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Another long bus journey this time by day. There was a lot of messing about in Kuala Lumpur - there didn't seem to be a platform 15 but yet all other numbers were there - we felt like it was a mystery stop like the one where Harry Potter get's on to go to Hogwarts! We eventually got ushered to a bus outside, thankfully on our way through China Town and past the hawker stalls - glad to have seen to Petronas Towers in KL but gutted to have missed out on Batu Caves.
Slept ok on the coach - had weird flash back visions/dreams of Thailand. We had to get off the bus at Woodlands border to Singapore get our stamp out of Malaysia then travel a bit further over the bridge to another immigration stop to get stamped into Singapore - quite good fun running off and on the bus.
Finally in Singapore we got a taxi to our hostel The Prince of Wales on Boat Quay - it was perfect. That night we went around the corner to a local eatery, chicken and rice with chili sauce was the order of the day (having been our staple throughout Thailand). It was strange getting used to the new expense compared to Thailand - Tiger seemed to be the beer of choice here. It was a nice place to eat, plenty of locals. There was a huge tropical storm and the rain drops were huge! We were getting slightly wet so some kind gents invited us to sit further inside with them. We chatted to them for ages and they kindly bought usbeer mixed with Guinness - they were all professors and business men each with great stories to tell (I don't know why we keep bumping into Professors - it seems they are always around the pubs!).
One of the men was a Professor in Chinese Literature he knew a lot about Chinese Buddhism too. Another of their friends showed up, a nice Indian gent who told us about the ancient religion of Jeddism - he would get up at 4am everyday to meditate (Om chanting) with the sunrise. His life story seemed like a movie, his family owned a big shipping vessel that got hit with a nuclear Iranian missile. He lost everything as he didn't get the insurance due to some dodgy Iranian cover up - the man said at the time he couldn't even afford powderedmilk for his children. Then he mentioned how he met an Iranian Lawyer and basically after 20 years he finally got the insurance money back. He must of been a multi millionaire and had many interesting stories on religion including Hanuman Chalisa the Indian monkey god.
We spotted a stall across the street selling the Indian flat bread - the Professor said there were different versions some with a Thurl Dahl (split lentils) and he mentioned a Ghandi restaurant in Chun Tin Road which he said we should check out. He also said to go to the oldest church in Singapore which was an Armenian Church. That particular Professor left and we stayed and chatted to the others who were all different nationalities - one from Malaka, another India and Chinese. Another had a son who was in the Singapore national junior football team and trying to get a deal with an English Premier league club though he first had to complete a year's national service. It was funny as we chatted a bit about Alex Ferguson and how long we thought he would last in management - on the news the next day Mr Ferguson had announced his retirement!
The Professors invited to us to play pool at another bar - we went along - cue the evening that turned into something like the movie The Hangover! Already we had been bought a lot of drinks by the Professors and at the pool bar they bought a massive tower of beer and they wouldn't let us pay and then suddenly loads of Malaysian/Singaporean dancing girls came out of the woodwork like cockroaches - scantly dressed they were all over the Professors and vice versa - all a bit seedy. Then we got involved with weird rounds of Karaoke whilst thinking 'are we safe?' The girls then joined by even more girls all gathered around the pool table and performed a weird erotic dance- we found it most amusing but started to plot our escape. We didn't want to be rude but thought it best to get out of there - we had another drink + grabbed a hand full of pork scratchings which they seemed to love. We made the excuse that we were going out the back to smoke - the Professors at this stage were all pre-occupied with the dancing girls - out the back we saw a gap to get onto the street so we walked past the dodgy Chinese owner who was smoking and we smiled then legged it - we ran for ages and finally got a taxi back to the hostel - it was so funny because they were probably just being nice to us showing us around etc but our own paranoid panic attacks came in - that night I said to Erin ''I told them where we were staying!''
The next day the sun was shinning a gorgeous heat - we hadn't really explored Singapore at this stage. We walked around Clarke Quay and Boat Quay, it was so beautiful we couldn't get over how clean the place was - the office towers gleamed and even the litter pickers smiled - they had guys removing individual leaves from the water and you could tell Singapore was really proud of it's tidiness. It was funny how you could be fined for chewing gum. The business women and men looked so well dressed but in a cool and sharp way (not stressed). I was quite inspired by the big commercial companies and wanted to be working there.
We visited the oldest church in Singapore, an Armenian Church that the Professor had talked about. The famous Raffles Hotel was dreamy and we walked up to the Long Bar - we didn't dare go in in case we had to spend loads of money but to our suprise the Manager came out and gave us a lovely greeting, pulled us inside and took our photo- again more lovely people.
We took a ride on the MRT System (underground train) again it was so clean and cool. We landed in Marina Bay and a lovely local woman pointed us where to go. We found the Marina and Olympic Walk. We ended up in Palms Shopping Mall - wow! It was like the greatest shopping mall in the world! Louis Vitton had it's own island almost. There was even a river flowing through the mall - it was a vast shimmering spectacle of glass. I am not one for brands but Chanel, Gucci etc all looked so good - there was even a Ferrari shop with an F1 car inside. I'd love to see the Singapore grand prix. Above the mall lay the epic Casino - it even had palm trees right on the roof! The Professors had said that the Casino made more money than all the Casino's in Las Vegas put together!
We were really wowed by Singapore - clean living and Lamborghini's everywhere. The people were sharp and smart but not in a showy way. We checked out of the Prince of Wales Hostel and headed on the airport train - next stop Sydney, Australia!
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