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Yesterday morning I felt much better and managed a proper breakfast. We had to move hostels, which was very hard work for us both lugging bags in the stuffy heat. Panting a great deal, we were warmly welcomed and shown to a large but pleasantly cool dorm which will be home for the next few days. The sheets seemed clean (always a good thing) and the people are friendly although the Wi-Fi is rubbish so posts might be a bit more sporadic.
We walked to the underground (MRT) station in the shopping mall and got the train to the Botanic Gardens. What a gorgeous place! A luscious pocket of gardens and rainforest amid the tower blocks and building sites. The gardens are split into individual areas and we pottered around the evolution trail with its amazing petrified trees. There were geckos and lizards about, lots of massive butterflies, giant flying beetles and amazing spiders. We also walked through the rainforest area which had enormous trees.
Annoyingly I felt woozy in the heat again despite eating and drinking. I copied the locals and used my umbrella as a parasol while we walked through the pretty orchid gardens.
We were both feeling the heat so headed back to the hostel for a sleep before dinner. We went back to the mall where I was unfortunately sick (in the loo, Mum, in case you were wondering), although I felt better for it. We went to McDonalds as we both wanted something familiar and simple. Josh had some kind of teriyaki chicken burger while I picked at a few fries. I found a Holland and Barrett store which had Nairn's ginger biscuits so I got some to nibble.
Everywhere was very busy as it was Friday night and the locals are shopping for Chinese New Year (CNY). We went to the supermarket and got a jar of Nutella which will improve breakfast no end. We found the Mustafa centre on the way back; a huge department store that sold just about everything. It was Aladdin's cave of clothing, shoes, homeware, medicines and my favourite bit - fabric! So many gorgeous sari's with sequins, batik prints, fine suit fabrics and silk brocades. I bought a couple of batik sarongs but could have bought a lot more if only I had more luggage space. I've never seen a shop so full of stock in my life!
We went back to the hostel and chatted to a nice lady from Scotland who was telling us about all the nice kinds of fruit you can find here. She also told us about getting to Malaysia (where she'd just been) and recommended flying as a cheap and quick way to get there. We're thinking of trying to get there on Monday as accommodation is much cheaper. For the same price we are paying for a dorm here we can get a double en suite in a nice hotel. I think we're both finding these first few days hard and would benefit from a comfy bed and not being disturbed at night. Accommodation here is very limited as it's all booked for CNY, it seems daft to limit ourselves to scummy hostels when there may be much better over the border.
I actually slept really well (apart from being woken by some guy trying to get his bag out of the locker at the end of my bed and waking most of the dorm in the progress. He then came back later and put it back in just as noisily. He's not even in our dorm and is using my allocated locker so after he'd come back to get it this morning I locked it with my lock so he can't use it anymore!) I slept in until 9, a full 3 hours longer!!!
Not sure what we're going to do today, maybe head to the seafront or do a bus tour. Either way hopefully I can continue to feel better and start to get the most out of this incredible city.
- comments
sally Really enjoying reading your blogs and glad you are recovering. Sounds an interesting exciting place. Heavy snow fall here looking lovely in the sun. Lots of love. X
Johnny Bravo Hey there, how you doing? Brilliant blog, hope you're feeling much better. Dorms can be great, but if you get an inconsiderate so-&-so, making a racket, they can be a pain :-/ Enjoy Singapore & have a safe trip to Malaysia :-)
grandma gmggrenjoying reading your blog had lesson from gill snow clearing may venture out tomorrow luv