Singapore

30 April 2008
Singapore, Singapore
                Immigration and customs went really easy getting into Singapore.  After exchanging some money and getting more from the ATM we headed to the Metro/Subway/Tube/Underground (whatever you want to call it).  We caught a train to a junction where we switched trains and got off about 15-20 minutes later at our destination.
                After a little walking around we found our hostel.  It was right next to large block that was completely taken over by Asian food restaurants.  We went upstairs to our hostel and saw a mountain of flip flops outside the door.  We took our shoes off and headed inside (something we will get very used to doing I’m sure).  When we booked our room the first night stay came in at 50 Singapore dollars, but the two following nights came up as 90 SD per night.  We were a little confused as to why the price changed.  The lady that checked us in tried to explain that the first night we were booked for a different room than the next two nights.  However, there was a change and now we have the 90 room for all three nights.  This was good and bad news.  It was bad because we originally booked this place because it was 50 a night, so the price change was frustrating.  Later we left a review with the hostel not recommending it because it allowed us to book a “double private” at the price of a lesser room, essentially doing false advertising.  The good news was we didn’t have to switch rooms (or maybe we never had to in the first place…who knows?).
                The room was windowless but had a very strong AC unit.  Other good news was there was free Wi-Fi with a pretty strong bandwidth.  We dropped our stuff and headed out. 
                Before coming here we heard a few things about Singapore, it has quite a reputation.  A couple things we heard were:

1. It is very clean.
2. It’s against the law to spit on the street.
3. There is no chewing gum (although Doug read an article saying that this had changed).

                As we walked around we found the city to be about medium clean, places like Sydney were much cleaner.  We also saw spitting (although it was rare).  That aside, the city was very nice.  Even though we set out right before sunset we never felt in danger despite being in a more “economical” neighborhood. 
                With full stomachs from all the food on the airline we headed back to the room for some showers and sleep.

1 May 2007
Singapore, Singapore
                After getting up we went down for our free breakfast.  Our free toast tasted a little strange (the butter had a different flavor).
                Out on the street we took the Metro to a stop near the Singapore Zoo.  We were greeted by a guy offering a free bus ride to the Zoo.  His deal worked like this.  His buys a bunch of discount Zoo tickets with the “Tram Ride” option (a tram within the zoo), and comes to the bus station and sells them to tourists for the price we would buy at the window.  With his profits, he can afford to transport us to the Zoo for free.  We decided to go for it.  The nice thing about using this guy was the public transportation bus is about twice as long and when we arrived at the Zoo we didn’t have to stand in line to buy our tickets (which looked like it would have taken another 20 minutes).
                The area by the main entrance was absolutely crowded.  As we worked our way into the zoo things thinned out a bit.  The zoo was pretty large with a few good exhibits.  Highlights were white tigers, white rhinos, free range orangutans, lots of monkeys, elephants and a section called “the fragile forest.  This area was enclosed and it was like going into a big cage.  Inside we were face to face with bats, iguanas, butterflies, lemurs, and even a sleeping sloth.
                Once we were done at the zoo we headed out to the bus stop to catch a ride back on the public transport bus (the ticket guy said his ride was only way). Our next stop was to go visit the famous Raffles Hotel.
                When Doug was in flight school and just finishing up his “primary” training, one of his simulator instructors had Doug make a promise.  The instructor said, “One day you will be in Singapore, go visit Raffles Hotel, have a Singapore Sling and drink it to me.”  While Doug was in the Marines he sailed by Singapore twice, the first time for the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and second time to provide humanitarian support for Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami devastated Sumatra.  Because the boat never stopped Doug was never able to make good on his promise.
                We arrived at the hotel and took a seat.  The drink menu prices were astronomical.  The Singapore Sling rang in at $22 Singapore dollars alone.  Anna ordered a Piña Colada and the staff was gracious enough to bring us some battered peanuts.  The Singapore Sling was absolutely wonderful (not too surprising since it was invented here at the Raffles Hotel), the Piña Colada, not so good.  The final bill came in at $50 Singapore dollars ($37 USD) for two drinks, but more importantly Doug fulfilled a promise he made 7 years ago.
                Our little trip left us covered in dried sweat so it was time to clean up before dinner.  After showering and resting we headed out to find some food.  We picked a little Chinese place right in the block of eateries next to us.  Doug ordered up some Chicken with chili and rice that was pretty good and Anna tried to order a sweet and sour chicken dish but when the food arrived it turned out to be a cereal covered chicken dish that wasn’t too bad either.
                After dinner it was back up stairs for the evening.

