Category Archives: Singapore

King of the luge, ma!

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 Last night, I’d agreed on a trip to Sentosa with a bunch of people in the hostel (Matt and Amy from the US, Lucy and Gurpreet from the UK, Naiomi from “so many places I’m confused” and a German chap). My alcohol-addled brain instantly hated me for it as I rose early. Not as early as Lucy who we’d told we were leaving at 9am, so she’d got up at silly o’clock to move hostels. We didn’t set off until after midday, which annoyed her slightly.

In the meantime, I ran over to Sim Lim Square where I’d spent a while the day before checking out prices. I settled on an Olympus 320SW with the accompanyine waterproof case, so I can take photos while diving. I look forward to testing it properly in a forthcoming destination. I couldn’t take it to Sentosa as the batteries needed charging.

Sentosa is a small island a stonesthrow off the south coast of Singapore and it’s essentially a big leisure resort – its name means “tranquility” in Malay. It really is “manufactured”, though. All the beaches are man-made, all the plants transported over and planted by hand. As with so much of Singapore, Sentosa has war-related connections. Fort Siloso (which still stands as an attraction) and a few other sites were loaded with guns towards the end of the 19th century to protect the entrance to the harbour. During the war they became essential (though eventually redundant) defensive points against enemy attacks as the island became a British fortress.

 The island was renamed in 1972 and, in a bid to shake off its violent past, plans made to fill it with more peaceful pursuits. Amongst these are a luge, aquarium, insect kingdom, beaches, huge statues, leisure resorts and hotels. A cablecar was added in 1974 connecting the island to Mount Fabre on the mainland, and a bridge was opened in 1992. This bridge had the effect of making the southernmost point in continental Asia the south coast of Sentosa. It had previously been the south coast of Singapore itself.

Anyway, that’s where we went for the afternoon. In fairness, we didn’t do a lot on the island. It is huge, and everything costs money though at least stepping onto the place only costs $2. We decided to get the cable car over, and paid the extra for the glass-bottomed one so that we could watch Lucy panic. Actually, I paid for the normal one and got a free upgrade courtesy of my Tiger Airways boarding pass. Smart. The car goes back towards the mainland to Mount Faber where there’s a restaurant/tourust trap called the Jewellery Box. It then loops back to the building it started from, straight through and on to Sentosa. It was most definitely lunchtime by the time we got there (trust me, my stomach had gone past grumbling and got as far as writing letters of complaint to Watchdog) so we settled down in Subway for a sarnie.

 There is a monorail service opening soon and in the meantime all transport round the island is on buses. We went down to the Dolphin Lagoon and strolled along the beach. Some of us did the bridgewalk to the southernmost point on continental Asia (which was cool) and then we umm’d and aah’d about going to see the dolphin. Then we realised that we were all tall enough to look over the fence, but too honest to do so.

As the bus does a circular route, we saw a lot of the rest of the island getting back to where we’d come from so that some of us could go on the luge. This is similar to the one in Rotorua, but nowhere near as fast and steep. I rocked and won every time, but I really have no concern for my own personal safety which gave me an unfair advantage. I’m also fatter than most of the other people having a go, and the added weight helped.

We beat the crowds and headed back to the city, as Lucy had to meet with her new tour group. Matt, Amy, Naiomi and I walked into town for some food. I chose duck and rice again because it was so nice the last time, washed down with a banana milkshake. Then another wander around Sim Lim Square where I tried to price up a PSP. NOt easy when everyone insists on managing differing packages. Grr.

Back at the Inn Crowd, I played with my new camera and got the batteries charging until Lucy demanded that I go to the pub to watch football. Seriously. She was in the Prince of Wales a couple of doors over with some other guys from the hostel so I mosied on round to be entertained by a local band playing decent rock covers. I then watched Arsenal and Liverpool win their respective games and gave up on the Boro match as I needed sleep. The Prince was flipping expensive with Hoegarden costing $12 (£4) for a half litre. Nice beer, but bank-account-wreckingly costly. Posted by Picasa

December? But it’s hot and sticky!

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 A bit of a lazy day this one. I walked up to Mustafa’s shopping centre with Gurpreet, a girl from London who’d landed the previous day. We were just on the lookout for a few bits and bobs and found them after getting lost in the huge building.

 After all that walking, we needed lunch so we stopped off at a cafe just opposite. To suit Gurpreet, we picked a vegetarian one and I got her to rder as everything was Indian dishes I’d never heard of! I’m not sure what I had, but it was tasty although I’ve just received a court summons from my mouth for fire damage. Lime juice, though lovely, does nothing to reduce the damage caused by excess chilli intake.

 I spent the afternoon just loafing in the hostel and headed out in the early evening with another English girl (who’s name I’ve forgotten – sorry!) to see Orchard Road after dark. We got there around twilight and watched all the sparkly lights come on. It does look less cheesy, but it’s not up to Blackpool’ standards!

 We didn’t have a lot more to do, so started to walk back home. On the way we heard a manic woman screaming into a microphone (as all 20-something DJs do to try and connect with “the kids”). Investigating, we found a street/breakdancing competition. The stage was well surrounded, but we managed to squeeze in and watched for a few rounds. Impressive stuff if you like watching teenagers twist themselves into pretzels and make you wonder how their wrists don’t snap.

