Hello. Big Singapore writeup (which will probably end up Not As Big because I'll lose motivation half-way through or something.)


Day One

Went to Kuching Airport, travelled to Sinai Airport which is in Johor Bahru, which is West Malaysia territory (westside, yo) - picked up by Taxi, and drove into Singapore. T'was the first time I entered a country through a land route, and it seemed a heck of a lot faster than an airport...probably because you don't have to wait for stupid baggage handling people to throw your stuff onto the slow-spinning carousel...anyway. First impressions of Singapore were great - I hadn't been there in years, and I didn't remember much of it. Singapore is a very very clean country. Seriously. Ridiculously clean. The minute we drove in, it was obvious...no litter anywhere, and the roads weren't crap like they were before the border, within Malaysian land. Anyway. We got dropped off at the Copthorne Orchid, the hotel we were going to stay in and let me say, it is an incredible hotel, with incredibly cool auto-opening doors. We were basically waited hand on foot whenever needed - check-in was fast and easy, the porter was very helpful and everybody was so friendly. In fact, all of Singapore is friendly...more examples to come in the days ahead. The hotel room is groovy and nice. I have photos and videos from the trip but the camera is charging. Anyway, for the first day we took the complimentary coach to Orchard Road (kind of the Queen Street equivalent) and explored the area...t'was huge. Lots of shopping malls and shops and just lots of stuff. I ended up buying some portable speakers I really didn't need.

Singapore infrastructure is built upwards, and downwards too, overpasses and underpasses etc. At night, we went to a food court for dinner and the most bizzare thing happened. We were just minding our own business, I was eating my Thai dinner set (which wasn't very good compared to everything else I had...the bastards wouldn't let me change my drink from Coke to something else...) and Sonny was having Korean food cause he misses it (ye pore olde Sonny). Sonny offered to let me try some and I voiced my concerns about losing tastebuds from spice, when the woman we were sitting down next to said, out of the blue, "It shouldn't be too spicy, it's just chilli paste." We were both (without voicing it) going "wtf" - here we are, eating dinner minding our own business, and the person next to us comments on chilli paste. A friendly gesture I guess but maybe I'm too cynical. Dunno. Anyway, I said "oh ok" and we continued eating...then Sonny put his rice into his spicy soup thing and the same woman said that he shouldn't have done that. (On the inside, I am laughing because Sonny is Korean and more knowledgable in the art of eating Korean food than you, strange lady)...Sonny kept his cool and was polite and stuff. Over and over random talking occurred...and it turns out that this woman is a tour-guide leader/Esplanade helper and she told us how to get to places etc. So it turned from "rude comment about eating" to "helpful tour guide lady". At this stage it hadn't turned to "strange stalkerish behaviour" yet...I did make the mistake of giving her our room number at the hotel though ;_; Anyway. We said thank you, and retired to the coach pickup point and went back to the hotel, armed with information on how to...basically get to where we want.

At like 11pm when we were both sleeping, she calls the room ;_; with good intentions I guess, telling us about a concert she forgot to mention. And then after saying thanks for the info etc I hang up, and try to get to sleep again. About 10 minutes later, another call. ;_;


Day Two

The plan was to go to Chinatown, then move on to Sentosa (Singapore's most famous tourist attraction, an island resort. Wait, isn't Singapore an island? Hmm.) Chinatown was actually populated with Chinese people (go figure) and the streets had a distinct Chinese flavour to them, having a predominantly red colour scheme (red is a lucky colour in Asian cultures, I think) Sonny bought some things for his cousin sisters and I just looked around and stuff.

Then, to Sentosa! We took the MRT to HarbourFront station (Harbour Front is the "suburb" that is closest to Sentosa) and walked around to find the Cable Car station to Sentosa. Cable Cars are kind of freaky...the only thing between you and a really, really long drop are two cables and a couple of spinning wheels. Comforting. But it gave a great view and was relatively fast I guess. Sentosa itself, was great! The beaches looked SO NICE I am really gonna go back there in the future sometime. So sandy, palm trees, nice view, aaaaaahhh (reminded me of something out of Costa de Sol (ahem ahem sorry for that)) and there was a cool Bird Show with smart Macaus or something...and a huge Merlion sculpture. We also visited the Underwater World which was pretty much like Kelly Tarltons, I think...and then, Dolphin Lagoon, where there were pink dolphins doing stuff like leaps and swimming. >.> It could have been better with an announcer/MC that didn't suck, and if there weren't arseholes who enjoyed standing up at inopportune moments so that we couldn't see. Fuckers.

