Singapore, wrapping up the Asian Tour!

So after the Penang mini trip, I was off to Singapore to meet up with my friend Kaisa, who had just arrived there after finishing up her work with the UN in Vienna. I had stayed with her when I was in Vienna, and had also run into her in Copenhagen the previous year, so we figured why not meet up again in some other country. Matt (the English lad) and I arrived into Singapore in the late morning, and he was meant to go stay with a French friend of his, but couldn't get a hold of him, so he figured he would just come to Chinatown with me, where I was going to be staying at a hostel. After clearing customs, we had a fair bit of a battle to buy train tickets to get into the city, wow what a hassle.

For such an organized and supposedly efficient country, the metro was such a huge hassle. First of all, the atms would only dispense $50 Singapore notes, which of course none of the automatic ticket machines would accept, and the ticketing office also wouldn't sell tickets if they were only one way....arghh unbelievable. So we had to go to the customer service area to change notes to get change and the lineup was ridiculous, and by the time we had that sorted out we had to go wait in a huge queue for the automatic machines, since they were so damn slow to operate. After finally getting tickets sorted out (and being frustrated with the country, leading to my decision to commit several fineable offences while in the city) we were on our way into town. For those of you who don't know, the running joke is that “Singapore is a Fine City” because of the amount of fines that are levied for silly things. For instance, chewing gum is illegal, as shown on the prohibited items board when entering the country, lumped right in there with firearms and knives....ha ha, and I believe the fine for chewing gum is about $2000 SGD or so. Spitting is of course fineable, as it eating or drinking in public places ($500 fine), and of course littering is another fineable offence ($1000). So within my first 20 minutes of leaving the airport, I had already popped in my first piece of chewing gum, and had littered a small piece of paper to start my fine counter.

We arrived into Chinatown about 3.5 hours later (should have just taken a taxi instead and saved 2 hours of time), found my hostel which was super close to the metro stop, and checked in. We then wandered around to find some dinner, and were pretty floored by the Singapore prices....people say Singapore is expensive, and yeah it most certainly is. The cheapest meal we could find, and that was at some street vendors, was about $10 Singapore.....tough to come to grips with this, after being able to eat like a king in Malaysia for $4 Singapore....ah well. We settled into an area, and had some cockles and noodles, while waiting for Kaisa to come find us, which she soon did. After finishing up lunch, Matt had to leave for his friend's place, so Kaisa and I just wandered around for 2 hours, checking out some of the downtown area, as well as a few of the Quays and the Waterfront area. She had lived in the city a few years back, so she knew some of the area, although not that well considering how much time she had spent there ha ha.

After wandering around for awhile, and stopping by to see the famous Singapore MerLion (the protector of the city, half mermaid half lion...a bit weird yes), she had to run off to dinner with her friend. Initially she had said it was going to be a girls' only dinner, but then at the last minute invited me along to come, but I decided to decline and just head back to the hostel to have a nap and a shower, as I was fairly exhausted from not sleeping so much the previous night. I wandered back to the hostel, and grabbed what would turn out to be the best hour of sleep I could manage in that hostel... After grabbing a shower (and flooding the hostel bathroom a bit, as the drain was fairly plugged up), I waited until Kaisa showed up, and then we wandered off to find a place to go for the night. We ended up going down to a trendy area called Clarke Quay (If you say Clark E, then they also sound alike...I have a small chuckle over this every time. When we arrived there, we found there to be some loud music, and a bunch of German beerstands, as it was apparently Mai Fest (an imitation of Oktoberfest). There was even a band playing in Liederhosen, which made me wish I had mine with me still, damn! We wandered around that area, catching the music for awhile, and finding an Irish pub nearby to sit down at, so I could grab a bite to eat....but unfortunately their kitchen wasn't serving main courses, just appetizers, so I had to settle for some $15 SGD chicken wings and a $9 SGD beer....yeah Singapore is damn expensive! We sat there, finished off our drinks, and the music wrapped up, so we wandered around again to try and find another place....I wasn't dressed, nor up for a clubbing night, so we just found a quiet little pub that had some cheap mojitos, and hung out there for another hour, before calling it a night.

