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November 8th - 22 today!!!
Scheduled on the 9:30am coach to Singapore, we got up early, packed our bags and headed to the café next door for a bite to eat. This time we were early enough for the breakfast menu so Tom had bacon and all that and I had toast (sadly only 1 slice came for my toast) but I made up for it with one of the lush Blueberry milkshakes!
Fully laden down we headed to the bus station where we had a bit of a wait. As new coaches came we showed our tickets, but each time were told ours was coming soon, until finally a grumpy worker radioed to someone about us and then said we had to go to a different stand. We walked down the station and boarded at last. The seats were big and wide, so there weren't very many. We sat near the back and got comfy-ish. Sadly, as our journey began we realised we were one the squeakiest, bounciest coach in the world!!! EVER!!! Our seats moved back and had leg rests that pulled out, which sounds great but the different positions didn't seem to be very locked in place. With every bump/dip in the road our seats bumped about. You can imagine after 6 hours of this we had definitely had enough!!!
The coach stopped for a break a few hours into the trip and we got off. We had a look around the hawker market at the food on offer and settled on yet another Dim Sum type sweet dough savoury filling dumpling - chicken this time (or at least that's what we were told).
As we neared Singapore the landscape resembled that of Jurassic park once again - lush green trees and lots of them! Leaving Malaysia we had to go through customs, which meant getting off the coach, queuing up, getting our passports stamped and then getting back on the coach. For one Indian man this was a little difficult and we nearly left without him! Since we had left Malaysia we then had to enter Singapore. Again we had to go through customs, but this time with our bags to be scanned. I was less than impressed with this and didn't believe Tom at first when he said we would be getting back on again. The Indian struggled yet again as we had to fill out customs forms - he didn't have a pen and I could see he was stood next to me, wanting to use mine but being a meany I avoided eye contact and moved on. It was our 'Lebua' pen and I didn't want to lose it!
Back on bouncy, squeak, broken suspension coach we crossed the bridge to Singapore - nearly there - wahoo! It was getting on for 4pm when we finally arrived…what a way to spend your birthday! The coach had dropped us off in Little India (something we worked out ourselves). We found a pay phone and began phoning round for somewhere to stay but places were either full or a bit expensive. In the end we chose 'Hangout @ Mt Emily', quite expensive but worth it thankfully! We decided to walk with our backpacks to where we chose to stay, but it turned out to be pretty far. Admittedly I got a bit moody but in my defense I was hot and struggling with the weight of my backpack (on my birthday!). To top it off the last leg of the walk was uphill, then up lots of steps! [A bit moody?? At one point I'm pretty sure she her eyes actually glowed red!!] What we didn't know until we arrived was that it was Depvali(celebrated by hindu's) which is why the area was so booked up. Walking through little India, there were loads of Indian men around but no women. I didn't really notice, probably because I was on a mission to get to the hostel, but Tom said the men were having a good look/stare at me as we passed! Nice!
We arrived at our destination and it was a funky hostel/hotel as it had dorms etc but the private rooms were basic hotel standard. There was also free net, tea and coffee and a neat roof top area with 'standing pool'. We made use of all the free facilities (good coffee) and also bought some tokens to use the washing/drying machines. For dinner we went to a 24 hour restaurant which was a short stroll away. We sat outside, as being so humid it was still really warm. "So" we said… "We're in Singapore!". Having moved around so much, we have to give ourselves little checkups on where in the world we actually are! We ordered a sharing platter and a pasta dish and both were tasty and rounded off the day nicely. We had a little chuckle at another couple sat nearby as the girl was playing on a PSP for the entire duration of their meal, breaking concentration now and again to eat/drink. Once they had finished the boy moved round to her side the table and they both played…the romance!! Hee!
Back at the Hangout we sorted the washing we needed to do into two piles and set out searching for the laundry room! We then went and used the net to check to check our emails and write some more blogs. It was at this point Tom saw a message from Richard and Jackie saying we could stay with them (R and J used to live in the same village as Tom's neighbour and the two families were friends, after emigrating to Australia many years ago, they were currently living in Singapore.) As they had given us a phone number, Tom called up and very quickly it was arranged for us to get a taxi to their apartment the next morning. We would then stay with them for our remaining two nights - we were so grateful! Feeling very relived knowing where we would be staying, we finished the blog we were on, did our washing (finally dried our washing after being unsure as to whether or not we should move the stuff hogging the driers - I went for it!) then went to bed; and oh how pleased we were to have a real bed, with covers and everything, to sleep in! Felt like at least 5 star compared to our KL living!
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