Arriving in Singapore

Upon entering Singapore you are immediately struck by the organisation, politeness and cleanliness of the place. This creates a striking contrast when arriving there from a place like Bangkok. We had no idea where we were going, no map, no place to stay, no currency.... nothing. We headed straight for the tourist information centre, located at the Airport, where we found a few backpacker hostels. After calling several, we eventually found one that could put us up for the night. We jumped into a taxi (which was actually a limo car, meaning we paid 5x the actual journey cost) and within 10 minutes we were there.

We were in bad shape for our first night, after travelling for literally 2 days, we were obviously very tired. As it was Chinese New Year, our hostel put on a little do. We were all treated to a buffet, free beer and the tossing and eating of "Yu Sang", a Chinese-style raw fish salad. Besides being full of flavors and textures, yu sheng is loaded with symbolic meaning. The raw ingredients signify the renewal of life, and the sound of the word for fish in Cantonese sounds like the word for prosperity. The most important (and fun) part of eating yu sheng is the mixing together of the ingredients. To ensure good luck for the coming year, everyone calls out "Lo hei!"-which means "to mix it up" but also sounds like "to prosper more and more"-while they use their chopsticks to toss the ingredients as high in the air as they can. Now that's what I call a well-tossed salad! This got a bit messy as you imagine.

Despite being almost dead on our feet, later that night we somehow ended up in the centre of Singapore, in a place called Clarke Quay, having a few drinks with our new friends. For anyone thinking of visiting Singapore, Clarke Quay is well worth a visit, but make sure you take a well loaded wallet as it can get very expensive. There is a serious amount of money flowing through that area. You are likely to see top of the range Lamborghinis, Ferraris and lots of flash gits, living the playboy lifestyle.We treated ourselves to a Singapore Sling, had a few more beers and then retired for the night.

The Inn Crowd

On our second day, we decided to move to a hostel which was in a better location. "The Inn Crowd" had been recommended to Drew and looked pretty damn good from the website and brochure so we got ourselves booked in and over there. I have a lot of good things to say about this hostel and would recommend it to anyone staying over in Singapore. Free internet, wireless, clean, tidy, good value, helpful staff, lots of cool people, events organised daily... the list goes on. For several days, this became an ideal place to recharge (both our electronics and our bodies), get some tasks done and explore Singapore.

More to Come...