Anyway. Then, we went to the Musical Fountain...now, I remember I went to this last time I was in Singapore, but that was about it. IT WAS SO COOL IT WAS SO COOL there was fountains...and lasers....and big fire jets! Totally wicked. The fire was real too - you could actually feel the heatwave.

Then we got the cable car back, and went back to the hotel. I'm not sure if we had Ed's Fish this time or not. (Ed's Fish turned out to be our favourite food stall in the food court where we found Strange Tourguide Lady - fast fish, that tasted great and the meals were cheap compared to everything else.)


Day Three

This plan for today was Mustafa Centre/Little India, Sim Lim, then Singapore Zoo/Night Safari. Took the MRT there...Mustafa Centre...how to describe it? Take a supermarket...give it three stories...and make it HUMUNGOUS and open 24 hours. It was huge. seriously, we got lost inside it many times. There was everything on sale imaginable - I found the portable speakers I bought for cheaper here (and immediately got annoyed at myself ;_;), bags, socks, spices, groceries, sofas, whatever - seriously, there was tons of stuff). Then we went to Sim Lim ( we didn't actually really walk through Little India but it seemed really boring and not as cool as Chinatown. Except that unlike Little India here in Kuching, it really IS populated by Indians. Kuching's one has Chinese people still.) Sim Lim was an electronics centre - very big too...at first we went into the Sim Lim Tower which was boring and my mistake, filled with base electronic components like leds and wires etc. Not the consumer end. We moved on to Sim Lim Square, which was very big - proof was the people who stand at the end of escalators and progressively try to hand you leaflets and shit. Sonny bought his Bluetooh thingmie here.

From Sim Lim, we took the MRT to Ang Mo Kio and took the bus to the zoo. The bus is nowhere near as cool as the MRT (MRT = magnetic rail train or something) but it did its job fine and we arrived at the zoo safely. We got into the zoo...and then it rained which sucked. Singapore Zoo is so much better than Auckland zoo. White tiger, polar bears, leopards, gazelles, monkeys etc they were all here. They had TONS of kangaroos too, for some bizarre reason. I hadn't really observed Kangaroos properly. Maybe these ones were mutants or something but they looked kinda small...and reminded me of rats on drugs/springs. And also, there was a walk-through rainforest trail, where this really cute monkey fully just walked up to the railing next to me and sat there for ages. It was so cute. Except if you tried hard enough you could probably find it revolting. Anyway. The day zoo was cool...but it was rainy and poo and Sonny's shoes suck (and he couldn't buy new ones because apparently nobody sells size 46/10 shoes in Malaysia/Singapore...45 is okay, just not 46. Also, a lot of people tell Sonny he is very tall. It is funny.) We ended up hiding out in the KFC outside the two zoos where we had a light meal (for the days of our trip we ate more during breakfast and had light dinners to save money out of lunch. I ended up having money left over anyway but still, it was more economical) and learned the names of the counter people. I got Ryan Oh to change my 2 dollar note to two one dollar coins for the bus, cause buses like exact change. By like, I mean need. By need, I mean if you don't pay exact change the bus fairy comes and gives you hereditary baldness or something. ANYWAY. The night zoo was extremely kewl - the atmosphere was awesome, cause it was night and there was low lighting and it looked really cool. And there were really cool night jungle noises that could be really freaky if you were all alone...trapped there...anyway. The noise even seemed to make chords at times. Very evil dissonant ones. It was very cool.

