Hello Singapore! After catching up on the latest movies in KL, I hopped on a bus to cross the border into Singapore. It was a hell of a lot easier than the bus from Chile to Argentina- this one only took about 5 minutes and was a cinch. I’ve heard lots of hellish stories about people having to pay bribes in order to get their entrance stamp or visas, which is why I’ve been flying across most borders. I’ve been lucky.
While in Malaysia, millions of bed bugs decided they wanted to be my best friends. They wouldn’t leave me alone and decided it’d be fun to sleep with me and ride around town all day on my clothes. Talk about clingy! No, seriously, it was absolutely awful. Their favorite area to munch on was my face- I looked like a 12 year-old with major acne after they finished their feast. Besides how awful I looked, the bites itched like crazy. They were way worse than mosquito bites simply because there was no relief. No matter which creams I applied or how much/little I scratched, the itching didn’t cease for 5 days. NOT FUN! The bites were also all over the rest of my body, but I was mostly concerned with the ones on my face. I stayed in three different rooms at that hostel too, so I guess the entire place was infected, even after they claimed they’d fumigated the joint. They wouldn’t give me any money back either because they insisted it wasn’t their fault. After doing 2 loads of laundry and making my way to Singapore, the bites finally began to subside and are all gone now. I repeat, NOT FUN, but very happy my new bug friends finally decided to ditch me.
Luckily, my hostel in Singapore was bed-bug free and in a central location by this big Mosque on Arab Street. I ended up spending a lot of my time with my Japanese pen-pal Shizuka. I met Shizuka in New Zealand at a hostel in Queenstown in 2005 and we only talked for a few hours in person, but have kept in touch via email ever since. She had moved to Singapore a few months prior to live with her Canadian boyfriend Neil. We spent a day at Sentosa Island, which is this little Disneyland-esque piece of land about 2 minutes away from Singapore itself, complete with fake sand beaches, foam pool parties, and the most southern part of continental Asia. We enjoyed tea poured by the local “tea-master” from a golden pot with a 4 foot long spout, drank some Tiger Beer (made in Singapore), and did some luge-ing down a hill on little sleds. That night, Neil and Shizuka took me to Newton Circus to try some Singaporean specialties from the hawker stalls (basically a giant food court). If you’re alone, you have to find a seat, mark your place with a non-valuable item (most Singaporeans use a pack of tissues or water bottle), go get your food and return to your saved seat, in hopes that no one stole your place or your tissues! I learned the hard way that if you get your food first, you end up wandering around for a good part of an hour trying to find an empty spot with a tray full of boiling soup.
During my long weekend in Singapore, I tried the following: avocado mousse topped with strawberry ice cream, an avocado/coconut milk shake, Eight Treasures Chinese tea, stingray, and lots of carrot cake (neither carrot nor cake, but actually made from radishes I believe). There’s actually a film at Cannes now called Conversations over Carrot Cake, which was made in Singapore.
That night, 3 more of Shiz/Neil’s friends joined us at Newton Circus and we searched for a bowling alley for 3 hours and finally concluded that they simply don’t exist in the city/country. We settled for a few games of pool and I stayed out ’til the wee hours of the morning. It was SO nice to have a group of friends to play with!!
The next afternoon, I took the MRT to Orchard Rd to check out the shopping scene. I was way too overwhelmed by the ubiquitous malls. They were EVERYWHERE and all GIGANTIC. I love shopping, but this was just too much. Plus, nothing was cheaper than I’d get at home, so I didn’t make any purchases. I met up with Shizuka and Neil for Moroccan food and a pot of delish mint tea that night and then headed off to Vietnam the next day!
Overall, Singapore IS very very very clean. There are garbage cans on every corner with signs proclaiming, “Singapore- litter free.” The fines for littering are huge. People aren’t even allowed to bring this smelly fruit called durian onto the trains and busses. Of course I asked about the no-gum chewing rumors. Turns out, you are allowed to chew gum…if you can get your hands on it. It is illegal to sell gum there, but if you happen to have it from someplace else, I guess you’re allowed to chew away. Even though I did have some delicious blackcurrant mint gum from Thailand, I didn’t want to risk getting my ass caned!
I think it was really good for me to spend a few days in such a modern country. Being in a place so much like home totally revitalized me for my last month abroad.
I added a link to my Singapore pics in the blogroll.
xo
