We’ve been back in Kuala Lumpur for a couple of days now and there’s been plenty of time to reflect on the time we spent in Singapore. After the first exhausting day we tried to cut back a little on the amount of walking but it’s difficult because I always think walking is the only way to really get to see a city. The second day was spent much the same as the first but with about 60% of the walking. We went back to the Gardens by the Bay to see some of the indoor exhibits. Whilst paying for the tickets, Lynne’s credit card was declined again. This led to us trying to ring the credit card provider with very little success. For some reason we tried all kinds of variations on how to dial the UK from abroad none of which worked so we decided to wait until we were back at the hotel.
The exhibits include the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome. They are both huge domed buildings housing plant and tree life. The Cloud Forest replicates the cool conditions found in tropical mountain regions of south-east Asia. It’s all very impressive and cleverly done but I found myself strangely indifferent to the whole thing. That’s not to say it’s not worth a visit, it very definitely is. Maybe it was the endless crowds of people taking selfies that put me off. It seems to be a thing in Singapore, especially amongst the Japanese. Well we already know all about the Japanese passion for taking photographs. In KL, Lynne and I have seen them lining up in front of advertising hoardings for photographs. Only the Japanese could turn an advert into a tourist attraction. To be fair they seem happy to photograph just about anything. Back to Singapore though, I have never seen such frantic determination from huge crowds of people to be taking selfies at every other step. Young women are easily the worst. More than once we’ve watched young women adopt all manner of poses whilst photographing themselves ten times over. It seems modern day mobile phone technology has helped take narcissism to heights previously unheard of. Don’t get me wrong, I like a selfie as much as the next man, but just the one, every now and then, in an interesting location. Not dozens on the same spot.
Lynne thinks this blog is starting to sound a bit like the Victor Meldrew Chronicles, I apologise but I do enjoy a good opportunity to vent my spleen! So, back to the Cloud Forest. On entering, the first thing you see is a huge waterfall with dozens of selfie takers obscuring the view. There I go again, sorry! Ah, what the hell, we came, we saw, we left and while it was interesting if you were there, it was nothing to write home about! Lots of preachy eco awareness stuff, which I’m totally in favour of, but I don’t think me trying to describe lots of different plants and stuff is gonna make for very interesting reading. One of the most notable things was the total absence of insects in the Flower Dome. Surely a living flower display needs bees etc to pollinate? We did see a bird however, I don’t know whether he was meant to be there or how he got in but he would have to be the smallest bird I have ever seen.
On the way back to the hotel I stopped among all the selfie takers and took the following picture of the Downtown Business Sector. If you look closely you’ll see in the left of the frame the Merlion projectile vomiting into the bay. The Merlion is the official mascot of Singapore, presented as the head of a lion and the body of a fish. The fish body relates to Singapore’s origin as a fishing village and the lion head represents Singapore’s original name, Singapura which means “lion city” or “Kota Singapore”. God bless Wikipedia!
Back at the hotel we tried calling the credit card provider again using numerous different codes, once more with no success. As a last resort I dialled 0044 which I had always understood to be the code to use from abroad and hey presto, it worked! Reading that last paragraph back to myself, I hear how dumb it sounds and I have no idea why we didn’t try it first. It truly was a Forest Gump moment. Stupid is as stupid does! So, the whole problem with the card was caused by the restaurant. Without knowing exactly how, it seems they somehow damaged the strip on the card whilst trying to take the payment and the credit card company (Post Office) instantly put a security block on it. Ordinarily they would then call you to check the transaction but we are both using different numbers while we’re in KL so consequently they couldn’t contact us. Having eventually got through to them and answered a lot of security questions the block was taken off. Problem solved!
Now that we could spend money again we headed for Chinatown. There’s a food street which is actually called Smith Street which I’d seen online that we wanted to try. The streets around Chinatown were vibrant and very colourful and we spent a while mooching round the shops. We came across a Tintin Shop on our way to Smith Street. I’d never seen one before, in fact I didn’t know there was such a thing. We had a good look round and for me it bought back a flood of childhood memories. More like feelings really. Funny how certain things from the past have the power to bring back such strong feelings. Is that the definition of nostalgia? The shop seemed to be selling mostly figurines of various Tintin dioramas along with books and magazines. I found the whole place quite fascinating and against all reason I was tempted to start spending money. I resisted the urge though as I’m only too familiar with my own tendency to act on a whim and then six months later you’re left looking at this thing you bought and wondering what the hell was I thinking?
