|
  | |  |
Singapore
Entry 37 of 39 | show all | print this entry |
Hey everyone,
Ok, I've been so slack it's unreal - I actually wrote this ages ago and just didn't get this on the net - doh.
Well, I'm back in a country that speaks English, well sort of! Singapore is officially bilingual - English and Chinese, but most people actually speak a completely different language as their 1st language, be it Indian, Malay, or something else, so, not really back in a "normal" country yet!!
I arrived in Singapore and it was even hotter than Hong Kong, great, not sure if my body can cope with more heat. I decided to get the underground to the hostel, which involved a 10-15min walk from the station - might be difficult with all my bags when the temperature is only 12degrees, but when it's way over 30, I was struggling, plus to top it off, just before I got to the hostel, they had a tropical down pour - so I got drenched - fantastic!!
The girl at the hostel was Indian, and I had so much trouble understanding their accent - take me back to China it's far easier to understand! But, the hostel was amazingly helpful, they even made you take your shoes off before you went upstairs - very homely. I decided to get going as I only had 2 ½ days here, so as it was getting towards evening, I decided to go to Raffels hotel and indulge myself in a Singapore Sling cocktail. Very nice and it was so good to be able to have a spirit without having to buy the whole bottle! In Singapore was when the culture shock really started to hit home. First of all, the cars travel on the same side of the road as they do in England - opposite to China, so I almost got myself killed on a couple of occasions - oops. Then, I was crossing the road and there was a car coming on the far side of the road, so I started to strole out to let the car pass, then I was going to cross the 2nd half, but as soon as I stepped into the road the car braked suddenly (I was still ½ a road away) and motioned to me to cross in front, what's that all about?? Really have to get used to cars stopping for people again. Plus here the green man actually means people can cross the road and no cars can go.
Another thing I had forgotten is how to order food in a restaurant, in China you just shout the waiter/ess over, I think it's rude, but having done it for the last 9months, I was struggling to remember how you actually got the attention of a waiter/ess without shouting. Aarg, I really can't believe how different China is to the rest of the world that I've seen. I think I have had much more of a culture shock leaving than I had going. Plus, how expensive is the rest of the world - everyone should have China prices!
Anyways, on with Singapore. I supped my Singapore sling, then went for a walk down to the merlion, it's supposed to be a mermaid crossed with a lion, kinda weird, but they have them everywhere here. I then walked back past the parliament buildings - really nice architecture and the cricket club - whoo!! I tried some local bean curd, I must say Chinese bean curd was better. I was completely pooped after my long days travel, so hit the hay early.
The next day I decided to have a walk down to ?????lookout and catch the cable car over to Sentosa Island. Again the weather was extremely hot, the walk up the hill to the lookout was very good, but I think I smelt quite bad after!!!! The view was pretty cool, you could see pretty far to lots of the islands around Singapore. I jumped on the cable car and headed over to the island. I walked around the island and decided I wanted to see the dolphins, but you also got the aquarium in the ticket price - really not worth doing, but the dolphins show was really good and people even got to go in the water to stroke (if you can stroke a dolphin) and kiss them, if I hadn't been a good ½ hour from my hostel and not wearing a skirt and having no towel, I would have volunteered myself to go in, but I decided I wasn't dressed appropriately. Instead I decided to go for a paddle in the sea and get my feet wet - it was really nice to walk in the warm sea and on the beach. I had to be back by 4pm to catch my lift to the night safari, here I met a crazy Tawianese guy and a couple of American guys who were pretty funny. We watched a show and it wasn't the best weather, so the animals weren't always behaving, but we were on the front row and one of the leopards (Shaddow) decided not to perform like he was supposed to and just ate grass right in front of us for about 10mins - was amazing. The Tawianese guy was really like a little kid and when we were walking round the park, whenever he heard something he would run really fast to find it and if he couldn't find it, he'd come back and be like "hey guys, where's the lion, I can hear it, where is it??". Was very amuzing. You also got a tram ride around the park and could see lots of nocturnal animals, it was about 8.30pm at this point, so was dark, and all the nocturnal animals were out playing. But, you were not allowed to use a flash, so I'm afraid the photos were pretty poor.
Again, for some reason I was tired, so I had another early night, and checked out the next morning. I had a couple of hours to kill before going to the airport, so I decided to check out the shopping, if only I had some money............I would have spent a fortune. The shops were really good, and a lot of them, plus I found some markets - more my budget, but still, I didn't want to carry anymore. I also made a visit to Mustaffas - a 24hour shopping mall - it was surreal, an Indian shopping mall, with lots of things reduced, some really good bargins if you're heading home from here and not going on doing more travelling.
Again I decided to get the underground back to the airport - another sweaty walk to get to the station, but think of the pennies I'm saving on a taxi. They actually have a budget terminal at Singapore airport where all the cheap airlines fly in and out of - the only place I've ever been with its own budget terminal.
My flight left at about 8pm, but arrived in Darwin at 3am - the most annoying time ever. Luckly the hostel are used to the travellers catching the cheap flights and arriving at stupid o'clock and when you arrived you just rang them and they came and opened up and booked you in, so I eventually crawled into bed at about 4.30am. I could have saved a nights accommodation as they allow you to "sleep" on the floor of the airport till the hostels are open in the morning, but there are some airports who won't let you do that, so it's better to be safe than sorry.
So, Darwin in the next instalment.
Hope everyone is still ok and work is going well.
Rach xx
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from Singapore or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
2 votes 
