Blogs from Bugis Village, Singapore, Asia - page 4

30 August 2009 - 05 September 2009 Mersing to Singapore by bus (RM15.50) 4 hours SUNDAY We left Mersing about 45 minutes late for no apparent reason at all and headed off south to Singapore. The bus was a comfortable one, taking us through scenery that we could say was similar to the Canary Islands or somewhere similar--rolling hills of palm oil plantations. We were a little stressed already as we were behind schedule and we had until 6pm to check into our hostel, and then 7pm to catch the Grand Prix somewhere. We arrived at Malaysian immigration at Johor Bharu, which was a peculiar affair. We had to get off the bus with our baggage and walk through a building similar to that of an airport. We passed through immigration with no problems and had ... read more

As our flight from Kuching was delayed and Singapore's Changi airport was enormous it took us a while to finally get into Singapore. At 10pm with temperatures still soaring at 30 degrees we took a highly convenient, noticeably clean and thankfully air conditioned train from the airport to the City, stopping at the "Bugis" train stop to find digs in the culturally interesting Kampong Glam area of Singapore. We had planned to stay at one hostel but when we arrived at its mapped location, it literally was a building sight! Therefore we had to lug our bags to another recommended to us. We headed down Arab street to find a beautiful mosque with a golden roof at the head of a well presented boutique style pedestrian road. Here we stayed at the luxury of "sleepy Sams" ... read more

Day 1 Singapore After what could only be described as a seven hour thirty minute dream flight on the upper deck of Singapore Airlines new A-380 we arrived Changi Airport somewhere around 11pm. Surprisingly none the worse for wear. Magic happens when you combine the already highly regarded Singapore airlines staff with the worlds first flying city, but be warned, do this once and you'll be spoiled for life. Newbies to Singapore we passed through customs with the speed only afforded parents towing three beautiful daughters and were greeted by Semi, our jolly (if dentally challenged) Cheuffeur. Stepping through the doors the humidity literally takes your breath away. In the four steps from the door to kerb I would swear that I dropped at least two kilos. The Intercontinental Hotel surpassed our expectations from the moment ... read more

So our time in Singapore didn’t start all that well. The journey there was pretty good; armed with a couple of bags of Malaysia’s answer to Haribo the time flew by. And customs was seamless (which was a bonus given we had a few DVDs in our rucksacks that may or may not have been 100% legitimate - Singapore is a little “sticky” on such matters). We even had an Australian kid give us directions to a small store along the East coast of Australia where we can find the hard-to-come-by delicacy of sugar-free chocolate (no thanks), when we’re there next month. But after spending over an hour circumnavigating the way to our chosen hostel that then turned out to be part of a building site, we were pretty fed up. At about 9pm we eventually ... read more

Od vceraj se torej nahajam - pardon, nahajava! - v nekem povsem drugem svetu. Kar sem danes videla od Singapurja, je prej New York kot pa Azija. Najin hostel Sleepy Sam's B&B (Mankica, hvala za priporocilo!) se je izkazal za dobro nalozbo singapurskih dolarjev, saj ima odlicno lokacijo. Zajtrk, ki je vkljucen v ceno, je sicer bolj tako tako - toast s sadjem ali cornflakes z banano ter caj ali kava - oz. zahodnjaski, cesar niti slucajno nisem vajena, ampak na sreco je pet minut hoda stran en lokalen hawkers market, kar bi bil najboljsi singapurski priblizek ulicnim prodajalcem in walk-in restavracijam preostalega dela Azije. Kot sem se ze prej izobrazila, je Singapur anomalicna izjema tega dela sveta z najbolj cistimi, skorajda sterilnimi ulicami in prodajalnami - in moram reci, da se nisem naletela na tako ... read more