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Published: April 15th 2008
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Entry: Clover
Singapore...our first south east Asia experience. It is a city state and is huge. City, city and more city. I think anyone could find something in this city that they liked. Meaning there is a little of everything here.
From the airport we were picked up by the owner of the hostel we would be staying at. He was a swank Jordanian man. Designer jeans and shiney leather shoes. A lot of talk of quality and then we see our room...we had a window room. That was nice. But on entering the room the window isn't the first thing I noticed. It was the mutant green mold bubbling its way down the far corner over the bed. All the sudden I thought back to the owner exclaiming how his hostel was the best in Singapore how he was the first to have one in Singapore. My thought was about how he should stop talking about how great his place was and bleach our walls. Oh well, we are backpackers. We don't expect the best. We threw our bags on the floor and reveled in the freezing air conditioned room.
The first night in any city is always
about getting something to eat the is easy and then going back to the room to recover from a day of travel. The second day is about getting the lay of the neighborhood. The third might be for finding transit. Somehow it always works in the same round about order. By the third day I have usually found something that I am enamored of.
I found it amusing that a city that is asian would have a China town. I was under the impression that when I got to S.E. Asia it would all be China town. And for the most part it is. Except for when you go to Little India and the flavor completely changes.
Randomly walking along one day we ended up bumping into our friend Stephanie. She was one of the fellow travelers who journeyed with us on the Stray Bus through New Zealand for 16 days. She had just arrived into Singapore as well and was going to be in Malaysia for a little bit before flying on to meet a freind of her's in Bangkok. Deciding it would be more fun to travel as a small group we linked up with Stephanie
The Borg Live Here!
and they have disguised themselves as a large cylinder for the next week and a half to explore both Singapore and some of Malaysia.
So one of the things worth mentioning is the Durian Fruit. Unknown to us, we found that as we randomly walked through the small crowded streets and markets there would occassionally waft our way the smell of rotting gym socks, putrified garbage, and nasty rotten cabbage. It was offensive to say the least! At first we thought it was jsut the normal smell of the streets. But after a bit we noticed this smell more and more and there was nothing normal about it. We started noticing signs with a crossed out funny looking spiky fruit on them. As in, don't bring this spiky fruit on the train, or the bus etc. etc. Well, after a little research we discoverd what is commonly known by the locals as "King of Fruits" Durian. Bleh! it was the cause of most of the putrid stenches on the streets. That is saying a lot. But despite the smell we decided we should at least give this fruit a taste test (why oh why did we do this!). You can watch our videos to see what we thought
of trying the Durian fruit for the first time and last time. Needless to say, it's truly horrid and nasty(scott still rolls over in the night crying out in horror, shortly followed by him getting up to brush his teeth a second time). It's something like tasting rotting carcass, carmalized onions, and fish pooh. The worst part is that one little tiny bit will have you burping the nasty taste for hours later. No joking. We all went for a nice chinese massage after trying only one bite of Durian and ended up grossing ourselves out as we repeatedly burped up pure nastiness. It was almost comicial as your head is forced into a small square space on a massage table in which there is no escaping the nasty smell of your fresh Durian burps. So in the end we decided Chinese massages are good and Durian fruit is very very bad.
One of the highlights of Singapore turned out to be a Shisha bar that we randomly ran into in some back street. It was away from the hussle and bustle which is saying alot. Since Singapore is all hustle and bustle. It was a wonderful place to
sit back and watch poeple pass by. A music store played middle eastern music that made me miss my preforming days as a belly dancer. I wish I had bought some of the music 😞
Down the way was a mosque. It's bright golden domed spires rising up over the shops and houses. This part is going to sound stupid but I thought it was pretty funny that the road leading to the mosque said "hump" in big yellow warning words along with a huge arrow pointing at the mosque. I wish I had a picture of it. Well actually I had a few pictures of it but the reason I don't have to show you is a story for a different time(may all thieving scumbags Die!).
I think the Asian culture is all about sensury over load. Walking down a street you are constantly assaulted by sound and scents and visuals. It never stops. And you never know if it is going to be good or bad until you have past by.
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Jbarton
non-member comment
Hi dee Hi dee Ho
So glad you surfaced on the great world wide web. Durain sounds worse that pigshead loaf. Remember that taste test? Drilled the best IP well my company has ever had in their 19 year history. I stuck my neck out, but it worked. Thought about you both the other day, so it is great to here from you. Hobbits do have fun.