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Elizabeth in...
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Summary/Explanation of the below (yes, this email needs one!):
The below email kind of took on its own form.. prob more like a journal than a snap shot view of what I'm up to. Wont be offended if you don't read it all - its bloody long! (and I don't often use profanities). In summary, I'm having a great time.. photos will follow at some stage - had a few issues with my camera and the computer disagreeing. Until then, read on if you're exceptionally interested (I hope one or two of you might be), or wait for my next summary of London (I'm sure it will be much shorter - tried to fit a lot into Singapore!).
Hope everyone is well.. hugs :o)
Elizabeth
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Good morning :o)
Well Day Two of my trip has just began. We had a fairly late night last night so slept in til about 9am (its now 10:49am local time). Have met quite a few ppl so far and have an action packed day ahead of me.
Here's a small reflection of the past two days:
It all started nice and early on Wednesday morning as I finished packing my backpack, worried that I would be taking too much. Met up with Paul and Sally (at Paul's flat) with my mum and sis, and headed out to the airport around 2.30pm (sooo glad I didn't have an early morning flight). On arrival, I managed to check in online as Sally lined up for me in the check in line (thanks Sal!) and were greeted by Al, Jim & Ady (can somebody tell me when ady gets an email address :o) ). After sorting out the particulars of money changing and photo copying important documents, we all went to the Irish pub for a drink (the guys made an early b-line for the beer as Sal and I sorted out the former). During this time Nan, Pop and Jan arrived and the whole group had the predictable (but nice) last photos taken (with mum standing on a bar stool for height.. lol). Soon enough it was time to go and we made it down to the departure point. After hugs.. and more hugs I finally said all of my goodbyes and went through the double doors. (thankyou to all who saw me off!)
I waited and waited for my flight to be called up for boarding (a bit unsure of whether I'd miss my flight because of my unfamiliarness to the procedures). Finally I was on the plane (yay.. window seat).. however was stuck beside a guy (..nice as he was) who had chicken arms and kept on changing the volume and channel of my in flight entertainment with his elbow, (for those of you who don't know.. the controls are found on the arm rest), quite annoying especially in the middle of various movies. Just after we passed over the great sandy dessert I spotted a storm system outside my window.. it looked pretty cool and saw quite a bit of lightning :o) The food wasn't as bad as my preconceptions.. (note to ady - only had two drinks).
Arrived in Singapore at approximately 9.45pm (12.45am Melb time). Once at the airport, I had fun trying to figure out exactly what I was doing.. never being in an international airport as an arrival before, I had to ask someone at the desk whether I had to collect my bags before checking in. :os poor naive me!! Checked through immigration then found my backpack (had problems fastening my day pack to it because it was too full!) then went through customs (& no I wasn't even looked at twice with my red hair :o) ). I decided to catch a taxi to the hostel - didn't really feel up to working out the bus system after the flight. The driver dropped me at the address, however it took me about ten minutes to find the place (I was expecting some sort of office by the street - however it just ended up being a door with the hostel name on it). Oh.. the place I'm staying is called the betel box.. the website if you want to check it out is www.betelbox.com.
I met some of the staff at the hostel whom were very nice and settled in for the night. Oh.. the temperature when I arrived was 29'C (apparently they're having a heat wave at the moment).
Thursday:
Woke up reasonably early and after discussions with TK (one of the guys who works at the hostel) I decided where I should go to purchase a digital camera. Went to a place called Funan.. you guys would have loved it! ..about 6 floors of electronics. They have a sign signally to the food court "geeks still need to eat". I spent most of my day immersed in all of the tech devices.. fortunately after looking at mobiles, notebooks and ipods (all of which I'm sure I could find a suitable use for *grin*), I made my bank balance happy and just settled for the camera I had set out to buy :o) (& and got it for about 200-250 cheaper than in Oz).
