Singing the praises of Singers!

Asia » Singapore
April 28th 2005

Published: May 17th 2005

Edit Blog Post

MsNina

The gorgeous colours of Chinese shophouses

I was lucky enough to have spent 5 days in Singapore, from the 23rd to 27th April. Work sent me there to attend a conference on child sex tourism and sex trafficking, which was from Monday to Wednesday, so I went down on Saturday to enjoy being a tourist there for a few days.

The first two nights I stayed in Little India, at the Inn Crowd 2, this great little hostel, very friendly. I did however have to sleep in a room with 29 other people. It was a shock after having not having stayed in a dorm since May 2004 (hi Jody!). But I coped. I haven't become that much of a Princess that I'm no longer able to rough it 😉. The weirdest thing was that, even though I was staying in a youth hostel, I could drink the tap water! Usually, I have to be doubly careful about not consuming water from guesthouses in Thailand - old pipes etc - but not only did I not have to be careful about avoiding water in the mouth while I showered, but I could actually drink it! I kept on buying bottles of water, and then remembering that I didn't need to. Very very strange. You can

Buddhist temple

This is the temple Chinese migrants first came to, after disembarking from their boats.

also flush toilet paper down the toilet in Singapore. It's fantastic. AND my skin wasn't even particularly black with dirt after wandering around the whole day! Singapore is a CLEAN place. I LOVED it.

Anyway, Little India was brilliant. The SMELLS! Oh! Heaven. The glorious scents of cardamon, cumin, anise star and all those other wonderful Indian spices wafting generally around. Everywhere. And fruit stalls spilling out on to the streets (as an aside, Little India was the easiest place for me to walk in, as the pavements were generally so full of stalls, chairs, tables etc., you had to walk on the street with the bikes and cars most of the time. When I was out on the wide, orderly streets of the rest of Singapore, I kept on almost getting run over as I cross the street, because I am so used to Bangkok, where the only way to cross these chaotic streets is to just walk, and believe that everyone will stop for you. However, the Singaporeans weren't quite so used to this, so they didn't slow down like the Bangkokians do, which had me sprinting across the last few metres of the road a number

Buddhist temple

Same temple. This is in Chinatown, just next to the main business district.

of times!). And bangra and dum dum music blaring from the cheap CD stores. It was great. Vibrant.

The first day I looked at the Museum of Art. I knew it was going to be a good visit when the man at the ticket counter walked around from behind the desk to greet me as I walked in.
"Is this your first time to Singapore?!"
"Yes."
"Well, welcome to Singapore! and welcome to our Museum!!" he beamed at me, with his arms wide open, inviting me inside. He then proceeded to describe the different sections of the museum, and how to get to them all. So lovely. That was another great thing about Singapore - they speak English! and they're not afraid to use it!! So I talked all the time with my taxi drivers, shop assistants etc. People were very friendly. And able to communicate with linguistically challenged me.
I also went to the Esplanade Theatre, which is an incredibly building - iconic, in fact. It looks kinda like durian though apparently it was meant to look like rattan baskets or some such.

On Sunday I wandered around the glorious Chinatown, with all its beautifully coloured shophouses, and

Doors of the Buddhist Temple

these guys are Guards.

the great temples. See the photos - they say more than words...

The conference was brilliant. The highlight was seeing people from Australia again - people I used to work with at Project Respect, Sallie, my supervisor from RMIT, and also meeting people or getting to know those I'd already met, like Jen Burn from University of Technology Sydney and Natalie O'Brien, the journalist. It was a really stimulating time - being with such interesting, intelligent, passionate women. I was sad to leave that and come back to Bangkok actually!

Additional photos below

Photos: 18, Displayed: 18