Dragon Boating in Singapore

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First off I want to say thanks to Gavin, who let me and Leena take over his condo for the days we were in Singapore, giving us a key, and trusting us completely, having never met us before!

So, my next stop was Singapore for a few days, where the accommodation was on a price standard equaling Australia, which meant me on my 10GBP per day Asia-budget, decided to look elsewhere. I ended up staying with 30-year old Gavin, who worked as a meteorologist at Singa airport (possibly one of the easiest jobs as the weather seems to be a standard 30 degrees and sunny, with rain at almost exactly 5pm each day), who I met through couchsurfing.org. Also staying with Gavin at the same time as me was Leena, from Germany, so we ended up sharing his room.

When I arrived in Singa in the afternoon I got the MRT out to Gavin's place, but as he wasn't yet back from work, I went to look around the local area "Geylang" which didn't live up to the Lonely Planet's description of it as the Red Light District, but maybe that was because it was still daylight. I ended up at the "post office", which was actually a massive shopping mall that looked as if it had come straight out of Star Wars, where I met a guy called Rob, who showed me round and bought me an awesome dinner of Teriyaki chicken with chips and sweetcorn (a big deal when mostly meals here consist of rice, rice, and more rice), on the basis that his daughter was also travelling, so maybe it was good karma for him. Later on I finally managed to meet up with Gavin, and then Leena, and he introduced us to his roomates, and showed us his condo, which was really nice, and in an amazing condo complex, complete with gym, swimming pool and nearby Vietnamese restaurant where we got dinner. The only slight issue was that Gavin hadn't thought about where we would sleep, in his one-bedroom condo - in the end, Leena got the mattress on the floor, I got a duvet, and Gavin got the sofa!

Our first real day in Singapore was very chilled. As Gavin was working up at the airport, me and Leena got the bus over to Chinatown, where we made the rounds of a few temples and a Mosque. Then we headed over to Little India for an amazing curry served on a banana leaf. After going round a Hindu temple, we decided that it was far too hot, and headed back to Gavin's to spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. At around 5, the sun was abruptly replaced with torrential rain and thunder, which drove us away from the water pretty fast, and we spent the evening hiding inside with Gavin, apart from a brief foray to get Chinese for dinner, and to stock up on alcohol.

We were up late the following day, and continued our tour of Singa by heading over to the famous Orchard Road, where, after a bit of searching, we found somewhere affordable for lunch. Then we walked the 2ks to the other end, and discovered that it is all pretty much the same - big, glassy and expensive. Once we were done, we ran to get the MRT down to the river, where we were due to go Dragon Boating. This was very cool. We met up with Phillip, the captain of the British Dragon Boating team, and he got us kitted out with paddles and buoyancy aids, before assigning us to the "newbie boat" and going off to join the pros. We started off in a big group doing a warm-up, and then headed down to the boats, which were on the water amongst the other teams'. Ours were definitely the coolest - whilst others looked sleek and fast, ours were the only ones with golden Dragon figureheads and tails (which we reckon should be compulsory), tails, and the slogan "Play Hard, Paddle Harder" emblazoned on the sides. About 5 minutes in, we realised that it was not as easy as it looked, and was actually seriously hard work. We were almost pleased when it started to rain dead on time at 5pm, as it cooled us down, and gave us a bit of a break from the painful "power five" strokes we were practicing, as the helmsman steered us under the nearest bridge so we didn't get too full of water. Once the rain had passed, we set out again, and raced the other boat (the one with the pros in), and actually managed to beat them to the finish - we were only about 5cm ahead, but still. Unfortunately, it turned out the destination was not something we should've been rushing towards, because as soon as the boats were pulled up, the guy in charge set us all to doing chin-ups on a nearby set of bars. Luckily the girls only had to do 3 sets of 3 (the boys got sets of 5) which was fairly easy, though Leena just about managed to do 1 set of 1 😉. Then, when the punishment was over, we swapped sides and headed back, which was actually surprisingly hard as I had become very used to paddling on the right, and my muscles did not like changing. Once back at the clubhouse, we stowed all the kit, and got the MRT back to Gavin's (dripping wet, which did not amuse the guard on the spotless MRT, but oh well).

The next day Leena left early, and Gavin was asleep after working the night shift, so I went up to MacRitchie reservoir by myself. The plan was to hire a kayak, but they refused to let me have anything other than a sit on top, and allocated a paddling area of about 10 sq metres, so I gave up on that, and instead walked the 12k round the river. This turned out to be not the smartest thing to do when wearing flip flops, but was fun nevertheless, and I saw a wild monkey chilling on the path. When I was done, I spent the afternoon swimming both in the reservoir, and at Gavin's. For my final day, I went over to Singapore Zoo, which was very nice, and most of the cages were really big, so the animals seemed fairly happy, with the exception of 1 Orangutan/Gorrilla who was slumped against the glass looking incredibly depressed. At one point they put on an elephant show, which I would never normally have gone to, but it was free, so I watched it. It was amazing. The elephants seemed to have memorized their parts in the show, as without having to do anything, or even speak to the elephants, the Mahouts would have their elephants steal their hats, lie down, or shake/nod their heads, or even curtsy (as far as it is possible for an elephant to curtsy)! Then finally, I spent my last 2 SGD on the MRT out to the airport, and on to a sunny beach Bali.

K x

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Comments

[GDM]

[e-mail]
Sounds like Singapore carries on as usual - you should talk to Tricia about her trip there, although hers was a working fortnight and some 14 years ago! Riederalp was good. I kept off the skiing and indulged myself with a good book in the sunshine on the verandah and a pot of fresh coffee for some time each day before then hiking up the snowy ridges, drinking gluvin and eating goulash soup and apfelstrudel. Played some chess with your brothers. Where next? Your Mum said something about Vietnam/Cambodia I think - if so, don't stray off the beaten tracks, there are still a lot of nasty bangers buried in the mud I hear! Have fun. xx GDM

[KatieHedgecock]

Haha sounds like fun - why no skiing though?! Yeah am in Vietnam atm - tis awesome, though the traffic is scary! I've finally found something to bring back as a souvenir for you so you'll have to come down to Surrey at some point before I leave in May! xx