The Fine City of Singapore

[ by Stian ]

Singapore – an island of luxury and fun, and a city of great shopping and dining. We sure had something to look forward to. Though, initially we were not supposed to go to Singapore at all, but since we were in the neighbourhood anyway, we figured out that we just had to drop by, and I am glad we did:) In Singapore we were to meet up with our new Lithuanian friends, Egidjius and Mindaugas again, and also our Dutch friend Erik, all of which we met at Gili T, but Erik decided in the last minute not to go to Singapore anyways unfortunately.

Arriving Singapore

We arrived in Singapore before noon. The airport is massive, very nice, stylish and very clean – no wonder this airport is awarded being one of the top 2 best airports in the world every year. Actually I think it has been awarded being the best airport in the world for the 3 last consecutive years. We spent some time at the airport, cause we had not booked any hostel yet – so we had to check out what the city had to offer of accomodation and try to book something before we left for the city center. We did eventually find a hostel that we booked for one night at first, and then we went on towards the city.

«Little Arabia»

It was easy getting into the city and we found our hostel pretty much right away. We had booked our hostel in the Arab Street, which, as the name implies, pretty much is located right in the Arabian area of the city. Unlike Little India or Chinatown this area did not have it's own ethnic name of reference though it definitely should have had.

Shophouse Hostel – The Social Hostel, was the name of our hostel, and it was pretty ok. We booked for only one night at first, but ended up staying two nights. We had to share a 8 bed dorm, which I have to admit is a bit too many beds in one room after my liking. Especially since there were no windows in the room. Because of the lack of windows the room had a very dark feeling to it. Also there were only guys in our room, who obviously did not feel like getting up in the morning, like ever. It really did not feel as easy or natural to get in touch with the others as we have felt at the other hostels we have stayed at in NZ and Oz, well well.

I immediately fell in love with the area though, and I will definitely recommend everyone to stay in or close to the Arabian part of the town if they are ever heading for Singapore. I actually felt very safe here as well – but then again, I think Singapore all over is a very safe city. Singapore is known for being a city where big brother literally is watching over you at all times. There are a lot of restrictions in this city, and you will get a pretty huge fine for almost anything. They even play with this fact on their souvenirs as well – since everything is forbidden, therefore Singapore is a fine city (fine as in a punishment).

Arab Street itself is a street filled with African and middle eastern restaurants, Persian carpet shops and shops that make and mix customized perfumes. The main mosque of the area was as well located close to our hostel. The rest of the area, that is the streets located parallel north of the Arab Street (behind our hostel), we didn't get to explore until the very last day – since we had been busy exploring the rest of the city the previous days. These streets, especially the main pedestrian street called Sultan street, was very very nice – and there was even a hostel located here, The Sleepy Kiwi. I guess TSK would be a very very nice option for accommodation as well. The houses are very colorful all over and people seemed happy and friendly. And the best thing is that this area is very affordable. Singapore is a pretty expensive city in some ways so any affordable option in this city is very much well appreciated:)

Haji Lane

First thing we did though after check in was to start exploring the area. I was of course immediately attracted to some really nice graffiti art right outside our hostel which turned out to lead to a very very very nice parallel street called Haji Lane. Wow, I just loved Haji Lane. This pedestrian street was filled with cool fancy small designer clothing shops and shops of brands not so common in regular shopping malls. As well as there were alternative and spiritual shops in this street there were also many nice restaurants and cafés/pubs here as well, which we got to see in the evening. We ended up eating dining in this lane twice during our stay in Singapore, and we also spent a lot of time exploring the clothing shops, though it turned out that they had nothing in my size here. I am a pretty big guy for Asian standards obviously;) At night this definitely was one of the most busy streets since all the cafés and pubs offered waterpipes, so the street was filled, mostly with young people who was smoking waterpipes. I have tried this type of smoking once before, in Costa Rica, but I really can't inhale so there is no point of me trying it again I think, haha;) We felt that we really got some Arabian experience in this area, even though we are not heading for Arabia during our journey, so that was sweet:)