Once we found Smith Street (classic Chinese name) we soon found a place to eat. It was called Chinatown BBQ Seafood. We sat at a table thinking it belonged to this particular restaurant and a guy came with a menu as soon as we sat down. The strange thing was a woman came and took an order for drinks and then disappeared for ten minutes. It soon became clear that the tables are communal and people from any one of the restaurants in the street are walking up and down touting for customers. The food came from the restaurant we were sat next to but I’ve no idea where on earth the drinks came from. I’d heard about Singapore’s hawker centres and the realisation dawned that this was one of them. Looking online later it transpired that this is regarded as one of the best. We both had variations on Squid and a beer each. Thankfully the credit card wasn’t declined this time so there was no need to worry about harvesting organs again!
For our last day in Singapore we were a little bit stumped for ideas what to do. It’s not that there aren’t lots of things to do, just that you’re so spoiled for choice it’s difficult to know where to start. In the end after spending an hour in the gym and pool we plumped for the open top bus ride. The Idea is that you can hop on and off wherever you please, which we didn’t! All we achieved from this was to realise how huge the city is and that to do it any real justice we should have maybe stayed three or four days more. Later that evening we walked out to Clarke Quay to find somewhere to eat. The last time we had been there was Monday and the atmosphere was quite lively and we both enjoyed it. This time however, it was absolutely heaving with people and I mean lively times ten! Having walked around we decided it was a bit too frantic for us and headed for one of the quieter areas not too far away. We walked into what we thought was an Italian restaurant which turned out to be Mexican with awful music blaring out from a speaker just above our heads. To add insult to injury, the food was mediocre too so our last evening in Singapore was not what you could call a great success!
The following morning we packed to leave before going down for breakfast. While we were sitting having breakfast a man came in with what I took to be his son. The man himself was fat with greased back hair and his son looked as if in the fullness of time he had every intention of being just as fat as his daddy. I watched with interest as fat daddy walked around the buffet on one side of the room and filled a plate high with food. Placing that plate on his table he then went to the buffet on the other side of the room and filled another plate high with even more food. Lynne, always the one to see the best in people thought that maybe he was getting food for his wife who may or may not even exist. In the meantime his son had already started eating. You’ve probably guessed what comes next, yes, having polished off the first plate old fatso started tucking into the second one. So, if there is a wife it looks like she’ll definitely go hungry. I was tempted to sit there for longer than we actually needed to just to see how much food this guy could get through. Just before we did leave the son got up to get himself a drink. He’d barely left the table for ten seconds before his dad decided to finish off the food left on his sons plate. Well, you could give him the benefit of the doubt by saying maybe he’s fat because of some kind of medical problem but in this case it was quite clear that he simply ate too many pies!
To sum up our experience of Singapore, I think Lynne would agree we both loved it. It’s a very organised city unlike KL where there is a touch of chaos about everything. In Singapore for instance there never seems to be excessive traffic, maybe because car ownership is strictly monitored. Singapore only issues 10,000 Certificates of entitlement per year for people to buy cars and that’s based on 10,000 other people relinquishing their’s. These certificates can cost around S$80,000 (£47,000) before even thinking of buying a car. Also cars have all kinds of taxes levied on them, as much as doubling the purchase price. I was surprised therefore to see lots of luxury cars on the roads including Rolls Royce Phantom and Bentley Mullsane. In fact we saw four or five Bentley’s in the time we were there. All in all, we had a very enjoyable stay in Singapore but very expensive too.
The bus for the return journey to KL was not as comfy as the first. we were sat right at the front without quite as much leg room. I’d have to say it was slightly grubby too by comparison to the first. Nevertheless a great and cheap way to travel though. Arriving back in KL at rush hour slowed things down a bit but we were back by 6.00 pm. The Corus Hotel had kept my posh umbrella as promised and we soon got a grab back to the apartment. On the way there we saw a family of four crammed onto a small motorbike. They were weaving their way through heavy traffic seemingly without a care in the world. The parents both had crash helmets on but their two young children didn’t. Our taxi driver asked if that kind of thing would ever happen in the UK. We confirmed for him that if it did the authority’s would most likely take those children away. He just thought it was incredibly selfish of the parents that they had crash helmets on and the children didn’t!
All that was almost a week ago and I’m only just getting round to clicking on the publish button. I couldn’t convince myself it was interesting enough but it’s all I’ve got so here goes!
Wandering Wildman 