2nd-11th Aug
Arrived in Singapore after the most luxurious bus journey from KL (individual reclining leather seats, air con, breakfast, tea and coffee and no karaoke!) and was actually dropped off beside a shopping centre and not in the middle of nowhere! I cheerfully find at ATM, grab a Starbucks bagel, hop on the MRT (underground) and head out to Lavender Street where I wander up and down the road, get annoyed, get in a taxi and get dropped off at the wrong hotel. Luck is semi on my side though, it’s the same company and they actually drive me (I have to squeeze in amongst all the soft toy dogs) to the right place for free. I’ve booked a hotel for my Mum and I and the room is decent and the staff are lovely but unless your only interest is the 7/11 stores, there’s not much in this area. So I go with my original plan and book us into a hostel for the next night – not just any hostel though, this is the new generation of hostel, a ‘flashpacker’s boutique’ with pod style dorm beds and a brilliant location. The fashion part makes it more expensive than most of the hotels we considered but it’s worth it. So mum arrives laden with bags and exhausted (it is midnight Auckland time), I break it to her that we’re moving the next day and then we settle into a bottle of red, a bag of crisps and a good catch up.
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The most common thing you’ll hear about Singapore from visitors is that it’s expensive. It is, but not appallingly so. Sure, it’s way out of the league of any other South East Asian city but it’s probably on par with London, Dublin and Paris, where we’ve all felt suitably robbed after a good night out. Touristy things (night safari, hop-on bus, etc) are around the £10 mark, which is ok. Hostel accommodation can reach £25, approximately 3 times anywhere else in South East Asia, but standards were high in the two places I stayed and the locations were better than most 5 star hotels so you’re getting what you pay for. And eating in a decent restaurant is much the same as any other city but drinking...well, there is no binge drinking in Singapore! A pint of beer starts at £6 and reaches around £8 after 9pm and even buying a bottle of wine or a six pack from a local shop will cost you at least double what you’d pay at home. So staying off it is the most economical solution but if you’re like me, cities and drinking go hand in hand so get yourself to Raffles where the original Singapore Sling sets you back a cool £12 but you can tell yourself you’re enjoying a little slice of history...
The second most common thing you’ll hear is that it’s clean and this is partly due to their immense national pride and party to what the locals have dubbed the ‘fine city’ – meaning you’ll get fined for almost anything. Littering and chewing gum having the highest of the penalties.
After escaping the endless shopping malls (you have no idea), Mum and I opted for the night safari on our second night and headed out of the city for a guided tram ride through the continent themed jungle enclosures. The ride takes 40 minutes and the guides are brilliant, endlessly patient (no flash photography seems far too taxing a concept for some) and full of information on the wildlife ranging from African elephants to Asian otters. The actual safari is also set out beautifully and is instantly impressive and authentic feeling, unlike any other zoo I’ve been to (including Berlin, which is also fantastic) and you could spend hours on end wandering through the night trails and watching fire shows but mum and I have worn ourselves out and have at 5am start so we beat the crowd and guarantee a spot on the bus home after a couple of walks and a dinner of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Perfect end to the day!
5am comes round all too fast and we’re up and at the bus station (having recruited 2 girls from the hostel) and en route to Tioman within the hour. The journey is supposedly 3 hours to Mersing Jetty and then 1 ½ on the ferry to Tioman Island and for some unknown reason, I believe this. I text Sue and Kelvin and say we’ll arrive around midday and will come and find them. The bus journey takes 4 hours but is ok, we wait at Mersing for nearly 2, which is borderline, and then our petrol stinking ferry takes over double the promised time and is staffed by men who say ‘yes yes’ to every question, despite not understanding one word. By 5pm, nothing is ok! But we get there and there are cold beers, a white beach and a tropical sea waiting for us so all the tensions can all unravel.
Tioman is gorgeous, staying 4 star always helps and the place reminds me a little of the Hawaiian resort from ‘forgetting Sarah Marshall’, if you’ve seen it. We avoid the resort prices by buying our own beer from the village and eating cheap and well at the local restaurants. One night we even get the entertainment of being attended by an exceptionally nice and extremely drunk waiter and a bottle of wine and a few beers later, having compiled our lists of best actors, we now occupy ourselves not by enjoying the restaurant on the beach ambience but by trying to remember the 7 dwarfs. It takes a good hour! The next couple of days are spent snorkelling, reading, drinking beer and lying on the beach and it’s completely blissful. I have a cold starting so am not quite on form and self medicating with strepsils and tiger beers doesn’t seem to be working too well - but mum is enjoying the tropical waters enough for all of us and I’m more than content to laze around in the sun. Sadly, 3 days feels like 3 hours and it’s time to go. Leaving is tough and I actually feel quite tearful when we both say bye to Sue and Kelvin, although they kindly invite to me come back to KL and stay again whenever I want and there’s a very good chance I’ll take them up on that!
Back in Singapore the next day and mum and I do the hop on bus tour and watch the city go by from the refreshing breeze and laziness of an open top bus (apparently ‘it’s hip to go topless’). We hop off only to visit a Buddhist temple and mum single-handedly supports the economy in China Town! J Sadly, today is another goodbye and we have a very romantic subway and wine for dinner on the balcony before the emotional pavement goodbyes as she boards her taxi for the airport. Back to reality for mum and back to solo travelling for me, neither of which is feeling too good at that point.
The rest of my time in Singapore is decisively lazy. The city is unique in that it is also a country, independent from Malaysia and Britain for 44 years now and I wander towards the marina to watch the military parade and fireworks to celebrate. The national pride is quite overwhelming here and they have no qualms with the cheesiness of their sea of red tops, plastic flags and love struck Singaporean songs – it’s actually quite moving to watch, as well as being pretty funny. Apart from National day, I leave the hostel couch, my new couch friend Matt and the comfort of free tea and toast only to take my iPod for a stroll and eat ice cream. See what happens when my mum leaves me! I do spend a lot of this time planning my next moves but only get as far as a train ride to Jerantut, the stop over town on the way into the jungle of Taman Negara. Here goes nothing...
