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Noy's 4th Walkabout
Well we arrived in Singapore 90 minutes late but had an amazingly quick immigration into the Republic of Singapore. This must be the first country we have encountered that actually wants you to come in! The laws are strong enough and enforced enough for everyone to be treated as friendly UNTIL they do something wrong...then, most of you already know, justice is handed out with a heavy hand and no mercy. Immigration took all of two minutes - customs clearance was not even noticed; we just walked out the door! This in comparison to Bali where we had to go through the RED channel because we were carrying CD's and DVD's given to us by friends but because they are trying to make a stand against corruption there are heavy penalties for carrying any counterfeit goods. The fact that they appear to make a lot in Bali itself is beside the point!
Back to Singapore; a taxi whisked us into the city and our hotel without any fuss and costing only 22 Singapore Dollars (SGD). One SGD is worth about the same as a Kiwi $...about 2.85 to one UK pound. Tired and having had a meal on the plane (nice too!) we opted to stay in our room, toast our arrival in sparkling pink grapefruit juice (how sad is that? No champagne in the mini bar!) and Richard rejoiced in finding an internet connection in the room and promptly ignored Jill for nearly two hours while uploading loads of photos for you to equally promptly ignore (if you've got any sense!!). Traders Hotel, where we are staying, is part of the Shangri-La Group and VERY nice. They claim this is for the "mid-market" traveller - well we know a lot of "top-end" ones who would be very satisfied with this one!
We spoke to Thomas Cook in the UK because our itinerary had included a tour of Singapore but, as Richard feared, Qantas Holidays had ignored that request and also their office failed to answer the phone on Saturday morning; so we assumed the worst and carried on regardless. Taking another taxi down to the city centre we found the base for the strangely named "Hippo Bus"! It's an open top double-decker service which ahs to interlinking routes which you can hop on and off all day. We stayed on both for one complete circuit and it from the top deck that the photos we've put up for you now have come. Traffic is quite hectic and Richard apologises for the poor quality of some of the shots because we were often thrown about by the stop-start nature of the journey and we never seemed to be stationary for long enough anywhere! After the two circuits we went over to "Little India" for a walk through their streets. Richard wanted a new battery for his watch but instead found only that the whole area sold new watches for the cost of a battery in the UK! We visited the Mustafa Centre which is a massive departmental store, the first one to offer 24/7 shopping the whole year round. We were directed across the road to try and find a battery for the watch and Richard ended up paying a lot more than he planned...not for a battery but for a new lens for his digital camera. The salesman was very good (says Richard); either that or Richard was very gullible (says Jill!). The watch STILL does not work! Every five minutes the cry goes out to Jill - "What's the time now?!"
Singapore has four groups of people (4.5 million on a main island only 26 miles across and 15 deep at the most!) living in near harmony; they are Malay, Indian, Chinese and minority groups including English. They claim to be a secular state where no religion is given prominence and during the course of our first day we have seen Mosques, Hindu and Taoist temples, Methodist, Catholic and Anglican Churches, often in very close proximity to one another. Is it a coincidence that this place seems more at peace with itself and that we feel more at home here? West meets East here just as in Hong Kong but our first impressions are of a far more urgent city which is in touch with its soul and those of its people...unlike HK which seemed sterilised and only functional. Everything seems to work (well) and they boast of trains and buses which run to time, though how the latter do it in the crazy traffic we've seen is anyone's guess!
The heat gets to you by about 11.00. Even some of the locals were complaining and one of our drivers said we'd have been better coming in the rainy season because the air is less oppressive. We went back to our hotel for a shower and to do some washing before hitting the trail again, this time in search of FOOD. We found the heat had taken some of our zest for travel away so we cheated, we went down to our fourth floor in the hotel to sample "Ah Hoi's Kitchen". Ah Hoi was a famous Chinaman in Singapore but since the waitress took the menu away before we'd finished reading the history we can't really tell you what it is! We had a Chinese feast and went to bed contented and ready for the next day's fray. We decided to go to Sentosa an island linked to the mainland on which Singaporeans and tourists relax side by side. It's LIKE a theme park but really just a small island packed with things for everyone to do. The photos will give you a flavour but it would appear that this is somewhere else to which we have to return with grandchildren!
We'd booked a "Singapore by night" tour to end our stay so went back to change into smart casual as the last port of call would be to Raffles Hotel. Before that, though, we'd gone to a restaurant by the river and cooked our own meat (salmon for Jill and steak for Richard) at the "Hot Stones restaurant". We ate as the sun went down and right opposite us was "Raffles landing" where Sir Stamford raffles is alleged to have alighted on Singapore soil before founding the city which became such an important part of our colonial empire and trading. After that we went to Bugis Market where 600 stalls vie for the privilege of taking your money. We didn't spend a penny until Richard spotted a watch stall claiming to change watch batteries!! SUCCESS - in 30 seconds he was deprived of $8 but given back his watch in perfect working order once more! So to "Raffles" - for the obligatory Singapore Sling, a drink which was quitge nice but nothing special, even if they do charge $20 a go, about GBP8.00. the chance to walk through the hotel was quite something, even though we weren't allowed in the lobby. We went home and straight to bed; tomorrow was an early start and our last new country, Malaysia. It's going to have to be something to beat Singapore, which goes down on the "must return" list.
Lots of love for now from us both...counting down and only six days (when we wrote this!) till we're home! R&Jxx
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