Wandering Scotsman » Singapore

Leaving Asia :-( – in Singapore

admin — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 07:59:00 +0000

Well I post this quickly before getting my cab to Changi airport in Singapore. Once again, Singapore has eluded me and I’ve hardly seen anything of the city. Luckily I started speaking to two English girls when I arrived, over a beer and they asked if I wanted to go to the night safari with them and their mates to make up a full complement of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales. We missed their mates, but it got my lazy ass out to see it. It was quite good, saw a few animals I’ve never seen before, but I’m not sure if it lived up to the hype.

I was going to go for a wander around today but ended up sharing a cab to one of the electronics malls and buying another(!) external hard drive, then attempting to help out their indeciciveness buying a MacBook and a camera, so that’s about all I’ve seen. Had a great, relatively cheap, meal in a local Moroccan restaurant for lunch though.

This evening I fly to Sydney, then hang around the airport for a few hours to catch a Virgin Blue flight up to the Gold Coast. One night in Byron Bay then up to Brisbane to meet Tony.

Half the people in this excellent hostel (Sleepy Sams – nice vibe, great people, nice area in the traditional Malay area, and to top it off…. free wifi) seem to be heading to Australia today.

I’ll miss Asia, the people, the prices, the room-to-yourself, the food, any knockoff music and software you want, and all the places, sights and smells. Starting to look forward to some of the trips I’ve booked in Australia, and catching up with friends, but Asia – I’ll be back!! Thank you for great times!

(I’ve already got the option of crashing in Manila in the summer for free while my sister is travelling in her summer break…..oh ooooh!)

Cheesy City Quay picture

admin — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 17:10:00 +0000

Cheesy shot of me, taken by some random punter.

First Day In Singapore

admin — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 17:07:00 +0000

I had a very eay going day today. Last night I crashed around midnight, then woke up at 3.30am thinking of all the stuff back home, you know, work, etc (ok, the travel notes I never managed to copy, the mess I left behind and all that). Couldn’t sleep for two hours, so popped in the magic camping earplugs then prompty woke at 1pm to an empty hostel room. Initially I thought “bugger”, but then I thought “f*** it, it doesn’t matter, I can do whatever the f*** I want! It was obviously needed after the rush getting here.
Today was spent takign the No 33 bus from the BetelBox Hostel into town. I only discovered last night it is 7km from the centre, but it’s an easy bus trip to the centre, the staff are super friendly and can some up the things to see in record time, and it means beers are $5 instead of $15, a thai lemon chicken and beer is £13.60 instead of ….way more than that.
So, the trip to town was a walk through Chinatown (see pic), some peanut soup for an extortionate 33pence, then a wonder around until dusk. I then headed back to the comfort of my own private room (hmmm…. £10?) and vegged out. I have to come back to SIngapore for my flight to Sydney anyway, so now’s the time to relax!
Tomorrow will be a similar day, but staying locally. Depending on the time I get up I may not get far, or I may head to the “East Coast Beach” before I head over the causeway to Johor Bahru in Malaysia to get my flight to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo (this of course depends on whether immigration ask to see proof of my ticket out of Malaysia or not….erm….it doesn’t really exist within the visa timescales!!).