welcome respite

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arrived in singapore on the 10th. what a beauty. i arrived at 0100. took a cab to little india. didn't like the hostel and walked through little india to the other end. despite its being 0230 now i felt not in the least bit intimidated nor threatened. found a few other hostels but all were closed except one, and they told me they were full. two days later, i was to discover that this was a lie (and yes i was already in the hostel). i might have been upset if they hadn't saved me 20 sing. dollars(about 13US) and turned away other perspective guests keeping my hostel room of 6 beds to 3 occupants. back to the arrival night.

i met a few foreigners outside their hostel having drink. they said pull up a chair, that they'd be there all night (and they bought me beer as i had no sing. dollars and 7-11 doesn't take plastic). well they petered out at about 0500. so i walked to arab street to look for another hostel. it was in a pedestrian alleyway and closed, till 0800, of course. not to worry, there was a nice comfortable bench with padding. i fell asleep till the call to morning prayers at the local mosque at 0600?. the prayer call was short and i went back to sleep. woke up at 0730 to the sound of birdsong. this was amazing compared to the racket that would have been throughout the rest of my trip, and i was in a huge metropolitan area with monday morning traffic all around.

so i fell in love with the clean, QUIET, orderly and efficient city of singapore. the hostel was fine also. as a result i couldn't bring myself to leave. i stayed for 10 days before setting off. once in malaysia, i wished i had stayed a bit longer in singapore. c'est la vie!

ps. singapore is also filled with wonderful museums, architecture and good, cheap food with large portions.

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