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So Friday and Saturday have passed, time just got away! Friday began with no less than peanut butter on toast served with two 'soft' boiled eggs. Cracked the first open and it literally poured over my toast. I wasn't going hungry and in true rocky style I got stuck in. Tasted amazing it has to be said. Second egg rather unfortunately poured itself out over the broken shell of the first…still worth a dunk.
Ps. The coffee served with breakfast was called Kopi and whilst brewed in a fancy way the best thing they did was add condensed milk!
From breakfast at Toastbox I ventured on down to raffles for a nose about. Raffles is grand and full of small boutique shops and oozes character from the colonial days. Decorated for Christmas with 30 degree sunshine and palm trees looked a little out of place to me. Photo-bombed some wedding photos and pencilled in a return later that evening for a Singapore sling.
Left Raffles and ventured into reclaimed land (my dad tells me that back in the day Raffle used to overlook the harbour/sea). Reclaimed land passed with little beyond the shops and malls see everywhere in Singapore, however it did give way to a rather spectacular marina, with new hotels, malls and a helix bridge. Beautiful in the midday sun I wandered a little and before I knew it I was atop the marina bay sands building on the viewing platform. This presented unrivalled inland views that the photos just cannot do justice.
From there I made a seemingly endless journey to a little island off the north-east coast of Singapore called Pulau Ubin. This involved train, bus and eventually bumboat…hired a bike for 8 dollars and hit the trails.
This was a throw back to the Singapore of old. Single lane roads with houses dotted about, dense forest and wild animals roaming. A few restaurants and shanty shops were at the jetty but that is your lot. After a hard days exploring I enjoyed the sun setting with a tiger in hand then caught the bumboat back. Ps. Photo-bombed another wedding here too!
On a side note, one of the real challenges was the bus ride back, you see here is the problem with a tourist using the bus. The principle being that the driver will not stop unnecessarily so if there is no one at the stop then someone on the bus needs to press the button. If that person is me and has no idea where we are then chances are I'll miss it. Anyway, we didn't cos apparently everyone in the world had to get off there too.
After journey back it was time to get chilli crab…been waiting a long while for this. Down to jumbos seafood at Clarke Quay. Ordered me crab, forgot the bread! Second time lucky…anyway, armed with a bib, some other tools and a never ending supply of tea I dug in. After a little while of delicately retrieving meat from the crab I realised I was getting hungry faster than I was getting fed! Sod it, both hands in the mess, chilli sauce down the arms, chopsticks flung across the table, who eats crab with them? That meal was de-light-ful. Highly recommend it.
Next saw a saunter around the marina, enjoying its night ambience. And then called in at Raffles long bar for a Singapore sling on the way home. Got distracted by a drunk guy asleep on a table on the way out and lost on the way home but that is a different story.
Saturday was a brief trip to the Botanical gardens Before heading to the airport. The gardens were as everything else in Singapore, perfectly presented. I sat and read whilst a band played on the outdoor stage. Next Stop, Kuala Lumpur…
Arrive at KL hungry, after midnight so not a lot on offer, KFC is order of the day. I talk about this for two reasons, one is that I am a foodie, and two is that what I ate I thought only existed in Korea (not dog). I had a hash brown sandwiched between two deep fried chicken breasts…that is a burger and I'm never having it again. Once is enough.
My stay in kl is short so far as I'm staying in a capsule at the airport. It's close to 3 am as I write this and I have an asahi in hand. It's enough to distract me from the fella throwing up in the toilets. Its primitive but well presented with a chill out area and a bar, power supplies in the capsule. It does make me think that our cricket container may have a future beyond hcc after all! Anyway, I only have it for another 9 hours so best make use of it. Tomorrow I head to the centre of KL, and maybe the batu caves to the north.
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