After my stint in Funan I stumbled through china town (makes our one in Melbourne seem very small). After convincing many of the shopkeepers I wasn't nterested in purchasing any men's suits.. or ties.. or fruit.. I made my way back to the hostel where I met with half a dozen other people and we set of on a 'food walk' around Singapore. Apart from getting to know some of the other people staying at the hostel, it was a good chance to explore all of the different cuisine available and find out more about the architecture and Singapore as a whole (quite a few years go they decided to turn old mangroves in habitable areas.. so they extended the beach 500 or so meters! & made Singapore larger in the process. Apparently all of the people who had formally had beach front houses were very upset!). The night went very well, and after visiting a Buddhist temple for their night ceremony, we ended up jumping in the tray on the back of Tony's ute (the guy who owns the hostel) and going for a nice drive to see the views from one of the glorified hills (Singapore is quite flat). (see the photos section). We finished off on the night club strip where we had some green tea.. but decided not to venture into the clubs as we were pooped! (plus it was 415 in the morning).
....& here's the next few days........ didn't send the above email coz I'm slack :op
Friday morning was fairly quite.. slept in for a bit and then sat around and played with my new toy for a few hours (digital camera). After lunch I headed to little India. I followed a tourist map and again admired all of the different types of architecture. My first main stop was a small art gallery where they had imported painting from India.. the guy who owned the gallery gave me a tour around :o). I also visited a wet market (fresh meats (chicken, seafood etc.), fruit and veg, spices etc) - called a wet market because the fish is kept cold by pouring ice on it (not refrigerated) and as it melts it makes the floor wet. I wore the most inappropriate shoes for the market (thongs) and ended up leaving with wet fishy smelling feet :os After the market I headed to a thieves market and picked up a new pair of Sony earphones for a dollar fifty. When I eventually stopped to fuel up on my liquids, I met a guy from Nigeria who is also traveling in Singapore alone and had a chat to him about his country and Australia:o)
After little India I made my way to Chinatown where I met some of the ppl from the hostel for tea. We ordered ourselves a feast to share between us :o) it was delectable however looked quite odd - think stir fry covered in uncooked egg white).. After tea I headed to the zoo with Jo (old Canadian lady) and Helen (young English girl) and we went on a night safari. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos :o( because we were driven around the zoo (45mins) and couldn't pause for long enough (was using a slow shutter speed coz I couldn't use my flash :o( ). However, we saw lots of animals.. from tigers to lions to flamingos.. to jackals.... well you get the idea! It was very interesting (especially the guide who spoke over a microphone in a voice akin to that you would use to read a scary book to an infant - ...oooh as we head deeper into the dark dark rain forest keep your eyes peeled for scary animals of the night.... etc). We also went to the night show (30mins) - where we were confronted with another strange zoo employee who was American and appeared to be imitating Steve Irwin!!
Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and headed on a nature walk with some other ppl from the hostel. We once again travelled in the back of the ute.. this time to two different nature reserves. The first was a walk to the highest point in Singapore ( Bukit Timah 164m).. a mouse in comparison to our Mt Kosciuszko at 2228m ...... however I soon discovered with the slopes how unfit I was! However managed to get through the journey (I've never seen half a dozen ppl sweat so much - the humidity is a killer for exercise!).
The next walk was the tree top canopy walk in MacRitchie Reservoir Park. This as more exciting than the other as we saw quite a few different types of wildlife on our 10km or so journey to and back from the actual canopy walk (suspension bridge 50m above ground level). Apart from seeing some colourful turtles and some lizards and squirrels.. jim will be happy to know we also saw lots of monkeys :o) whom were quite tame when we flashed them with our cameras. This reserves was located next to an ammunition factory.. as I was going to take a photo of a monkey in a tree near the front gate, I was promptly told I was not allowed to take photos that showed any part of the factory (we were also advised not to trespass what so ever because we would be shot on entry - and I mean we were told we would be well and truly shot - not afraid to test out their products apparently!). After our walks we decided to get some food, so headed to a Chinese restaurant (in the meantime it began to rain and we got well and truly wet in the back of the uncover ute! I borrowed a raincoat to put over my white top ... didn't think everybody would appreciate me holding a solo wet t-shirt competition!).
