Advertisement
Published: August 23rd 2013
Edit Blog Post
Tuesday 20th
Arrived at our hostel, Fivestones, and greeted by a smiling face and informed of the house rules. Take shoes off, keep clothes on.
We were then shown to our room. We had booked a standard double. To say the room was compact would be generous. You couldn't swing a cat, even if you cut off the poor moggy's tail. The room was 9" wider than the bed and 3 feet longer. We would have to take turns to breath out!
We were also shown the showers, segregated much to my dismay.
Later we went for a walk into China town and found all the plastic souveniers you'd never want. We then came across the Chinese food court where there where dozens of small take away shops selling all sorts of dishes. If it grows or breaths, they wok it. The smell was wonderful.
We both chose roasted duck in sauce with rice eaten with plastic knives and forks off a plastic plate on a formica table. It was excellent and all for £3 a head.
Later we walked round Boat Quay. An upmarket area with water front restaurants selling fresh and live sea
food. One had live crabs in tanks the size of a small dog. I wouldn't have wanted to be the one to pull them out.
Finally we listened to an american male and female duo singing in a bar before jumping into bed. There was no other way in.
Wednesday 21st
Up early, well I hadn't actually got any sleep due to jet lag. Went to the shared washroom and stood shoulders to chest of a giant Korean. We conversed in two languages that neither understood and settled on "it was probably going to be a nice day."
We met our fellow hostelers at breakfast in line for the toaster. Here we learned to take no prisoners when queing and to show no mercy when reaching for the jam. Actually it was all fairly civilised and done almost in total silence as most were either hooked up or plugged into their life support system, their I phone. I've never seen so many people texting at once.
We had decided to book the coach for our next location and spoke to the girl on reception who showed us on the map where the bus station was.
It was only 6" away so we said we would walk despite her advice. Wrong decision. After walking for nearly 3 miles in the heat and humidity we arrived at the bus station looking like Lawrence of Arabia gasping for a beer.
We decided to take the MRT back and had a long conversation about the 92 ticket options available to us with an extremely nice and helpful, but completely baffling ticket clerk. We opted for the most expensive and returned to our hostel to recover.
That afternoon dressed in our best clothes, that's not saying much, we went to the famous Raffles hotel where we had booked afternoon tea in the Tiffin Room. It was very grand and the hotel although showing its age, and some bare concrete, is still very impressive. The tea was excellent, with as many finely cut little triangular sandwiches as you wanted followed by little pastries, cakes and scones. All served by extremely subservient waiters. All was going very well until they brought the bill and I found it would have been cheaper to have bought a small bakery and hired staff ! It was worth every penny and I would recommend
the occasion to everyone.
We also had a good look around the public rooms and open spaces. It's a wonderful example of Colonial Britain.
We rushed back for a quick change and caught the train and bus to the suburbs to see the night zoo. One of Singapore's main attractions. I've been on shorter safaris it took so long to get to. The concept is good, a motor train through the zoo to see the animals feeding etc at night. It works quite well but some of the larger cats are in small enclosures to make sure visitors can see them. I don't really approve of zoos and left not entirely happy.
Fell into bed exhausted.
Thursday 22nd
Another early to rise morning, can't get over the jet lag.
We had decided to walk to the Singapore Flyer ( you'll notice we do a lot of walking to save money) one of the main attractions and like the London Eye. We got in as senior citizens (much to Christine's dismay) but it saved us £5. The view of all the skyscrapers was wonderful. The Singapore sky line is amazing and equal to Shanghai. The
Flyer is well worth a go and you get 1 dollar off an ice cream purchase if you show your ticket next door !
After that we shot across the city to spend time in the Botanical Gardens. A good place for some peace and quiet and spend some down time. We it was until Christine said she had lost my prized plastic watch from Argos. I spent the next ten minutes running around like a demented idiot checking in all the places we had been and some we hadn't and asking or playing charades with everyone I met saying "have you seen a plastic watch laying around". I then saw Christine waving at me showing the watch which had been safely put in her shoe. Bye then I'd seen most of the park and met most of the people in it.
After a long rest we then caught the MRT to Little India, a place recommended in all the books. What a dump ! It's just like India at it's worst. The dirtiest and most unfriendly place we'd been to. A major contrast to the rest of Singapore.
We decided to eat and reluctantly sat at
the only place we found. The meal was cold and the owner refused to heat it up or give us a refund. We had a row and left.
We trooped back to our hostel and picked up a Burger King meal on the way.
A sad end to a really nice day.
But then we never expected everything to work out, and tomorrows another day ......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 27; dbt: 0.03s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
David Howell
non-member comment
Yummy
Mmm! Plasic knives and forks, plastic plates... reminds me of somebody's BBQ I went to, not all that long ago. It sounds like your gastronomic delights are proving somewhat unpredictable. Burger King indeed!! I'm ashamed of you!