Singapore take 1
Flying in to Singapore it occured to me that this is probably the first time I’ve ever travelled from one foreign country to another! I only spent a couple of days there this time, but I’m coming back in about 5 weeks to catch my flight to Perth, so I can get my safari suit made cheap in Thailand and then head over to Raffles for my Singapore sling.
As far as I can work out Singapore is an enormous shopping mall, some of which is called Chinatown, or at least if you take a bus tour round that’s the impression you get. I was staying in the Arabic quarter though, in a bed and breakfast called Sleepy Sam’s that had a really nice cafe vibe about it, and the dormitory was air conditioned - which in Singapore’s humidity felt like paradise!
Once again I met a really good crowd where I was staying, and we had a top night out starting at the Asia High bar for happy hour on the 70th floor of the Raffles tower. The view was incredible, and the cocktails were just about affordable (they make a rubbish mojito though). After that the night degenerated into drinking, Chinese karaoke and then accidentally finding ourselves in an indian bellydancing club. No, really, it was genuinely an accident!
Caught the bus out of Singapore to Johur Bahru in Malaysia yesterday, and at SGD $2.40 it was both the cheapest international journey I’ve ever made, and the first time I’ve crossed a border on a bus with a leaky roof. From there I took another bus up to Melaka, which is… well, I’m staying in a bit of a dive so that may be colouring my opinion, but it’s a bit rubbish so far. I might head up to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, or I might just head for the Jungle Railway and see what the rain forests are like.
Yesterday Malaysia was wet, but hey, it is the monsoon season. Today’s looking a bit sunnier, so I think I’ll start casing out the pubs to see where’s best to watch the England game.
June 10th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
I went to Melaka too! .. it’s poo eh!?
It even smells of poo, open sewers and all.. I paid 30p to stay the night in a sweat box with no windows, thought I was in for a bout of malaria I got bitten so much.. All the fun of the fair…!