Another day for a bit of a plodge. I set off after lunchtime today, so missing the strongest sun, and walked for about 30 minutes down to the Chinatown area, just south of the river. The first thing that struck me was that it wasn’t very… well… Chinese.

Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the likes of Stowell Street in Newcastle, but I was expecting a load of Chinese architecture based on bamboo with bright reds and greens. But, no. Most of the buildings are plain old concrete, and the only real concession to the stereotype is a series of red lanterns suspended over two of the busier market streets.

The one place of interest that I spotted was the Sri Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore. It’s quite small, but free to walk around ($3 for a photo permit, though) so I had a quick stroll. Even if you don’t pay for a permit, you get a nice colour glossy brochure about the building. The decorations are typically Asian in their brightness and colouring and it was a pleasant stopoff for a few minutes. I just missed the fire-walking ceremony they perform every year, which is a bit of a shame.

 I confess I caved and bought a McD’s chicken burger for lunch. This was mainly because it was only $2, and virtually every food place I went past had the menu in Chinese only. At least I knew what I was getting in McD’s – something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike chicken.

Walking back north, I decided to take a quick stroll over to Clarke Quay, one of the main nightspots. Unsurprisingly, it was rather quiet as I breezed through in the mid-afternoon. I have stood outside the world’s largest Ministry of Sound (woo), but doubt I will ever go in. I’ve been to exactly one MoS and that was to see a metal band during the birthday celebrations for a sci-fi comic. Yes, I am that sad.

Reversing direction, I made my way back to the hostel and almost walked past the Civil Defense Heritage Centre. The words “free admission” caught my eye and I spent a very enjoyable hour walking around, looking at bright red fire engines and messing around in hazmat suits being sprayed with water. Essentially, Singapore doesn’t have a fire brigade or an ambulance service. The two (plus other rescue services, such as those aimed at earthquake victim recovery) are all rolled into the Civil Defense Force. The name sounds all Thunderbirds, but it’s a great idea for somewhere as small as Singapore ensuring good communications and relations between the departments. Certainly a recommended “museum”.

 I arrived back at the hostel to see a couple of my roomies sat around waiting for a free guided tour which should have started half an hour earlier. I thought I’d tag along, so waited for Karen – one of the staff – to turn up, which she duly did at 5pm. Rather than the Little India tour advertised, she said that the Bugis one was better (more to see) and who were we to argue? She’s the local!

Our first stop was the Masjid Abdul Gafoor, a couple of doors away. This is a lovely green and white mosque built in 1907 and and gazetted as a National Monument in 1979. It’s quite a small place, but very well maintained. As I was wearing shorts, I had to get a covering for my legs (after I’d washed them with soap and water) before I could walk into the temple proper. This is the first mosque I’ve ever been inside and it’s a lot less gaudy and ostentatious than most of the Buddhist temples I saw in Thailand. There is no altar, no collections of statues or anything. Just a wall facing towards Mecca toward which all the worshippers face. Nice and simple.

After this, we doubled back to an Indian tea shop which is pretty much right next to the hostel. Karen, our guide, treated us to a tea each. There are several types, and the hot ones are cooled by being poured rather impressively from one container to the other more or less over the shoulder of the proprietor! I opted for a warm, milky cup and it was lovely. With condensed milk, it ended up with the consistency of a tea-shake. Karen’s cold tea with lemon and ginger also tasted lovely – I’ll have that next time, I think.

 On to Bugis next to see another two temples: The Sri Krishnan temple where what looked like some kind of family service was being performed; and the GOddess of Mercy Temple where we had a free fortune telling. Anyone who’s been round Asia will probably have seen this being done in many of the temples.

Inside, you get a large tub filled with sticks, each of which is numbered. Along with this, you need two “lips” – ours were red rubber ones. You kneel on the carpet in front of the altar and think about what you want to know – what question you have to ask. Shake the cylinder until one, and only one, stick drops out. Any more, and you pop them back in and start again. Once you have a single forlorn stick lying there, you toss the lips on the ground. You must get one face up and one face down (yin and yang). If after three throws you don’t get an unmatched pair of lips then it’s not the right time to be asking that question.

Assuming you’ve managed all this, you take the single stick up to he counter and in return you get a little docket relating to that number. There’s some information on the back, and this is expanded in a guidebook that’s available to one side. All dead simple!

One again with shoes on, we stopped to rub our hands all over a big jolly Buddha statue for good fortune, and grabbed an ice cream from a salesman on the street. 80c for a huge chunk between two wafer slices. Yummy!

Karen then took us to the Bugis street market where I’ve been a few times already. There’s a little stall inside that sells pancakes with some wonderful fillings. I had one with chocolate in it ($1) which was fantastic. The pancake is literally wafer thin so you can almost convince yourself it’s small enough not to count as unhealthy food.

A short tour, but fun, and as darkness started to fall we returned “home”. I managed to find the local supermarket and bought myself some baked beans. No guesses what I had for dinner! 

 Nicer weather today than yesterday, so I decided to walk down to the Raffles area and do the “colonial walk” detailed in Lonely Planet. Rather than get the MRT to the starting point, I thought I’d walk it. Singapore isn’t much bigger than London so there’s no real need to get the underground everywhere (though a lot of people do).