Little India

After checking out Haji Lane we headed towards Little India. Lucas had recommended us to try to get a place to stay in Little India, and also the receptionist at the hostel recommended us to explore Little India, so we just had to see what all the fuzz was about then. Little India turned out to be a very very colorful area of the town, filled with many Indian establishments, like shops that sold REAL gold, that is 24 carat gold, not the pretend kind of gold of 14 carat that we get in Norway. I was amazed how detailed a lot of the jewelry for women were – but at one point I got sick and tired of gold, cause the whole fucking street had nothing else than only gold-retailers. Well well, another street though only sold flower-arrangements, and another street sold kitchen-ware only, while one street was only for small street restaurants, and another for souvenirs. There were a few traditional clothing shops as well and I actually did find a really really nice traditional Indian outfit that I really would have had liked to purchased, but the salesman told me they didn't have my size so it did not happen. I've added the photo of it below for the ones curious of how I could have ended up looking at my next party back in Norway – haha;) I liked Little India, but compared to Little Arabia it was a bit more messy, seemed a little dirtier (even though there's no trash on the streets) and not so varied... so I actually do prefer «our» area ahead of Little India so I was glad we found the hostel that we did:) Wiiiii:)

Great bargains on offer

On our way back we dropped by a pretty big shopping center, don't know the name of it though, mostly just to kill time before nightfall. There were a lot of nice shops here as well – though our budget did not really allow us to spend that much money. We also dropped by a huge electronics complex, where the only things they sold were electronic articles like cameras, computers, tablets, phones and so on and so on. At this very particular place they were really really pushy about getting their sales done. Of course we were tricked by one of these salesmen who wanted to sell us an add-on-macro-wideangel-lense-thing that originally cost 670 dollars, but he would give us 30 percent off since we were good people, and then additional 30 dollars off or something so that we would only pay about 400 dollars – but we were not interested really. He then wanted to sell us a battery-package and more – but we still were not really interested. He dropped the price to 350, then 300, then 250... and we started to «consider» it actually. But no, we said not interested and walked out and then he shouted 200 dollars after us. So we COULD have gotten something that originally cost 670 Singapore dollars for only 200 Singapore dollars – and compared to Norwegian price of the exact same thing this was a REALLY GOOD price. Though the equipment was so heavy and bulky that we didn't feel like carrying an even heavier load – so we just walked away. 200 Singapore dollars is less than 1000 NOK and it would have been even cheaper cause we would have got money back on vat-return at the airport if we would have liked to. I have actually already decided that I will return to Singapore maybe next year or the following year and buy everything I want of the newest electronic equipments, as camera, phone, tablet and so on – and I will probably save in the money in the end, included the cost of the flight and accommodation and at the same time have a very nice vacation:-) Wiiiii, just gotta love Singapore;)

We eventually got in touch with our Lithuanian friends again – but wasn't able to meet up with them the first day, so we planned for meeting the following day.

We realized that the WiFi was of amazing speed in Singapore so I then started to sort out photos for our travel blog cause of course I had to take advantage of this excellent WiFi connection after 2 months of crap WiFi in NZ, OZ and Indonesia...

Hanging With Lithuania

The next day we met up with Egidjius and Mindaugas at their hotel. They were staying at the fancy Fairmont Hotel, and after letting them brag a bit and giving us an exclusive tour of the pool-area, the tennis-court-area and so on we then headed for the Marina Bay. One of Singapore's most famous spots is the Marina Bay are that houses the Marina Bay Towers, a hotel complex consisting of three towers and a massive roof platform reminiscent of a huge boat crossing all three towers. Marina Bay is also the home of the Gardens By the Bay, and close by there is also the famous Singapore Flyer, a massive ferris wheel with an amazing view, they say.

Don't do must dos...

We first got to the Singapore Flyer, but decided to return here later, maybe at night, to get the sunset and the great view at night... well that did not happen. We then headed for the Marina bay hotel cause we wanted to go to the top to catch the view from there, have a drink and maybe go for a swim at the pool – but it turned out that if non-guests of the hotel were only allowed to access the viewing platform, and not the amazing gardens or the pool located on the top, which we thought we could. We were told that it was possible to sign up for a free guided tour and then we could get to at least see the gardens and the pool – though the tours for the rest of the day was already fully booked – so we had to do it the next day if so. So we decided not to go up at this point and rather return the next day – but in the end that did not happen either. So that were two of the must-do things in Singapore we did not get to do at all.