Back at the hostel, beer was imbibed until the early hours and then bed called – far too late! Posted by Picasa

Chinatown and temples

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 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! Posted by Picasa

Colonial plodding

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 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. Posted by Picasa

Hot and sticky

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 Before I kick off, I’d just like to recommend the site Best-Singapore-Vacation. It’s nice, friendly, simple and full of good advice. It doesn’t go into huge depth, but it’s a cracking starting point for information on Singapore.

I didn’t plan anything today as the weather still looked a little… changeable. As it happens, the expected deluge never occurred, but I stayed near buildings nontheless, just in case. I do have a waterproof jacket with me, but walking around in that would be like dressing in my own portable sauna in this climate.

There are a load of really nice people at the hostel, so I spent a couple of hours in the morning just chilling with a few and nattering about where they’ve been. I passed out details on Oz and New Zealand, other people told me about Malaysia and Japan – this is what hostels are all about.

Finally, I got off my backside and ventured into the great (sweaty) outdoors. I paid a quick visit to Bugis Street Market, which is full of the dodgy shops you get on the Quayside in Newcastles on a Sunday. Loads of knock-off merchandise at silly prices. Seriously, it’s almost cheaper for me to buy a whole new wardrobe of t-shirts than to do a laundry. Well, it would be if I ever washed my clothes.

 I was actually peckish quite early, so I walked back down to a nearby hawker centre for lunch. Finding a table with only a couple of seats taken, I choped (reserved) one of the spares and then had a wander around to see what I wanted to eat. Oh, “choping” is reserving a seat before you purchase food. It’s definitely recommended in the busier centres at main mealtimes otherwise you’ll find yourself seatless with your food dripping down your arms. The simplest way to do it is to dump a cellophane wrapped packet of tissues on the seat or table. Seriously, that’s the universal Singaporean signal for “choped”! Other things (such as umbrellas) are also acceptable, but don’t be a numpty and use a mobile phone or your wallet. Your seat may still be there when you get back, but your valuables won’t be.

After a walk up and down the aisles, I settled on a place doing something nice and simple – chicken and rice. I chose boneless chicken with no skin and ordered it then went to sit down. Within a minute, my meal (plus some lovely chicken stock soup) arrived and I coughed up the very economical sum of $2.50 (less than a pound). Very nice it was, too.

The rice needed something else to wash it down, so I re-choped my seat and went for the nearest fresh frui stall and bought a “small” (half-pint) banana milkshake for $1.50 (50p) which was utterly delicious.

At those prices and with food that good, I don’t think I’ll be resorting to McDs and the like again while I’m in Singapore unless it’s very late on and the hawker centres are shut.

Time to do some browsing. I had one of those days when I wasn’t in a shopping mood, but did have things to shop for. I want a small camera as mine’s too bulky for nights out. I also need a new mobile handset as mine’s getting a little dodgy. A girl in the hostel last night had a new Sony Ericsson K800i and, frankly, I was astounded how good the picture quality from a telephone was. She’d bought hers at home and I’ve now seen them for around $598 (£200) over here – about twice what I’d pay for a camera, but it gives me phone and camera in one. And I’ve not looked into the cheaper shops in Sim Lim Square yet where I can haggle. Time for some checking online and a look at what I could expect to pay for one back in Blighty. If I can make a huge saving, then I might just plump for one.

 While walking around, I spotted the seasonal decorations going up all over the place. Orchard Road is festooned with lights and trees. The Cathay Centre has the world’s pinkest xmas tree in the lobby, and there’s even an M&Ms stall outside another shopping centre all done up to look like a candy house.

Now, I’m not exactly “Mr Christmas”. Anyone who knows me will tell you that and I have my reasons. However, one thing made my heart melt today. As staff were busy erecting a tree in one of the centres, a little girl was dancing round her mother’s feet pointing at it and excitedly gasping “Christmas! Christmas!”. That is what this time of year is all about. Kids. Stuff the religious significance and the commercial crap we now have courtesy of Hallmark. Kids are where it’s at, and I know that little girl will be having a complete ball in a little over three weeks.

I’ll take this time to remind everyone who knows me – don’t send me any cards! I don’t have a house! If you absolutely have to get me something, then make a donation via the PayPal thingy to the right (or pass it to my folks who can get it into my bank without incurring any fees). For the rest of you – the “card once a year brigade” – I ask a small favour. Work out how much your card and postage would cost, even if it’s only something like 50p (cheapskate). Go to the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation and give that sum to them by PayPal – they can take credit cards with that, so you have no excuse. Thanks, folks!

 Also on Orchard Road, I got to see the Thai Embassy. This building is completely out of place with its surroundings, but hardly qualifies for the “eyesore” tag that Lonely Planet has slapped on it. The story is simply that the King of Thailand bought the land for the building around 200 years ago for about $10,000. On it was built a simple, but quite large, 2-storey structure. As the years have gone on, the value of land on Orchard Road has skyrocketted. If you thought I did well out of my house, then this place really makes that profit pale into insignificance. From $10,000 to $629million as per the last offer made to the Thai government.

It’s alleged that the recent Thai president who was hoofed out for being a corrupt piece of work was considering accepting this (and likely shaving some of the cash off the top for himself) but the Thai people would have been in uproar. As the King himself bought the land, it would be an affront to his memory to sell – and the Thais take their royal family very seriously indeed. The photos I took of the building aren’t too good, but generally speaking it’s not easy to photograph embassies and the like – people tend to get a little suspicious so I had to take them from the cover of trees on the opposite side of the road. Not all all suspicious. If I don’t post again tomorrow, I’ve been arrested. Posted by Picasa