and Singapore. It was off to Bangkok the
next morning, for the start of our visit to country number 12.
Travellers Tips
We stayed in the Dragon Hostel Inn which was around 28 SGD. The room was windowless and tiny, just enough room for the double bed and that's it. The location wasn't bad though, but not brilliant.
