Singapore

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I always get nervous crossing the border into another country. I even strain my neck looking inside the customs booth to see if my picture is on the wanted poster. Nope, all clear, now lets see if the dogs sniff out the seeds in my multi-grain bread. After getting through customs in Malaysia Laura and I spot a man with puffy black hair doing a jig and giving us the thumbs up. "Is that Borat?" I ask Laura. As we get closer we realize it's our van driver, he's so excited he shouts, "YOU MADE IT!" I look around nervously for a guard to ask to take a second look at our passports.

So now as we walk up to customs to get into Singapore I'm completely relaxed, like it's my second year in High School. Laura and I breeze through customs and wait on the platform for our bus driver. And then we wait, and wait. There is also an older man from our bus waiting with us. The man runs off to see if he can find the bus driver. I start to feel like I did in High School after a volleyball game when everyone's parents picked them up and you are left sitting on the steps. The young beginning teacher who thought it would be a good idea to coach their first year has to wait with you until your parents show up. "Something is wrong, our bus driver has left us," says the man who went to look for the bus; lets just call him "coach". "We will have to take the city bus in." Laura and I chug our Sunny D's, check to make sure our "Best Friends Forever" half-heart necklaces are latched and take off into the crowd after coach. In the end coach gets us onto the city bus, pays our way since we don't have any Singapore currency yet, and makes sure we are dropped off four blocks from our guesthouse. Thankfully there are guys like coach out there to even out the bad ones. Maybe the bus driver will be sent to Thailand to drive the Pai route.

Singapore is a great country. It is clean, has good public transportation, and is home of Sleepy Sam's GH. We stayed in bunk beds for $14 a night (clean and organized comes with a price) in rooms with warm colored walls, reading lamps, hip music playing, and free PB & J toast in the morning served with coffee.

Well, this is where Laura and I part. I am sad to say good bye to her, but also excited to continue on to Indonesia. I couldn't have asked for a better friend to start my trip out with.


Travel Info
Guest House: Sleepy Sam's: you will want to book ahead. You can do this online without giving out any credit card info.
Bus: Unfortunately being left at the boarder is not something new. I don't remember which company we went with, but I'm pretty sure it depends more on your driver. The lady who sold us the tickets gave us the address in Singapore we would be dropped off at and our bus was very clean and nice. Make sure to have some money with you in the correct currency and jump on a city bus; they come often.
Singapore Airport: super easy to get to on the rail, has free internet, free movies by the food court, swimming pool and workout gym.
Food: Hard to find cheap food, I was very hungry

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Photos

Side Street
Sleepy Sam's location

Raffles Hotel
Famous for inventing the Singapore Sling

Air Conditioners
Laura spotted this side street with tons of Air Conditioners

Hawkers Center
We went to this hawkers center where you can sample food from all different countries. It was a lot of fun.