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Published: February 17th 2013
The last leg of our train trip was more reminiscent of travel in the rest of SouthEast Asia. The tracks were out, so we had to take a train until Kluang, then a bus to the border, then a train from Johor Bahru to Singapore. It all went seamlessly, though of course took a little longer. However, arriving to Woodlands Checkpoint was not as welcoming as we expected, adn there was no information to be had, no ATMs and no exchange. We managed to change some of our money at the mall enxtdoor, but we were lucky our hostel had sent us transfer information (we did not yet know that Singapore taxis are very affordable). A bit before midnight, we were at our hostel, the Inn Crowd. It was clean and simple and pretty much just what we expected, the staff were super nice. We managed to find some yummy dinner at a little Indian place down the street and crashed on our IKEA bund beds until we aoke the next morning, well after 11am. We clearly needed it.
The atmosphere at the hostell was really friendly, but it was pretty crammed, which meant every time we had to check
Chinatown
entering Chinatown in Singapore there are two great dragons guarding the area, one in each endsomething on our computer (and we had a lot to check, between Laos and the train we had had no time to plan our future travels or book anything) we were always ending up in a friendly conversation with the people next to us. Everyone was super nice, but we didn't want to spend the next 4 days on the computer, so I guess we tried to be a bit antisocial. Also living in a dorm involves a lot of rules, where to put things, where you can put your stuff, when to shower, when to turn on the lights, and you can never just leave all your stuff in your room, especially your valuables. You always have to plan ahead, and lock things up, and move stuff around, usually while there are people sleeping around you who you may want to try and avoid waking up (if for no other reason then they will probably wnat to talk to you and then you will never get out of the hostel). Ok, so we had been spoiled. But 3 nights were enough.
We spent the first day updating and booking, as well as shopping around for cheap used camera
equipment, and buying new camera equipment instead, as well as picking up a package from Oyvind's parents containing a dress, some much-needed dental floss and our health cards for Australia. We did happen to walk through the Colonial District as well as a bit of Little India and Kampong Glam, and we did eat dinner at Glutton's Bay, where the master hawkers reside (and where Sadie finally ate chendol!), catching the sunset over Marina Bay Sands and the skyline, but this was mostly accidental, though scrumptious and beautiful indeed. Our second day involved another trip to the post office to releave our poor backs of 5 kilos of accumulated things (the mail system in Laos is unreliable at best), more food court eating (anyone who says Singapore is not a foodie town must have been somewhere else) and walked to the Gardens by the Bay, which did impress us with their futuristic design but did not tempt us enough to pay the admission to go inside the domes. We had been trekking in the jungle, and live next to the forest. Had there been butterflies or birds to tempt, but there were just plants (and many imported from temperate climates,
Gardens by the bay
Its a quite futuristic view walking through the gardens by the bay, and it will probably be even more fantastic as the flowers cover everything a "rarity"), so we decided to save our spending for the next days. That night we met Montse, Sadie's friend from high school living and working in Singapore, for dinner at Lau Pa Sat for some excellent satay. We had a great time and caught up, and walked by the bay just as the light show on the Marina Bay Sands was starting, so we stayed to watch. We even got to see her office, and got a glimpse of her lifestyle. It was luxurios by any standard, new and modern, and we were definitely impressed.
The next morning we moved to Montse's apartment to stay with her our last two nights in Singapore. Her place has a huge wall of windows overlooking the skyline, and we really felt like we had upgraded 😊
We decided to be proper tourists and took the cable car over to Sentosa Island, and went to Underwater World. Sentosa is like a giant theme park on an island, full of tempting propositions from water parks to zip lines, and one could easily spend the day spending tons of money and doing fun stuff. We opted to just do Underwater World, as there
Jump of joy
We had such a great time at Sentosa island so Sadie and Montse just had to jump around at the beach are no big aquariums in Norway and Oyvind had never even seen a dolphin show! We were not disappointed. The dolphin show was great, and the underwater walkway had us saying wow at every turn. There were sharks and sting rays and all kinds of sea animals. It was really worth it and we were really glad we went, we were just like the kids visiting the place, running up to the glass and pointing to everything we saw, as if we were the only ones who could see it...
Montse joined us and we took the cable car back, and got ready for dinner with a bunch of her friends. Chilli crab was on the menu and we were really excited. Poor Montse had gone to a ton of trouble getting all her friends together and trying to find a gerat chilli crab place that could seat us all and where there were no tourists. She surely did it! The Kim's Place branch she found was (to everyone's surprise) in the middle of an industrial area. Every one of her friends came laughing, and their taxi drivers couldn't believe all these expats were going to this out-of-the-way place.
Chilli crab bonanza
We enjoyed a superb meal at Kims, but as the chilli crab was good, the butter crab was amazing, like a thousand hot dogs! Well, the food was amazing, the chilli crab had great company of butter crab and black pepper crab and about 15 other dishes (all expertly ordered by Keeman, who suddenly became the chief of the evening as he was the only native Singaporean there at the time of ordering - and ordering at any Chinese place is a long, arduous negotiation) and we all had a great time, completely ignoring our surroundings.
Most of us went on to Timber, a great local place for live music (everything in Singapore is cover bands only, fyi) and the band was really great. Sadie proved her lack of hipness by getting up on stage and dancing to gangman style but not knowing any of the moves, and we all had a great time.
We slept in the next day, and awoke to pouring rain, so we decided against the Night Safari at the zoo, and after a late brunch and manipedis for us and a much-needed pedicure for Oyvind (a first!), we all went for a stroll on Bugis Street and Chinatown, the latter was impressive and really gearing up for the upcoming New Year. Decorations everywhere, everything was full of
stalls selling every Chinese ornament imaginable, and the alleys were packed. We finally went to the street food stalls for our last meal in Singapore, gorged ourselves once again, and headed home to repack and get ready for our next adventure. We were so lucky to have Montse to help us plan our days and take us to some of the best places, it made it so much more fun, and it was great to be with someone we already knew and knew us, for once, as close to coming home as we have been on this trip!
- favorite Singapore meal: Kim's Place!!!! yum yum yum thank you Montse!
- Singapore surprise: super affordable taxi rides 😊
- favorite Singapore tourist experience: taking the cable car and seeing Underwater World (and taking silly pcitures with Montse!)
- next time: Coup d'Etat (it was raining so not worth it for the view) and the Night Safari
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