We saw a fishing cat. They are cool and cute. They sit there, waiting at the waters edge...and we saw one catch a fish. It was very, very fast. Swipe, then fish=dead. Also, we watched the Creatures of the Night show which was very nice and entertaining. At the end however, tons of people left the pieces of paper and maps (that they placed down on the seats wet from rain during the daytime to prevent their arse from being any more disgusting than it already is) behind and we were nice and helped the cleany guy out.

Then we went home. There was an incredible run at the end of the journey back to the hotel...which wouldn't have happened if:

- We didn't go the wrong way from the MRT, which made us
- Miss a train and lose about 7 minutes
- and then head out the wrong exit at the Orchard Road stop near where the coach stop was
- which meant that we had to wait for two poo crossing traffic lights.

But all four happened. We ended up running like crazy after the traffic lights, and we made it onto the Coach Bus at 9:59...it was scheduled to leave for the hotel at 10:00. The most annoying thing was that at 10:03, it was still pretty much stuck at the stop, and some indian people just waltzed up to the coach and the coach driver let them on. ;_;


Day Four

Happy birthday sonny. Today's plan was the Esplanade + surrounding area.

First off we stopped at the City Hall MRT station, and saw St. Andrews Cathedral. Nice white structure. Didn't go in because it was Sunday and full of service people etc. Then, we went to Funan, another "it-mall" place. It wasn't terribly interesting actually...more of the same old oooh look IT stuff. To Sonny's pleasure the Bluetooth thingmies were more expensive here (then again this area is a more upmarkety area). Then we went and explored some shops in the area, I bought the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack...(which is incredible and I am listening to it right now)...then we headed off to the Esplanade. The Esplanade is like the Art Centre of Singapore, the design of the buildings were pretty funkay. Went inside, there was a really awesome Arts Library...with Practice Room, CD library, scores, magazines, wahtever. It was very cool. Then we went to the concert hall to listen to a free, uh, Harp Concert. The group harp playing wasn't terribly good since they didn't manage to ever play completely in time (and the long decay time of the hall + natural sound of the harp just emphasised their out of time-ness) But! The little nine year old kid who came third in some Harp Competition in Japan played a REALLY AEWSOME jazzy harp song. It rocked. That was worth waiting through the rest of the crap (especially the singing. Urgh.) The concert hall itself was a pretty nice structure. Didn't look at all like the exterior (which the locals call the Durian cause it's spiky. Luckily, doesn't smell nearly as offending) Then we walked around and stuff...went to see the Merlion at Merlion park...saw the City Hall, the old parliament house that now contained some Artwork and old movie posters...etc Then we went back to the main Esplanade area for an outdoor concert which was free. Not a very large one, mind you, but it was free. A local band called Tiramisu was playing..they were good. The lead singer was really funny and crazy. By crazy I mean he moves like crazy while not singing. It's really bizzare. But even more bizzare was the old man who stood up and started dancing during one of their songs. It was ridiculously funny...Sonny videoed it on his camera. XD

So the show was over...(strange tourguide lady was there too but I don't really wanna mention her cause you'll all think she's a stalker but we did go to this concert after she told us about it so >.>) anyway we went back to Orchard Road and got some stuff for a mini party back in the hotel room. Got him a little mini blueberry cake (which was delicious. but not at all secret. -_-), he got drinks, I got food (eds fish, yum) and he got the side dish (Japanese Tempura). It was good food. Sonny does not like Beer.


Day Five

Nothing much happened this day. I bought a whole lot of other music cds cause my mum said "whatever money you dont spend you have to return" so I decided I like music. Hard Rock cafe is nowhere near interesting (well not the one in Singapore anyway). It sucked. I was thoroughly disappointed. etc. Random person on the street gave us directions to Borders. Singapore people are too friendly. I took along the remaining beer can from last night and placed it on posts at pedestrian crossings...nobody picked up the beer while we watched. We got bored of it and when we returned to the crossing an hour later it was gone. But while we watch, it was honest.

Anyway. I'm lazy now, not much else happened or so I say. I may post photos sometime. Maybe. Videos, maybe. Bye.



Also, Singapore has trains. Auckland really needs trains as cool as Singapore. Auckland you suck in train-ness.

Bye.