Saturday 25th September 2010

An enduring travel time of 24 hours and we finally made it to the destination we'd both been eagerly waiting for, Singapore. A six hour flight from Dar to Doha, a five hour wait in Doha and then a long lasting nine hours flight to Singapore. Having meant to fly from Dar Es Salaam to Singapore on the 29th, we decided that we were both ready for a cleaner and more bug free environment and hence changed our flights. Africa was definitely an amazing experience, but we felt there was little to do in Stone Town and Dar Es Salaam thereafter and would rather have more time in Asia. We were right...

Stepping off the plane into the Singapore airport was like arriving at a luxury 5 star hotel! There was a gorgeous indoor waterfall and what can only be described as an indoor wall garden as the walls surrounding the baggage claim area were covered with lush green plants. There were sweets as you went through immigration and everything was well sign posted. My favorite part was that it was super clean and new, especially the toilets that smelt of perfume and had anti-bacterial spray in the cubicles to clean the toilet seat. There was also an area for people to sit in chairs that gave an automatic foot massage. Plus there was no chewing gum to be seen as this is against the law in Singapore, which meant we had to leave our gum on the plane before we got off. We were already impressed and we hadn't even stepped outside yet!

Getting to our hotel was also easy enough as Singapore has an efficient subway system, so getting a train here was like in London, you only needed a tube map. We made our way down to the station after exchanging our money. Our first few minutes at the station and we could tell that Singapore intended to make their citizens considerate and courteous, although Mark would say 'obedient' citizens. There were signs everywhere ensuring public areas were kept in order! As our train approached, there was a very catchy jingle as we boarded the train, "the train is coming, the train is coming, get queuing, love your ride!" I thought it was highly entertaining, but Mark was annoyed after a few times and he believed this was just one of the signs that Singapore was a 'nanny' state. The train was clean, air conditioned and the stop on the map in the tube lit up when we were arriving at that stop. There were more jingles reminding us not to eat or drink on the train too. The jingles were so catchy I couldn't help but repeatedly sing them for the entire time in Singapore, not to Mark's liking!

After our very quick journey, we arrived at Kallang Station, just east of central Singapore (Singapore is a very small island city). According to our map, we had to go right once out the station and it wasn't too far. We walked for a while not being able to spot the hotel. The humidity was stifling and lumbering our bulky bags around had made us soak with sweat. Ugh! Mistakenly, we had gone the wrong way so in the end we had to get a taxi, which actually just happened to be a 30sec ride away, just left out the station. Oops!

Hotel was owned by a quirky small Chinese man, who was extremely helpful, but at times a bit nutty. The hotel was one of the cheapest options in Singapore, as it was so expensive there. For £45 a night we got a basic small room, but it was mega clean, bug free and had a/c. We later realized why it was on the cheaper end of the hotels, as down the street was Singapore's Red Light District! We even had a working tv unlike when we were in Africa, that played an awesome movie channel.

The best thing about Singapore was that we met Lin, a friend of Mark's. Having facebooked her in Dar, we thought we might be able to meet up for a drink at some point while in Singapore. She had amazingly offered to pick us up from the airport and go out and have dinner, but being shattered from all the traveling we took a raincheck. Instead Mark and I walked down the road to a lively place recommended by Lin that had local food. Both of us were excited at the thought of having Asian food and something different to what we had in Africa. The restaurant was very busy and was packed with locals getting a quick bite to eat on plastic chairs and tables on the pavement. The huge menu was lit up on the wall of the restaurant, which the waitress ushered us to choose something from. Mark went for a beef curry that Lin suggested would be good and I searched all the dishes for something that vaguely looked vegetarian. This was hard, though I managed to ask for some mushrooms which I'm sure were cooked in oyster sauce, but I quickly realized this was about to happen a lot in the commencing months over Asia! The language barrier meant that I couldn't clarify exactly what vegetarian meant and I found that most of Singapore had not heard of vegetarians. Nonetheless, the food was delicious (probably the fish sauce!) and mega cheap and it was great watching couples, friends, families dropping by for a quick bite at the many eateries replacing the English pub as the place to socialize.

Feeling full, we decided to take a wander, checking out the area around our hotel. It was midnight and yet the streets were still bustling with people eating or having a drink. The fruit markets were still open, as were the many mobile phone shops. Mark and I felt extremely safe walking around, as the locals were too busy or chilled out to even notice us. Sleepily we walked back to get a goodnights sleep to be ready to start our next adventure in Singapore.

Tejal & Mark x