2 May 2007
Singapore, Singapore
                The day started a little later than usual.  Because the room had no windows and we were both still adjusting to the time change.  This time we decided to pass on the toast and bad butter.  We made sure to let the woman running the hostel know that we needed to check out the next morning at 6:00am.  The train we reserved to go to Kuala Lumpur left at 7:40am.  And we were still not sure how we were getting there.
                Doug needed to go to the embassy to get some more passport pages put in.  So we went to the subway.  2 stops later we got off at Orchard Street.  This is a very well known street for shopping.  We decided to check this out after stopping at the embassy.  We started walking towards the embassy and arrived about an hour later. 
                Arriving at the embassy neither of us had any idea what to expect, being this was our first time.  They asked for our passports, checked them, and then let us into the security area.  We thought it was odd that there were no Marines, just Malaysian contractors.  We then had to go through a metal detector.  They asked Doug to leave his pocket knife and cell phone behind with them.  Then we walked outside and then shortly entered the embassy walking through another metal detector.  There were two rooms to choose from.  There was one room for people with visa issued, and one for American citizens with passport issues.  Doug took his number, and we waited.  While we waited we finally saw one Marine controlling entry into another part of the building.
                About 40 minutes later Doug’s number came up, he went to the window, and handed the lady his passport along with the form he had to fill out.  Then after another 30 minutes Doug’s name was called, he claimed his passport and we left.  The task took longer than expected.
                It was time to eat, neither of us had eaten or drunk anything all day and it was about 11:00am.  We walked towards a mall to a 7-11 and purchased drinks.  Then walked down Orchard Street a couple blocks and found a California Pizza Kitchen.  This sounded fabulous.  We sat down, ordered garlic bread, and pizza.  The food came out quickly and our stomachs became full. 
                After lunch we wandered in and out of malls for a least a mile or so.  There were so many repeat stores within the different malls, it was craziness (which apparently is crazier than just “crazy”).  We did end up buying a cleaning kit for the Canon, as well as a lense cover.  We soon got tired of looking at expensive shops and caught the subway back to the hostel.
                We both took much needed showers and rested for a while.  Around 7:00 we decided to go walk around.  By now the sun was going down and the air cooled down a bit. 
                Walking around we saw all the same stuff as the previous two nights, but there was something we noticed more.  There were “Call Girls” everywhere.  On one side of the street we must have passed 10 or 15 just standing in a row, chatting with each other.  They were everywhere. 
                We finally decided to eat at an Asian food court.  One vendor had photos of food that looked appetizing so we walked up to order.  The lady told us to sit down at a table nearby.  We must have sat, stood up, and sat back down about 10 times before a man came to take our order.  Neither of us could figure out why she would not take our order.  Doug ordered a noodle dish and Anna ordered chicken fried rice (easy meal).  Doug then went to get us a liter of beer to share.  The food came within 15 minutes.  Although the food was good, Anna’s chicken was not cooked.  We just made sure the chicken was put to the side. 
                With our stomachs full we walked back to the room, and settled for the evening.

3 May 2007
Singapore, Singapore
                The alarm went off at 5:30am.  The both of us slowly rose from the bed and finished packing our things.  The morning was really warm and humid.
                We boarded the subway and transferred when the time came.  The train dropped us off 20 minutes later at the stop closest to the train station.  Now we needed to figure out how to either catch a bus, or walk to the station.  There was a bus stop right outside the subway station.  We waited for a bus to come by.  The first bus driver we asked thought we were asking where the subway was.  He pointed to the station where we had just come out of and then we corrected him.  “We need the train to Malaysia”.  He didn’t know where it was.  The next bus driver was a little more informative after we corrected him just like the first driver.  The train station was a short walk away.
                The directions were to go to the next intersection and turn right.  This is what we did.  And about 15 minutes later we found the train station.
                We went up to the ticket counter to collect the tickets we purchased online two nights prior.  The guy at the counter didn’t know how to look up our tickets without the online print out.  We didn’t print this out, but did save it to the desktop on the laptop.  Doug then got the laptop out of the small bag and turned it on.  This was probably not the best thing to do, advertising having a laptop.  But there was no alternative.  We got back in line after the laptop was turned on, then held the screen up to the window and the guy printed our tickets.  This made no sense to us, but it worked.  We were quite the attraction with everybody else standing in line.
                About 30 minutes later we went through the gate to board the train.  This was the first passport check into Malaysia.  The customs guys checked our passports, stamped our entry cards, and let us pass through.  We then boarded the train.  Our 2nd class seats were great.  The train appeared to have air conditioning.  The bags were put in the storage spaces above and we settled in for the ride.

Malaysia Journal

Back to South East Asia Journal