We did get to explore the ground floor of the hotel towers and the bathrooms were AMAZING! Really beautiful, haha. We were also mesmerized by this female quartet that played instrumental music close to one of the restaurants. They played beautifully, but we were not really sure what to think of it cause they did not smile at all – they did not communicate with each other – and it was obvious that they were stuck to a strict schedule. They were more reminiscent of robots to be honest than human beings. Hopefully they are well paid at least (though doubtfully).

Gardens By the Bay

What we did get to explore at some extent was the Garden of the Bay, which is a huge man made garden complex. The area consists of many iron-trees which with time I guess will be covered of vegetation, they have also made theme-customized gardens, like a Chinese garden, an Indian garden and so on. Pretty much the same as all other garden complexes we have been to during our travels, and to be honest – these ones were far from the best. But there were also two massive greenhouse-buildings at the complex, one containing a tropical forest and the other a waterfall complex. We did not enter these cause we did not feel like we had time or wanted to spend as much money just to see something we have already seen before. The greenhouse buildings are an impressive sight though, and they were actually awarded best building of the year in 2012. So I it was worth the visit for sure:)

Dining in Chinatown

Afterwards we headed towards Chinatown for getting something to eat. We unfortunately ended up at the most horrible restaurant ever. Kenneth ordered a beef-course but the portion was very very small, which wouldn't have been a problem if he hadn't had to pay 20 dollars for it – which is VERY expensive for something that little, and in Chinatown especially. I had fried rice which was ok, but Egis and Mindi ordered fried duck which was just awful. This was the first time I actually told a waiter that the food was unacceptable, reffering to the duck, and that we would not pay for the duck. At first he didn't understand so I even had to repeat it several times. They had literally served only skin and bones of the duck and no real meat – and even this course cost more than 20 dollars, so in the end the waitor did understand and removed it from our table. The service was not very good either – but this is a common experience we have had since the beginning of our journey to be honest. In this part of the world they never seem to serve the food for everyone at the same time, which is common in Norway. Almost every time we have been out dining someone ends up getting their meal so early that they have managed to finish it all before anyone else get served. Sometimes they come with the drinks after everyone had finished their meals, and dont get me started on the concept of having a starter... sometimes it seems like they think that we want the starter to go when we are about to leave... no no.

The most irritating thing of all is that they include the service charge to the bill so you are FORCED to pay EXTRA for their horrible service. Only later, at Sentosa island, we noticed they did not include service charge, that is at the Malaysian food street at least. The same goes for the Japanese restaurant we ate at the last day – though at the Japanese restaurant they had made a point of it and stated on a blackboard that «we are good people and do not include service charge, but if you find us worthy then please leave a tip» ... or something like that. At this place I actually felt like leaving a tip as well – and I did feel that they did make a better effort while serving us, so they did deserve it as well then:)

Marina Bay Light Show

After the horrendous Chinese experience we then headed for the gay-area with the aim of just checking out some of the places and have a few drinks. It turned out that we were to early and that none, but a couple, of the places was open yet. So Egis and Mindi was not very interested in going to a pub with no people. At this point I did turn a bit irritated to be honest, because there had been a lot of things this day that we were supposed to do but didn't get to do anyways... and that just annoys me. So we all just ended up heading back in the direction of our hostel but stopped by the Marina Bay to catch a light show which is put on every evening. We were supposed to maybe return later, but as the story goes – that did not happen either. Something that did make me smile though was the very cute snake made up of Chinese lanterns that decorated one of the streets in Chinatown. It was fun since the snake was cute and looked happy and not scary and evil like snakes usually are represented. We guessed that there was probably 2013 lanterns in this street, at least it looked like there could be that many. As many of you now of course know (cause you have been reading my blog all along) is that 2013 is the year of the snake according to the Chinese calender;)

When at Marina Bay we got to see the light show which lasted about 15 minutes, and it was pretty ok I have to admit. It's strange how much more beautiful a city looks like in the evening compared to daytime, and this also goes for Singapore.