As soon as I got “south of the river”, I could tell I was in financial territory. Two things gave it away: the sudden switch of surrounding dress from floral shirts and shorts to cufflinks and sharply pressed trousers; and the fact that all the buildings were involved in a “let’s see who can be the tallest” competition. The traffic round this area is of London proportions as well, though a lot of the jams can be accounted for by polite drivers actually stopping at zebra crossings for pedestrians.

Before commencing the walk, I indulged in an ice lolly. Someone has managed to combing two of my favourite things and I was happy to part with $1.40 for a sour apply ice pole. Gooey ice cream and sour fruit flavours. Luvverly!

Beginning from Raffles Place MRT, I walked up towards Clifford Pier and past the Fullerton Hotel. I then crossed the road to see the Merlion statues. As the name suggests, this is some kind of lion/seahorse creature thingy and it squirts water into the sea where the river opens out. It’s a symbol of Singapore, though apparently the locals have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it (more on the hate side).

 On the opposite side of the river can be seen the Singapore Opera House. There seems to be this thing with opera houses and insane architects. Sydney, Singapore, Gateshead… they’re all mad. Utterly futzball. Yet strangely compelling.

Back over the bridge and a quick stop at the Dalhousie Obelisk, erected to a visiting minister around 1850. He’s credited with making Singapore the financial power it is today.

By now it was fast approaching midday and the sun was starting to get a little warm, so I chose to go into the Museum of Asian Civilisations for a couple of hours until the big glowing ball in the sky decided to drop down a bit.

For $5, this is an engrossing way to spend a couple of hours. In fact, there was far more there than I was prepared to take in. There are eight major galleries covering religion, history, entertainment, politics… you name it. All from most of the southern Asian countries as well as Singapore itself. I met my first genuine Russian people as well, and exchanged email addresses. Looks like I could be adding Moscow onto my travel plans, though I’m still not sure about flying Aeroflot!

Shortly after 2pm, I emerged into the still blazing sunshine and walked north past the Victoria Opera House, old Parliament House and old Supreme Court. On the other side of the road were the Cenotaph, the Indian War Memorial, the Tan Kim Sang Fountain (dedicated to the second Asian to become a Justice of the Peace) and the Lim Bo Sang Memorial (he fought in the underground against the Japanese and died during torture). All kept in immaculate condition with beautiful surroundings.

 A little further up the road is the Civilian War Memorial dedicated to all the non-military persons who died during the Japanese occupancy of WWII. The locals call it the “chopsticks” memorial and you can see why – it does indeed look like four chopsticks pointing skywards.

Across the road from there is the largest mall in Singapore, Suntec City. This surrounds the world’s largest fountain, the Fountain of Wealth, which I strode over to see. During the day, it burbles rather than shooting vast amounts of water into the air. Instructions for its use are simple – walk around it clockwise, three times, with your hand touching the water while making a wish.

Well, I’ve spent the last few months blowing eyelashes, crossing fingers,gazing for shooting stars and rubbing pretty much every holy monument I can find with no apparent luck, but I’m not one to give up hope (translation: I’m stubborn like my dad), so I performed the ritual. Don’t hold your breath, but at least I can say I tried.

I was starting to realise that lunch would have been a good idea around four hours earlier, so I began to walk back towards the Bugis area and the hawker market I’d used the day before. On the way I snapped a couple of pictures of the Raffles Hotel (complete with large Indian gentlemen in spotless white jackets and turbans – very “Last Days”). Today I ate mostly duck and rice – which was gorgeous – with watermelon and rose apple for desert. Delicious. All washed down woth a glass of Tiger back at the hostel.

After a couple more fruitless hours trying to find accomodation in Goa for the festive season that wasn’t going to cost us a fortune, I once again grabbed my camera and strode off back towards the Fountain of Wealth.

 It was dark now, and the fountain was lit from behind with bright colours and a laser show was being played on the spraying water. I was actually hoping to see jets shooting up into the stratosphere, but instead the water is sprayed outwards in an arc so that it can be used as a screen.

I spent half an hour watching cartoons being projected and then walked back to the hostel. I was peckish on the way back so stopped at for what turned out to be one of the worst burgers I’ve ever eaten. The shop is called WOS Burger (I think – I’ve thrown the wrapper out) and I picked a spicy cheeseburger from the menu. After queuing for almost ten minutes behind one person – who walked off with two soft drinks – I ordered my burger and paid my $3.55. In return I got a plastic table number, even though I was taking away. After another ten minutes, my burger finally arrived.

As fast as my legs could carry me (not fast by now – it had been a long day), I pegged it back to the Inn Crowd, sat down, opened the wrapper and almost balked at the smell. I don’t know what fillings they had in it, but it smelled weird. The cheese was minging and the whole thing looked like it had already been eaten once.

Still, I was hungry. OK, it was spicy. It had cheese. It was a burger. Beyond that… I actually think McD’s are better. It was that bad. As I type this I’m hungry again so it didn’t even hit the spot. Bah. Looks like another expensive visit to 7-11.