We arrived in Singapore on Saturday 28th March, were dropped off in the middle of knowhere ( well thats what it felt like). We got out our lonley planet and tried to find our way to the centre of Singapore where we had already found a hostel to stay in ( hoping they had a dorm for us!), 45 mins with 21 kg on my back in 35 degrees heat later, we arrived.......! That was my workout for the week, my legs were about to give way! blurrrrrrgh!
Luckily they had 4 beds left in a dorm ( we pciked up a stragler on the bus!) so we settled in for a bit then Nat called her friend Adam. Adama nd his girlfriend invoted us to stay......dam it we had already paid for our hostel ( SGD 14 it cost each which is around 7 GBP......a lot we thought as had been paying 3 pounds in the rest of Asia). Never mind, at leadt we wouldnt be putting Adam and Carlene out. They invited us to their condo ( thats what they call flats/apartments over here) for drinks and then took us to a beach party at KM8, excellent night out and all paid for which was gr8 for us pikey travellers :-)
On Sunday we all woke up with slight hangover to say the least.......ooops, thats what free booze does to you :-( but all was not lost as Adam and Carlene had invited us over yet again so relax by the pool, best cure for a hangover there is. It was really strange being in the middle of a city with huge sky rises for condos and swimming complexes. Around 4pm we showered at Adams and Carlene gave us huge white fluffy warm towels from the dryer.......pure heaven for us travellers who use their micro towels to dry normally - not the most comfortable towel in the world! ahhhhhh how these little things please us! ha! We then set of for thier friends BBQ in yet another swanky condo in town. This condo the lift is fingerprint activated and the lift door opens into your particular apartment - very impressive. It was really nice to eat home cooked food, normal food at that and not have to order from a menu - the novelty of this runs out after about 3 weeks we are craving a bit of normality now. Rob ( adams friend) is australian so likes his wine and we all shared a few bottles of red, which again was bliss as wine is not really drunk in Asia and if it is then its very expensive and not in our budgets.
On Monday we got up early(ish) and set of to do some sightseeing. We visited the harbour front, stopped by Raffles for the infamous singapore sling, sat outside Bugis and watched the water features and then made our way to the night zoo. This was really impressive, though no flash photography was allowed so no great pictures from me on this one. We has been told to visit little india and knew we had to do this that evening to be able to fit it in so we did, the nicest curry I have had in 2 months - yum. Somehow we also managed to get back to the hostel at 3.30am, having spoken to family and friends on the net for so long. We discovered skype and web cams, was so nice to catch up ( mum, dad - you have to get a webcam you will love it)
On Tuesday we were up and packe early doors to checkout but luckily Jet was staying another night before she catches her bus and plane to Laos so we dumped our bags in her dorm. We then headed to Clarkes Quay for the afternoon on the MRT, which was really nice.
All in all Singapore was a great experience, its the most westernised city in Asia ( that i have visited) , although it is obvious there is a real divide between the ex pats and the singaporians this isnt as big as the hostility between the singaporians, chinese and malaysians - its racism at its peak. Very strange and quite obvious too. Despite this Singapore is a very liveable place, I will definatly be coming back here for another visit someday.
