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Published: September 16th 2008
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Orchard Road
The heart (sort of) of Singapore Singapore was pretty uneventful for us, mostly because we were on a budget but particularly because it was just a whistlestop- 1 and a half days and 1 night before we flew out to Indonesia for the last leg of our epic South East Asian adventure. After getting through customs (the most thorough of any country we'd encountered in the last 5 months), we booked into the stupidly overpriced YMCA on Orchard Road and although we were paying London prices, it gave us a good central base for our time there and was nice and clean, with a decent breakfast.
From what we saw of the centre of the city- it was pretty nice- a world away from most of the places we'd visited in the last couple of months. Clean (but surprisingly not living up to the 'super clean' label that it's earned over the years), busy (along its pavements, Orchard Road apparently boasts the largest number of shopping centres in the world) and efficient (bus and train travel was great value and on the money every time for us). On the first night we visited the zoo, mainly for the night safari that it's so famous for. Zoos
Boys will be boys
Some shiny looking children at play at Singapore's harbour aren't really our thing persay, but we found that because of the space each type of animal had and the effort they'd gone to in order to recreate various habbitats and environments (no cages or pens), the experience was an informative and enjoyable one. We got to see lots of animals (pictures are all blurred and useless I'm afriad) but I think the rhinos were our favourites.
The next day we visited the CBD and harbour area. It was actually the nation's 50th birthday on this day (Merdekka Day) and although we were in the airport by the time the real parades and celebrations got underway, we did see most of the preparation and the odd band playing down by the area that housed the theatre and ferris wheel. The other notable place we visted was the Raffles Hotel. Alas, we couldn't justify paying 20 quid for one of thier renowned Singapore Sling cocktails, so instead we visited the in-house museum and were transported back to a more civilised time- when men were men, and women wore gut-wrenchingly tight corsets (and were most probably named things like Gertrude and Virginia).
Before we knew it, we'd made our way
Singapore harbour
Note the UK winning lots of gold medals on the 'Olympic' sized outdoor screen to the airport and were on a 2 hour flight to Bali. Indonesia itself, is such a vast country covering so many islands that we decided from the outset, to not trvel too much- we wouldn't be able to see it all in the time we had (2 weeks) so we'd make sure that we pick a few places and explore them good and proper, rather than try and rush through it all. A couple of days in Kuta was more than enough (think Magaluf/Benidorm but with pushy hawkers and death-wish motorbike drivers replacing the sun and Sangria) and we eagerly booked ourselves on a bus, boat, bus, boat epic journey to Gilli Air (the smallest of the Gilli islands off the north west coast of Lombok). And what a journey that was! We left at 7am and didn't arrive until well after dark (the ropiest bit was the car ferry where they pack you in like a plump lady's waist into a corset from the 1920s and then leave thier car/truck/motorbike engines running to try and gas you out during docking!)
Once we'd got our heads down for that night however, we woke to a pretty unique island
Central Business District
Spot the hedgehog shaped theatre/opera house paradise the next day. Gilli Air is so small that you can walk around it in one day and so primitive that they use horse and carts as taxis (no motorised vehicles at all.) There's also not a great deal to do so we just enjoyed our time there, lounging around on the beach or in our shack like room (which came reccomended by some friends in the Cameron Highlands.) At least that was the plan. Unfortunately on around day 3 we were both struck down with an unpleasant bout of the Eartha Kitts (food hygeine obviously not being the best in these rural parts). This meant that we were both knocked for 6 for a couple of days and didn't see much other than the inside of the bathroom. It did mean however, that we both became experts at flushing the rudimentary 'water bucket flush' bog that our bathroom featured (every cloud and all.) Plus it's the only time we'd both been ill over the last 5 months in SE Asia, so pretty good going methinks. One consequence of our nasty illness was that we overstayed on the island a little. But this in turn meant that we spent
Milling with the hoy-paloy
Raffles Hotel insignia in the lobby of the hotel's in-house museum more on accomodation than we'd anticipated and as there were no ATMs on the island it posed a bit of a problem- we realised that we didn't have enough money book a ticket back off the rock (especially if we went with the slightly more expensive but soooo much more reliable Perama Travel- who we were kicking ourselves for not booking the first time around). A visit to Perama aleviated our worries however, as they were happy to take a part payment for our trip- putting our minds at ease and leaving us with ample money to carry on eating dry toast and drinking flat Sprite. We even mustered enough cash to upgrade to a better hotel for our last night where we slept soundly under the roof of a converted rice barn.
Perama came up trumps for us the next day as travelling with them was like travelling with a proper Western tour company- the times we were told were accurate, as was the type of boat and connecting busses, and the staff were pretty firendly and efficient. They were a breath of fresh air and I'd reccomend them to anyone travelling around Indonesia. We arrived in Ubud
Beach parade
Some kind of orchestral sea side march on Bali's Kuta beach and found some really nice digs at a friendly guesthouse just off the main road (Monkey Forrest Road). Ubud was a joy- we both really liked it. It was Bali's creative centre with arts and craft stalls and shops lining the streets. We also arrived in time for one of the many festivals that Ubud boasts every year- a Hindu celebration of good overcoming evil (the actual name slips my mind I'm afriad). In the days running up to it, everyone was fashioning thier own ornately decorated bamboo spire which they'd erect infront of thier home, as well as countless offerings of food, fruit and flowers on tiny baskets woven out of banana leaves which were left out for the gods. The town was really buzzing and although we left on the day of the festival itself, the run up to it was definitely much more lively (apparently people vist the temple and thier families to celebrate- much like Xmas so it's really quiet.)
During our time there we also took an afternoon mask carving class. The teacher (who turns up with a couple of blocks of wood and tools) takes the lead and helps you out quite a
Love shack
Our cosy little room on Gilli Air lot but most of the carving, chiselling and sanding you do yourself. It was really cool to be doing something so creative and different and we both (as you can see from the pics) chose quite unique masks to tackle. Hopefully we can decorate them and hang them on the wall of our flat once we're back in England.
We made our way back to the beach resort of Kuta, but only for a couple of days and mainly for the purposes of shopping and flying out of Indonesia. Here we did all our Xmas shopping (it's slowly making its way to Blighty as I type) as well as picking up a few other bits and bobs for Oz, our next stop.
From what we saw of her, Indoneisa was a beautiful country indeed but like most of her neighbours we found that it's best to steer clear of the really touristy areas such as Kuta- there's so much more to see. Ubud had to be our favourite place for its chilled out attitude and creative flair. We would have loved to have travelled to see Orangutans and Kimido Dragons but time was not on our side.
Breath of fresh Air
Looking out to the mainland from Gilli Air And so, this brings us to the end of SE Asia, we're both a little bit sad to be bidding it farewell. For all its randomness and backwardness, the region also has so much beauty and wonder. We're so glad that we've seen and experienced so much of it, in particular before tourism changes it forever.
Oh well, onwards and downunderwards. Next stop, Australia baby!
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