Anyway.. we headed back to the hostel and then made our way to the main city area (Bugis) to watch the England vs Ireland football match. On arriving we decided to have a few drinks while waiting for play to start at 11pm. We went to the Raffles Hotel and had a Singapore Sling..a must do while in Singapore, just as guiness is essential on a visit to Ireland (the cocktail was invented at the hotel around 1915). In the bar there were bowls of monkey nuts, we found it ironic that tradition dictates you drop the shells on the floor when littering is an offence in Singapore (so we chickened out and put the shells in an ashtray - affraid an official would jump out and take us into custody). The night went well (England won the soccer 4-0) and I enjoyed many cocktails (they were so cheap :o) - so much so that the boys switched from beer to cocktails because they were cheaper - no easy feat for some british and aussie lads).
Sunday morning I awoke to some new visitors (a Chinese family of three) who proceeded to yell at each other and woke most of the room at 7am. I promptly hid my head under my pillow! In the afternoon I went to the Singapore Art Museum which was really interesting (spent about 4hrs admiring the art work and listening to a local school group perform traditional music) and wandered down Orchard Rd no. 1 place for shopping). I picked myself up a new pair of glasses and coloured contacts (turquoize). When I eventually arrived back at the hostel at 9pm, Tony was kind enough to ring the rest of the group and find out where they were for tea.. so I ended up meeting up with them in the 'red light district' for a meal. Food wise I had some shark fin dim sum and tried some durian (nicknamed the king of fruits with its apparently wonderful flavour - also well known for smelling awful! - I found nothing royal about it.. tasted like leek.. but squishy :os).
Monday morning I was occusted by TK to give a new guest a tour around Singapore (apparently after 4 days I was a vetran). So me and Ross headed to the Singapore History Museum. It was very interesting reading about how modern Singapore was founded in 1819 by Stamford Raffles and how people lived before and after this (including WWII). After the museum we decided to put our feet up and go on the scenic Singapore River Cruise (in a traditional bumboat).
That night I had the most interesting tea in Singapore.. well the journey to tea anyhow.. Ross, I soon discovered, disliked pork, shelfish, spices and nearly every other type of food widely available! (later in the evening TK & I came to the conclusion that Ross was definately on the wrong continent!) After perusing more than 20 or so establishments, Ross settled on KFC :o( .. I, however, decided to have some cuttlefish from a nearby restaurant :o)
Monday night was.. umm.. very interesting to say the least. I sat up with the guys and drank some of the warm beer (the fridge was broken) and later Martin and I (the only ones still awake) went for an early morning walk.. where Martin (one of the Brits), proceeded to fall down a drain (not quite as bad as it sounds - but cut up his leg nicely).. I got stuck in a restaurant toilet and on discoving there was no loo paper, Martin (unbenounced to me) went for a walk to the local store to buy some (thought he would just ask at the restuant!!).. we ended up having Singapore Slings at around 9am in the morning at Raffles again.. and by the time we arrived back at the hostel (around 3pm), after all of our meanderings and more interesting antics, we both just passed out! (so glad I don't get hangovers.. however my feet killed!!).
Left Singapore in the early hours of Wednesday morning.. stopped over in Bahrain for around 4 hrs.. and now I'm in London :o) Been here for a day now.. haven't started on any interesting adventures yet... however managed to make a washing machine overflow at the laundry mat this morning (stupid old machines *elizabeth's ignorance gets the best of her* ) and might have landed a job in the process (in recruitment - for a large company, not the laundry mat :op - but wont start for another 2 months or so if I decide I'm interested).
Thats my trip up til now :o) more details to follow... hope it hasn't bored you too much :op
Hope everything is well at home.. *Elizabeth quietly wonders if anything interesting is happening*
Elizabeth
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