I decided to walk back to hostel, since the Metro was done running, and after asking for some directions was on my way. One interesting thing happened when I was wandering along, as a vehicle drove by, and a girl stuck her head out the window and screamed what sounded like “stop pissing in the street” right as they drove by me....and I had this sudden shock, as I was simply walking and certainly not urinated in the street....and then as I walked a bit further, I saw a couple kissing on the street corner, so the woman was obviously yelling at them to stop kissing. I guess in Singapore, as with Malaysia, Laos, and a few other Asian countries, public signs of affection are frowned upon....ahhh how ridiculous certain parts of the world can be. So after shaking my head over someone making such a big deal over such a small thing, I was on my way back to the hostel and got into the room to find a huge group of Indonesians who were fairly loud and talkative, even though it was 1 am already. They were friendly enough, and I wasn't quite ready to sleep yet, so it wasn't a big deal, and they finally quieted down to sleep, and then the dude below me started snoring REALLY LOUDLY.....it was so so so bad..easily the worst I have ever heard in a hostel....if he was someone I had known, I would have gotten off the bunk and smacked him a few times to wake him up, but it is tough when it's a complete stranger. The guy had some serious medical problems with breathing, as he would often suddenly stop and then struggle to breathe again....I tried rocking the bed several times to wake him up, to no avail. The only way I could try and sleep was to put my headphones on, and blast some really loud music to drown out the terrible sound of this guy. That worked for awhile, until the album would finish and then I would hear the terrible sound again......at one point, I tossed a bit in my bed, and actually bumped my computer, which disconnected my portable hard drive, which then fell off the bed and onto the guy below ha ha ha....this woke him up at least, and then he made some weird noises, then moved the hard drive onto the floor and back to snoring.....Then I tried pouring some water on his arm from my bottle, which woke him up again, but then back to the snoring...oh my god.  

massive coin!

street food in Singapore, still expensive as hell

Boat Quay

Made some new friends to have a debate with

The Skypark at the Marina Sands Hotel

Singapore's protector; the Merlion

I think I managed to finally get about 3 or 4 hours of sleep when he woke up in the morning and left the room, but what an ordeal. I went out to grab some lunch at a chinese restaurant I had walked past the previous night, which seemed to have some really cheap food, but then found out the cheap prices posted on the wall were for little sticks of meat, and that the main dishes were still the same price as the street food vendors. I ended up having some chili pork dish, which ended up being way too big for one person, and not really all that tasty, even though the appearance would say otherwise. After hanging around waiting for Kaisa to arrive in Chinatown, we didn't really have a whole lot to do, so I figured we should head over to the Raffles Hotel, where the Singapore Sling was first created in 1926 or so. There actually isn't a whole lot to do in Singapore, other than shop and work, so this was something to kill a bit of time at least. We wandered over to the hotel, which is also one of the oldest hotels in Singapore, and a pretty classy, old British colonial style building. We settled into the old wooden bar, and ordered our $26 SGD Singapore Slings...damn you Singapore! The drink was pretty phenomenal, and it was neat to look around the bar and see that every single person, except for 3 guys having beers, were enjoying a 'Sling. Of course, since the price was so high, we milked the drinks fairly slowly, until finishing up and settling up the tab. By this point it was around 5:30 pm, and Kaisa had dinner plans with another friend of hers, but this time I was invited, so I wandered back to the hostel, showered up, and met up with the girls for dinner.  

big old plate of chilis and chicken :)

The Raffles Hotel, home of the original Singapore Sling

Not just a ladies drink!

We ended up going down to an area called Bulbis, where my friend Matt and his friend also happened to be hanging out that evening. We walked past the bar where they were supposed to be, but I didn't see them anywhere, and we just continued on to a Mexican restaurant for some Margaritas, Guacamole, and Enchiladas. After some nice conversation and food, we decided to head over to the Blue Jazz cafe where Matt was meant to be, and see if we could find them. After wandering around a bit more, I wasn't able to see them, so we were going to head into the city, when he popped out from the upstairs part, and we were able to catch up. Him and his friend were heading into an area called Club St, which was near Chinatown, so that worked out perfect for me. Kaisa's friend was tired and not into going out any longer, so she bailed, but Kaisa and I hopped in a cab with Matt and Mathieu, his French friend, and were on our way. We ended up stopping at a place called Club 83 which ended up being mostly a French gathering point for some reason, and a very expensive “ultra lounge” type of place, as well. Cocktails were again about $14 SGD, so it was a very expensive place to wet one's whistle. After hanging out there for a few hours, and blowing the budget on drinks, it was getting pretty late, and the boys wanted to continue on to another nightclub, but since I was so close to the hostel already, and tired, I just called it a night, but not before spitting on the street ($1000 SGD fine).

