Pig's Organ Porridge

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'Singapore is not Asia', a French woman had boldly announced over an Indian breakfast. She had been living in Asia for over 20 years and had reached her conclusion spending the last 2 in this modern, organised and litter free city. Singapore is what every city should be; well planned and easy to navigate. If you want to get from the far east to far west, you can probably take the whole journey without even seeing the sunlight, through a variety of interlinked malls and underground passages which are lined with the likes of Rolex stores amongst numerous 7/11s.

We had arrived into Singapore from Sydney, on the 'short' flight of just under 8 hours, we were informed by our sales assistant back in STA Sydney. Qantas airlines were a real treat for us, and we have to say we were pretty impressed. Upon entering the plane we were presented with menus, and a timeline specifiying when we would be served each of our many snacks. This was great for Kate who loves to know exactly when everything is going on. Throughout the journey we were provided with a main meal (with the usual added extras of salad, cheesy biscuits and desserts), a little while later came the 'ice-cream' round which was peach sorbet with ice cream, then we had a hot chocolate, and then fruit if you wished. We were offered 'another bottle of wine madam?' every time the attendant passed. Luke had his first ever whisky on the rocks which he has been intending on trying throughout the whole of the trip but had not got round to. We were treated like royalty, and even more exciting our entertainment system included brand new blockbusters, as well as many series such as Wife Swap which of course we caught up on. The flight ended far too soon for our liking, but we had finally made it into Asia.

As we exited the airport armed with an annotated map kindly provided to us by a lovely girl on tourist information, we were a little shocked to find that we had to form an orderly queue for a taxi. And that taxis were parked in numbered spaces, and we were directed to the appropriate spaces by no less than 3 people, which was excessive considering our taxi was in space 4. We didn't need to haggle as the taxi was metered, another welcome surprise, so we jumped in and headed into the city centre. We had decided to stay in Little India as this was cheaper than the apparently more hip Chinatown. It was still £9 each a night which was expensive by Asian standards so we have been told. This price got us a bed in a dorm with a shared bathroom, although these dorms are very different to the dorms back in South America. Sharing our quarters were two men from India and 1 man from Malaysia, all visiting the city for business purposes. They snored like wild animals, got up at the crack of dawn, took conference calls, and thought nothing of disturbing the peace at 6am. Unfortunately our hostel was fully booked for the following night so we had to move down the road for more of the same for the next two nights.

On our first day in Singapore we managed to see a variety of what the city had to offer. We decided to walk down the main road in Little India, then made our way towards a market area known as Bugis, where there was still hustle and bustle going on from the recently celebrated Chinese New Year. We mooched through a variety of arcades and hawker markets which was a great experience, and we marveled at the prices of goods from toenail clippers to mountain bikes. After spending the morning looking at tit tat, we continued our journey towards the Raffles Hotel. The hotel has become a tourist hotspot and you are able to freely enter the courtyard and bar area, which has opened a number of upmarket shops such as Tiffany Jewellers, to accommodate the visitors. We had intended to have a Singapore Sling the famous cocktail, but it was around £10 for one and not really worth it in our opinion. The courtyard was very beautiful with a variety of flowers and plants and outdoor restaurants.

After Raffles we headed down to the Marina Bay Sands resort area. This was just another short walk away, although not easy as the temperature was stifling. We were glad for the numerous malls along the way in which we appreciated the air conditioning. Marina Bay Sands was exactly what it set out to be- true decadence. A winding steel bridge connected the resort to the mainland, where the Marina Bay Sands hotel stood with it's strange profile. It actually looks like a boat suspended on three columns. So we took the bridge over to the resort where we were greeted by the best mall yet- brands we coudn't even imagine affording plastered the billboards, entire shops selling just soap or something equally ridiculous, and a mini Venice running through the lowest floor, where one could take a gondala ride around the mall. To get into the Marina Bay Sands hotel we had to pass through their casino, then up into the entrance (this was all underground). Then we entered from one lobby into the real entrance where we were greeted by smartly dressed women who opened the doors for us. We were thankful not to be the only non-guests there, standing out in our worn clothes and dusty flip flops. Fortunately the hotel is another tourist trap and we had to battle our way through into the entrance, this may have also been related to the fact that it was the night before Valentine's day. We wandered through one of the 'columns' which was actually huge and quite an interesting design from the inside. Unfortunately staying at the hotel was out of our budget at over £200 a night, but we did consider it for one teeny second.

From the Marina Bay we finally gave in and caught the metro to Chinatown for some lunch. The metro was the most modern underground (or overground for that matter) train system we have ever come across. Everywhere was fully air-conditioned, including the trains. Riders were protected from any pollution as there were doors in the platform area which only opened when the train had arrived. There were also timers which counted down the time to the next train. We arrived in Chinatown which was all hustle and bustle and a million miles away from the life at Marina Bay Sands, although in reality it was probably less than 2 miles. We stepped from the metro station into another arcade, this time filled with Chinesey things including a variety of food stands, and many people trying to sell massages, herbal treatments, eyebrow shaping, electronics, and bags. Luke ended up purchasing a new backpack with wheels, which was ironic considering he mocked Katie when she suggested the idea back at home. We had some lunch in a big open food court which sold mostly 'exotic' foods such as intestines and other organs. Katie opted for a cup of hot corn with butter and salt, which is all the rage over here and incidentally one of her favourite foods. Luke had noodles with roast chicken and pork but was disappointed as they were pretty poor. We spent a good portion of time photographing some of the most ludicrous items on menus, much to the locals' puzzlement.

