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Published: March 28th 2010
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As I'd accidentaly left my watch in KL (and thus our alarm clock), we had a terrible night's sleep on Tioman, checking the time every hour to make sure we made it up before 6am to catch the ferry back to the mainland. The ferry arrived - eventually - for quite a rough crossing owing to the storms over the previous few days so there wasn't much chance of getting back to sleep as we held on while the the boat rocked violently from side to side. Never mind: we were going to get a long distance express coach to Singapore so we'd be able to lay back in the comfy seats and sleep.
Of course, this was not to be. When we arrived at the bus terminal we were told that there were no seats available on any of the buses: we'd come back to the main land on the first day of the school holidays so everything heading south was booked up. So we had little choice but to do it the hard way, taking a combination of three local buses to reach our goal (or, as I'll be telling it from now on, we decided as hardened
backpackers that an express bus was too easy and option so we decided to go back to basics). We bought some snacks and jumped on a rickety old bus heading south. We went from Mersing to Kota Tinngi, Kota Tinggi to Johnur Bahru and Johnur Bahru to Woodlands Singapore entry point. After the usual formalities of crossing borders, we jumped onto another bus for a nearby MRT station (Mass Rapid Transit - metro) and took an MRT train all the way to Chinatown.
We hadn't booked ahead as we'd expected to arrive quite early on the express bus and as it was getting late in the day, our hostel of choice was already full. Completely exhausted through lack of sleep and from carrying the bags around all day, we went a few streets over to an alternative hostel and checked in. It was a totally new experience spending a small fortune (per person) for a bed in a cramped room (or hallway in my case) for the privilege of being kept awake by Chinese girls watching movies on the internet until 4am each night when only a few nights ago we'd had a bungalow one of the most the
beautiful islands in the world for less than we were paying per bed here. Ah well. Welcome back to the 1st world I guess.
We had one full day to spend in Singapore and while we were there, we explored Orchard road which is the city's main shopping district and is effectively one huge road full of shopping malls. Although stepping into air-con malls was a welcome break from the headache inducing mugginess of the outside world, we were quite disappointed that most of the shops were selling western goods at much greater prices than the usual western costs (admittedly not helped by the current crappiness of the £pound (Stacey quickly noted that £35 for a basic bra was probably a bit excessive).
We also took a trip to Sentosa which is Singapore's equivalent of Disneyland set on a small island on the southern tip of the country. Getting there was via monorail from (you guessed it!) yet another shopping mall which gave a pleasant view over the harbour. Although there is a cable car, it is closed for maintenance, much to Stacey's relief after her experience getting to Vin Pearl Land in Vietnam.
Sentosa has a
small (artificial) beach complex with a beautiful view of rusting shiping hulks and offshore gas storage facilities as well as a theme park and many other (expensive) attractions. Once you paid your $3 entry fee, you can wander around the place or hop on a shuttle bus around the island (all the transport on the island is free) so it was pretty good value in that respect. Its a strange idea having this theme park/resort so close and accessible from the city centre and I guess must be fantastic for the locals to visit at the weekends.
In the evening we explored Chinatown in the hope of finding a watch - to replace my poor casio that I bought in India for only 200 rupees - to wake us up early so that we could get to the airport. Despite Chinatown being the seemingly obvious place to buy cheap goods, it still took us hours of searching before we managed to find a (cheapish) one for £7.50 featuring multi-coloured back lights and what must be possibly the quietest watch alarm in the world. 'Thankfully this wasn't a problem as I barely slept that night anyway because of the IRRITATING
CHINESE GIRLS WATCHING SITCOMS ON THE INTERNET UNTIL 4AM IN THE HOSTEL FROM HELL!!!
We got up and caught the MRT to the airport that morning and checked in for our flight to Indonesia. Lacking any scales, our bags were of course overweight but the kind check in guy said he'd waiver the excess (which was good since having not slept properly in three days, I was ready to simply hand over my wallet and allow Singapore to extract my remaining cash as long as they'd kindly permit me to go and collapse in a corner to sleep before I simply fell over).
We didn't enjoy Singapore very much but that's the way it goes I guess: having been to so many great places, you're bound to find a few that you just don't enjoy. Okay, as people say, its a very clean place and the public transport is efficient but that's at the sacrifice of citizen's personal liberties where hefty fines are imposed for the smallest of infringements - like jaywalking or chewing gum. Food is cheap enough if you don't mind going to the hawker stalls and the tap water is drinkable which is a first
since we've left home. I'm hoping that the lack of sleep was the main problem and that when we return here from Indonesia, we can give it another go and simply smile as our money is quickly drained from us for noisy and needlessly expensive hostels.
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