Singapore, the Asian adventure starts here!

The flight to Singapore was ace.  It was one of those everyone-has-a-tele-watch-what-you-want planes, so I watched 'Notes on a Scandal' and 'The Last King of Scotland' (obviously these are the things you need to record on a blog of a round the world trip).

After a pain-free customs clearing (oh I should note here that the 'random' security checks have started up again), I phoned a couple of places, and booked us into the 7th Storey Hotel.  We checked in there, and then headed out for a bit of a wander around Bugis Street Market.  It was cool, they were selling pretty much everything.  We had some food in the food court (avoiding the stall called 'Pig's Organ Soup'), which cost us about a pound each.  On the walk back to the hotel, Rick decided to make a purchase of a weird looking and smelling fruit called dorian, which was banned from the underground, and most hostels.  It's not so good.

Back at the hotel, we had a beer on the rooftop garden, and admired the view.  Singapore is pretty westernised, with its plethora of high-rise buildings, and the city basically revolves around shopping.  Which requires money.  So that was pretty much out for us.

The next morning we checked into another hostel, called Inncrowd Backpackers, which was in Little India.  It was in a great location, and would have been a brilliant hostel, if it wasn't for a little problem that we didn't discover for a day or two - bedbugs.  They were pretty much all over the room, and got us all, eventually.

We had breakfast there, and then walked around Little India.  It rains pretty much every day in Singapore, so luckily all the pavements are covered so you don't get too soaked.  It's pretty humid though, so it's nice to get into an airconned room around early afternoon.  With that in mind, we had lunch in a really nice barefoot restaurant, and ended up staying there for about an hour and a half!  The food was really good, and pretty cheap, and the staff were lovely.

That evening, we met up with Dan from Airlie Beach at our hostel as arranged, and had a drink with him there.  We all headed to another food court for dinner (this one was also to become a regular haunt), and then on to Raffles for a Singapore Sling - it had to be done.  Well it didn't really - Rick was the only one who ended up having one, the rest of us had another, equally overpriced cocktail.  The staff were unpleasant at best, but the bar was nice enough.  I couldn't bring myself to throw my monkey nut shells on the floor like the thousands of others before me that day alone, so I left them in a neat pile on the bar.

We left Raffles, and headed to Clark Quay, a newly developed area, where all the bars and restaurants were.  They were all a bit pricey for us, so we left again, but not before I did the GMax Reverse Bungee!!!  It was cool, it was basically like a little chute that you sit in with two other people, and then you get shot about 60m into the air with speeds of up to 200kph, and G force  5.  It was cool.  Apologies to Nikki, RIck, Mike and Dan though, they had to wait about 40 minutes for the privilege.

So we got cabs back to the hostel where places were more affordable.  We had a few drinks on the roof outside our room, and then headed to the hostel bar, BarBaaBlackChic, where there was an indie night on.  It turned out that it was only on once a month, and it was brilliant.  Rick, Dan and I spent most of the night on the dance floor.  They ended the night with Arcade Fire, which was pretty unexpected, and Rick was a very happy little boy.

After that, we had a few more drinks back at the hostel, and discovered the mashed potato and gravy machine in the 7-eleven next door!!  Awesome.  It was a good night, and a really good laugh.

The next day was, owing to the late night, pretty much a nothing day.  It involved many trips to the food court, not all of which were successful!  The first attempt was when I went with Rick for lunch, and Mike headed off to McDonald's.  Rick wanted an Indian, so we left the first food court, and went to a restaurant called The Banana Leaf, which looked pretty nice.  Except they took too long to serve us, so we left there, and went to a different food court.  Rick ordered his food, and while he sat down, I had a look at the other side for what I was going to get.  I was just about to order when I heard Rick say "Patrice, get yours to go, I have to get out of here!"  Poor Ricky B wasn't feeling the best, so we abandoned his dinner for some fresh air.  We went back to the hostel, and I read for a bit, before making a second attempt at the food court for something to eat.  That time was more successful.  After food, it was back to the hostel again (we must have looked so lazy, it was a 32 bed dorm, and our beds were by the door, so everyone saw us lying there), and I had a bit of a kip.  That evening, there was only one thing for it - food court for tea!  Oh well, I don't have too many of those days.  That night, we watched Rabbit-Proof Fence (about the Aboriginal snatchings), and World Trade Centre.

The following day was much more productive.  Mike, Rick and I headed out first thing to buy Mike a new camera (his third of the trip!), before having breakfast in the hostel.  After that it was into town, stopping off in a Mosque for a visit.  We headed to China town, and walked all round there, looking at various famous temples.  We had Dim Sum in a restaurant called Da Dong, which had been recommended by the Lonely Planet - it was pretty good.  After that we had a look round Sim Lim Square shopping centre, which was full of hundreds of stores selling every kind of electrical equipment under the sun.  It was crazy.  I have no idea how they all stayed open either.

That evening, there was a free bbq in the hostel bar (since our dorm room had been closed for part of the day for some filming or other), which was pretty good.  We sat up chatting some people outside our hostel, including a couple from Belfast called - wait for it - Ross and Rachel! It ended up being quite a late night/early morning.

The next morning I was accompanied by Rick for the breakfast run, until he no longer felt well and had to go back!  After delivering McD's to Ross and Rick, I went to the food court (I told you it was a firm favourite!), and in order to not spend another day in the room, I spent most of it on the net.

We like to make an effort to follow do-nothing days with productive days, and this one was no different.  We hit Orchard St., although not in the way most tourists do, since the main purpose of the street is shopping, and we were not making any purchases on this occasion.  After that we walked to the Botanical gardens, which turned out to be excellent.  The ponds were full of interesting fish and turtles, including one who liked to bother the other turtles - he would swim up to their face, and then he would flap his big long fingers in their head at great speed, it was the funniest thing, we would totally have won You've Been Framed if we'd managed to catch it on video.  Other blog-worthy botanical gardens items were the fish biting Mike's finger, and the ginger garden.  But they were really good, and well worth a look.

That evening we had dinner in a little local restaurant on our street, and the food was delicious.  After that, we jumped in a cab to the night safari, which was really good.   We walked around the trails, then watched a live show, then took the train through the park, and saw all sorts.

And that was it for Singapore!  We were up early the next morning, and on the bus to KL.

Click here for the Singapore photos