I arrived into the hostel, to find the snoring dude still in there, unfortunately, but he was a bit quieter than the previous night, so that sort of made up for it a bit, although I still wanted to take a pillow and suffocate the guy! I managed to probably only get about 5 hours of on and off sleep this night, as I had to get up a bit earlier to meet with Kaisa to head to the Marina Bay Hotel, and check out the awesome Skypark there. Since I had run out of credit on my phone, it was going to be a bit of a challenge to meet up with the girls, so I had to use skype to message back and forth, and finally head over to the hotel, where they were already hanging out. The Marina Bay is a fairly luxurious hotel, which has an amazing pool and restaurant area on the top of the building. Unfortunately, you either need to be staying at the hotel, or be a guest of someone staying there, but since Kaisa had stayed there several years earlier, she kept her key card, which is all one needs to enter the pool area, even if you're no longer staying there. They got in no problem, but since I had no phone and no key card, it was going to be a bit more of a challenge, but fortunately, when I arrived at the top floor, the security guard there was more interested in his iPhone than in enforcing the key card rules. I ended up just following in a couple who didn't show their card to him, and he just buzzed us all in, and I found the girls and enjoyed the spectacular view. Unfortunately, since I had slept in a bit later, I had missed most of the sun, as the keys soon greyed, and a storm started to roll in. Being that high up, and out in the open, the winds also can become a bit crazy, so once they started howling about, the staff had to hurry about trying to stop towels from blowing into the pool, chairs sliding across the deck into the pool, etc. I was able to get a few good photos before the pool was shut down due to lightning nearby.

Since it was shut down, we didn't really want to hang out at the outrageously expensive restaurant on the top, so we wandered down into the mall attached to the hotel. We ended up going down through an elevator that you need a valid key card to use to get up to the pool though, and made sure we spoke a fair bit with the man who was working at the counter there, to ensure he remembered us and wouldn't give us a hard time if we came back up through his entrance point. We arrived in the mall and ventured over to the food court, where they had so many different stands, offering foods from all over the Asian continent. It was tough to make a decision, but I went to a stand where Kaisa went to get some Singapore soup called Kaplao or something like that....it was a curry soup, but I didn't really find it as tasty as I had hoped, but at least I gave it a try. After lunch, we hoped the weather had cleared up a bit so we could head back to the pool, but the weather was still a bit bleak, but we wandered back up anyways. We first tried the elevators that lead to the entrance/exit we had taken before, but you needed a key card to activate the elevators to get there, and Kaisa didn't dig it out, so we just went over to the other elevators that didn't require a card. We arrived at the security point, and there was a more active guard working there, who asked to see our keycard....which Kaisa then tried to find and kept searching through her bag unable to find it.....but fortunately the guy believed we had a card, and just swiped us through...sweet! The girls settled back over by the pool, but I decided to go hang out in the jacuzzis, since it was a bit chilly by this point, and they looked like a good spot to hang out. I ended up finding one with two pretty cute German girls, and ended up hanging out there for an hour and a bit, getting to know them a bit. The one girl happened to be living in Kuala Lumpur, and was heading back there that night, so I grabbed her number to hang out in case things didn't work out with my Iranian lady friend. Eventually I realized that Kaisa had sent me a message asking where I was and that they were leaving soon, so I went to find them, but wasn't able to, so I just decided to leave and go back to my hostel.  

View from the Skypark

The pool

Small town boy, big city dreams

I arrived back, and was happy to see the snoring guy had checked out, and made a joke to the staff about how I would be able to sleep, and they all started laughing, as the whole room had been complaining about the guy, so it definitely wasn't just me who was bothered by him. Matt was heading out to a pub to watch a few big English Premier League games that night, and asked me to join, so I decided to head out for that. It took me awhile to find the pub, as it was kind of tucked away in a commercial centre, but I finally found it, but he was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, one of the French guys from the previous night recognized me, and said that they were still on their way, so I joined those guys to watch the matches. The bar was actually a Manchester United support base, as there were dozens of Asians sporting the Man U jerseys.....since I like an underdog, I was actually cheering for Manchester City, who was playing the first match, and they didn't disappoint, as they were able to come out ahead. There happened to be two Man City supporters in the crowd, and it was pretty hilarious to listen to the Asian supporters singing several fight songs and make fun of the Man City guys.....the one Man City fan was so drunk and retarded, plus he kept trying to sing things and you couldn't make any sense of him or what he was saying....he was a pretty big douche, so I was quite enjoying seeing the Man U fans take the piss out of him. After that game, we stuck around for the Man U game, and once they were all wrapped up, I just caught a cab back to the hostel with the guys and said our goodbyes, as I was leaving the next day for KL.