After Chinatown we headed back to our new hostel, as we were pretty exhausted. We had gone back in time 3 more hours, so our bodies were working overtime to fight the jetlag that we still hadn'trecovered from in back Sydney. We were really excited to learn that the film 'The Proposal' was showing on the TV in the hostel so we settled down with a bag of pistachios to enjoy.

The following day we were woken before 6am to the lights being switched on in our dorm. A man at the foot of Luke's bed was rustling around packing bags and generally making a lot of noise. Turning the light on in a dorm when people are sleeping is a big deal. It's one of those unspoken rules that you just know you don't do. Well this guy was completely oblivious, and this time Luke had had enough. He sat bolt upright and demanded to the man 'what do you think you are doing, it's 6am?!' The guy replied that he was packing his bag for work. Luke told him in no uncertain terms that he should have done it the night before, and why on earth was he using the big light when he had his own bedside lamp. Shortly after another guy 2 bunks away started taking a call that went on for a good 20 minutes. It was difficult enough to sleep with our jetlag, so we gave up and after a cringey shower in the cringey bathrooms (think bins of used toilet paper wet from the shower- whoever designed the wetroom ought to be shot) headed out for some breakfast.

We had stayed in Little India in the vain hope of being able to score ourselves some world class curries. As of yet we had still not chanced upon a single curry house, everything seemed to be Chinese or seafood. At the recommendation of an extremely helpful lady in our hostel, we headed out to another main road in Little India, where our search was rewarded. We found a little vegetarian Indian restaurant which was heaving. For breakfast we ordered battura with potato curry and chickpea masala, and it was to die for. The locals clearly agreed as the place was packed and we were pretty much ushered out before swallowing the last mouthful. Full of food we headed to the metro station to begin our journey to Sentosa Island.

Sentosa Island is a little resort island just off the coast of Singapore (probably less than 500 metres). We were originally worried we would have to pay a sky high price to take the gondala across, but quickly learnt that Singapore always takes things to another level, and there were in fact 4 ways of reaching the island, possibly 5. We could take the monorail- an extension of the metro, we could take the gondala, we could drive by road, or walk along the walkway. Obviously we chose the free option which was to walk, but were relaly impressed when even the walkway had moving escalators so you didn't even have to walk. Added to that the walkway was all under shade, and filled with fans, and decorated with so many beautiful flowers. We arrived at the island which is a millionaire's family friendly playground filled with parks such as Universal Studios, zipwires, the only bobsleigh in Southeast Asia, segways and man-made friendly swimming beaches. We had been dying to see a beach so decided to head to the 'Palawan' beach which is incidentally the 'Southernmost tip of Continental Asia'. Admission to the park was 1 Singapore dollar, which is 50p. In a money saving drive we decided to walk to the beach which didn't look too far, but when we enquired we were told that the monorail was free. Again, not to look a gifthorse in the mouth we decided to take the monorail which was a great way to see the island and the many parks. We were a little shocked to see the place was literally empty- hopefully it will become busier in years to come when more people know about it as it relatively new right now, and some areas are still being finished. But this place is really fantastic.

We reached the beaches and decided on 'Palawan' as this is a name of an island in the Philippines that we are planning on visiting, so we will be able ot compare at a later date! The sand was soft and beautiful but you could tell the beach was man-made as you only had to dig your hands down a little to find a layer of concrete. The sea was pertty dark and there was a lot of smog in the atmosphere due to the busy port not far away. Despite this we had a really nice day on the beach, and for all that the island has to offer this beach is more than decent enough to spend a few days if you were on a family holiday, which we guess the resort is aimed towards.

The real beauty of the place is that it is like Disneyworld. Everything is designed how you would imagine it in a fairytale. The beach was a beautiful shaped bay with a little island which could be reached by a wooden bridge. We crossed the bridge and climbed a pagoda style wooden lookout point to get a good view over the beach. After our day sunning, we took the monorail back to the mainland as if was free! It was Valentine's day and this is clearly a big celebration in Asia. Around 50% of women who passed up were carrying bunches of roses or teddies or other gifts. We decided to walk all the way back to our hostel through Chinatown, where there was a night market. We were quite excited to see that they sold egg custarts which we haven't seen since Gregg's back at home! We had a few as they were pretty cheap- the Chinese seem to have business down to a 't' here; selling things off at cheaper prices at the end of the day- something we are very reluctant to do back home. We would often sooner throw stuff away than sell it for less than it's worth. We headed to a mall that was just footsteps from out hostel and at least double the size of the Bullring for some dinner, and ended up with KFC which wasn't bad at around £2.50 a meal- Valentine's treat! After dinner we headed back to the hostel where we packed ready for our bus journey the following day into Malaysia.

The following morning we headed out for another Indian breakfast where we met the lady who had boldly informed us that Singapre is not Asia. We had not yet seen anymore of Asia, but we were already inclined to agree. The city works. Everything about it- the transport, the infrastructure- it is so well designed, and although we had spent a very small time there we had quickly been able to draw these conclusions. After breakfast we headed to one of the oh-so-popular money changers where we changed all of our Singapore dollars into ringgits, apart from 5 dollars for our bus journey to cross the border. We then headed down to the bus terminal to catch a bus bound for Malaysia.

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Comments

[zee]

BEST photos yet!!
This was great for Kate who loves to know exactly when everything is going on. - HAHAH me too!! Omggggg i cannot believe how amazing this place looks!!!!!!!!!!! I deffo want to go to Singapore one day!! Saw the pics on facebook and they were so amazing, I made seb look at them haha! Hope you're well! XXX