I managed to sleep somewhat decently, and then woke up to check out and go meet up with Kaisa for one last meal before leaving for KL. She took me to a central food market, where there was so many food stands, and a super crowded environment, making it a difficult time to find a table. Singapore has this rule where you can put a bag of tissues or a small token on a table, thus reserving the table for yourself while you go to place your orders, which makes it very frustrating, as entire tables will be reserved for possibly one person only. We had to sit around like Vultures waiting for our chance to get a table, but finally did. I went and grabbed a Hainanese chicken and rice, which is a simple but really tasty Singaporean dish, and enjoyed a nice lunch with Kaisa before saying goodbye and heading off to try and catch a bus to KL. I arrived at one area that has a lot of bus services running, and tried to get a ticket for ASAP, but the company only had a ticket available for 7:30 pm, and I didn't feel like sitting around for 4 hours waiting, so I went to another company which had a bus leaving within 5 minutes, so I grabbed that and was on my way. It was quite a bus, as the seats were these huge lazy boys, with electronics controls that would allow you to recline all the way back even....pretty intense! The reclining chairs made it much easier to catch up on some sleep on the 4 hour ride to KL, which was great. I left Singapore having racked up probably about $4000 in fines, take that Singapore!

We arrived in KL, and I headed over to Chowkit to check out a cheap hotel that the Iranian girl had looked into for me, and finally found my way there, and was able to get a single room for a few nights. I touched base with Negar, and she wanted to hang out for a bit, so she came by, and we went out for a late night drink of coffee, since she doesn't drink, and it was at a Pakhastani restaurant that didn't serve beer, and caught up a bit. I had decided to come back to KL a few days earlier than my flight to spend some time with her, as we had hit it off quite well before I left KL. After the drink, we walked around a bit, but she was tired and wanted to go home to bed, and I wasn't quite sure where to go with it, as I had decided to stay in the hotel near her place at her suggestion, thinking she would come stay with me, but that wasn't the case, so I just said goodnight and was back to my place for the night.

The next day I just slept in, and then went back to the Pakhastani restaurant for a delicious and cheap lunch and to catch up on some internet things. I started looking into hostel for Paris, and wow! They were so damn expensive, it was around $50 a night for a dorm room yikes! I decided to send out a few couchsurfing requests just to see if there might be any alternatives, and just hung out for most of the afternoon not doing much. I realized I had forgotten my phone, so I returned back to the hotel and found I had missed several calls, oops. I saw that Eugene had called, so I touched base with him, and he was now out of the hospital and in good spirits, so we agreed to meet up in Chinatown at his old hostel for a bit. I made my way down there, and found him to be in conversation with a Malaysian girl, who was asking him a bunch of questions and then talking on the phone to her mother. Apparently, her mother is some sort of holistic healer or something, and was able to describe how Eugene had these blood blockages in certain parts of his body without actually meeting him, it was a bit creepy, as she was somewhat correct since he had been suffering from blood clots, and this lady didn't know any of this....Interesting stuff. The girl also told Eugene he could go see her mom for $30 and receive a healing bath that would help him with his ailments, but he was obviously a bit pessimistic about the whole ordeal. We ended up just hanging out playing chess, and having some wine and beer (he probably shouldn't have been drinking since he was just discharged from the hospital, but he figured the wine was good for his blood ha ha), and we hung out there until the Iranian girl got a hold of me, and invited me over to her apartment to come for a swim.

Eugene was planning on meeting up with a few other friends and heading out that night, and I said I might come out and join them later on, plus I had found out that my Canadian friends Kristy and Jade were in town and was hoping to meet up with them to catch up before they left for Burma the next day, so I set a meeting point at Chankrat and I rushed to get back to my hotel, grab some swimming wear, and then over to Negar's place to join her for a swim. It was a pretty hot day, so it was quite nice to hop in the pool and just cool down and swim around. After swimming for an hour or so, we went back up to her place and just spent several hours together, enjoying each other's company amongst other things... which of course lead me to mis meeting up with Kristy and Jade, oops! I sent them a message at least, and we agreed to meet up the next day for lunch before they headed off to the airport. Eventually it was getting pretty late, and Negar had to be up early to work the next day, so I just wandered back to the hotel for the night.  

The next day I woke up and went down to Bukit Bintang to try and find the girls for lunch, and wandered around aimlessly trying to find them, but to no avail. I was finally able to find some wifi and find out that their flight had been bumped up, so they weren't able to meet me, damn. So I just grabbed some lunch at an Indian restaurant that was actually quite terrible, surprised that there exists bad Indian food! And then I just wandered over to grab a coffee and hang out, where I spotted some interesting people, including this guy who is probably what I'm going to look like in 10 years if I continue travelling without shaving or cutting my hair ha ha....

What I will probably look like in 20 years

And then this rather disturbing character...geez Malaysia wtf!

After Bukit I just wandered down to Chinatown to try and do some shopping for a few trinkets, but wasn't able to find any real good deals on things I wanted, particularly party watches, fake raybans, and some fluorescent shorts for my buddy Pancho. Every vendor was just giving outrageously high prices and wouldn't bargain properly, so I just had to say screw it. I ended up just waiting for Negar to finish up with work, and heading back over to her place for some more quality time together. I had to check out the next morning, and was tempted to just spend the night, but wanted to get back so I could sort out what to do with my bags the next morning, and she was tired anyways, so I decided to leave, but was still kind of awake, so I just wandered down to Chankrat to meet up with Eugene for a couple of beers before he left the next morning for Miri. He was meant to be flying already, even though he probably shouldn't have been, and he was supposed to be going at 7 am too....by the time we finished up hanging at Yoko, it was already 4 am, and I was ready to head back to sleep, while the rest of his group were going for a bite to eat. I touched base with him the next day and apparently his friends had sabotaged his flight plans, but probably for the best, as one's health is more important than risking flying again so soon after being discharged.

  

a healthy Eugene, finally out of the hospital :)

I had thought about taking my bags to keep at Negar's place since I had to check out at 12 and wasn't flying out until 11:40 pm that evening, but my hotel was able to store my bags for me, so I just slept in a bit, and then checked out, left my bags, and wandered back to the Pakhastani restaurant for one more meal. My couchsurfing host in Paris had mentioned he loved hot sauce, and since he was so kind to take me in, I figured I would go try and find some hot sauce to take him. Negar was a great reference, as she pointed me towards a shop in the mall attached to the Petronas Towers where I was able to buy some Malaysian hot sauce, which was surprisingly difficult to find....it seems like stores in KL only sell American based hot sauces, which defeats the whole point of bringing hot sauce from Malaysia. After getting my hot sauce, I wandered around the mall for a bit, looking to kill some time at a coffee shop, but there weren't any spots available, so I decided to head back to Chowkit and hang out there, waiting for Negar to finish up work, so I could hang out at her place until I needed to head off to the airport. After finding an internet cafe to check in for my flight, and try to print off my boarding pass, which of course I found out that their printer didn't work, and my hotel was of no help to print anything off either, I was able to find another cafe in the mall near Negar's place, and got that all sorted out. Then we just went back to her place, had some tea and snacks, and just hung out for the next few hours, not wanting to say goodbye, but the inevitable came, and I had to make my way to the airport. I had decided to take the trains instead of the bus, so that I could spend a bit more time with her, but then of course the metroline train was 20 minutes late, which caused me to miss the airport train that would have gotten me to the check-in point at a proper time......so now I was on the later train, and as per usual, cutting time close for a flight. I arrived 55 minutes before departure time, but was fortunate that I had checked in online, plus Malaysian airlines aren't too anal about checking in super early for international flights, so I was able to get everything all sorted, board, and on my way to gay Paree! 

ha ha ha English fail

I was pretty tired, and I actually timed my sleep patterns perfectly for the first time ever, as I was able to stay awake for the first 3 hours of the flight, and actually have a decent sleep the last 7 hours or so, arriving in Paris at 6 am Friday morning, and that is where I'll continue on from next....