Shock and grief!!!! :(

On our way back to the hostel I took a lot of photos of course, but suddenly my camerahouse decided not to recognize the stupid camera lens anymore. This would be the regular lense, the 600 dollar one I purchased just before leaving Norway!!!! I just got this message saying that the camera could not recognize my lens so I was not able to use it. You can imagine me being pissed off then – haha;) well well. What was strange was that my lens worked well on Kenneth's camera and all other lenses worked well on my camera – so I suspected a software problem in the camera, damn it. So I had to steal Kenneth's camera and sometimes only his kit-lens to be able to take photos, and since he is not so interested in taking photos all the time it was ok for now, thankfully;)

Sentosa Island

The second day in Singapore I and Kenneth went to Sentosa Island, which is a pretty large man made entertainment island.that houses amongst a lot of things the worlds largest oceanarium, a universal studios theme park, waterpark, many restaurants, a huge amount of expensive resorts, several really nice beaches, and a whole deal of other kinds of entertainment as well. We checked out a bit late from our hostel and stored our luggage, since we had agreed to stay with Lithuania at their hotel (to save some money) the following evening. So we arrived the island pretty late in the day, so we did not have many hours to spare – which was a shame cause it was a really nice island and if you are full of money you can have a great time at Sentosa:) Egis and Mindi dropped by the island with a friend of theirs much earlier in the day, and we met up with them before leaving for the island ourselves, so they gave us their admission tickets for the oceanarium since it was valid for the whole day. So we got into the massive aquarium for free:) Wiiiii, we love free things! I have to admit it was an impressive aquarium and it is probably the best I have ever been to. Especially one room was amazing – which contained a massive single aquarium with huge fishes and even mantas - but what was most impressive was the beautiful classical music that they played in the background and how well the music synchronized the movement of the gracious mantas. I could have been there the whole day just admiring the beautiful creatures for sure:) After leaving the oceanarium we walked around the island, took plenty of photos, had dinner at the Malaysian street, which is the cheapest place to eat on Sentosa island., and we eventually took the popular cable car back to the city center again. We also arrived to the island with the cable car and it sure was an amazing view – though the price for the cable car ticket was a bit stiff I have to admit... but well well. Since we did not get to do the Singapore Flyer yet it was ok ;)

Angry Birds mania

Funny thing about the Asian countries so far is that they seem obsessed with the Angry Birds concept! You find articles related to the Angry Birds EVERYWHERE! And the cable car out to the Sentosa Island was no exception. You could actually go with customized Angry Birds cars – and I guess you could play the game while in the car. We chose NOT to do one of those of course – but it happen that they did play the Angry Bird jingle several times even in our car – which was just very very annoying. Haha;)

Couchsurfing at Fairmont Hotel:)

This night we checked out of our hostel cause we were to stay at Egis and Mindi's hotel, just to save some money. Though we were allowed to store our luggage at the hostel so we did not have to bring everything to the hotel, which was a good things since Egis and Mindi also had to check out early next morning as well. I have to admit that I don't mind doing couchsurfing at fancy hotels – haha;) The couch was actually pretty comfortable as well – and the best thing of all – the hotel had a really nice and hot shower. so for the first time in days I did feel clean again;) haha.

The Saga of the Visas...

The last day we had booked our trip out of Singapore pretty late, cause our plan was to fix our visa for Myanmar while here. So we got up early the last day (the calender said it was Monday) and headed for the Myanmar embassy. When we finally arrived and had gotten our papers to fill out and found our place in the we realized that it would take 2 working days to get the visa, and since we were leaving in the evening we therefore would not be able to get the visa on the day... so we were at a dead end. We then left for the Chinese embassy to check if it was possible to get the visa for China on the day, which is possible at some embassies, for an extra purchase of course, but when we got to the Chinese embassy it turned out that they had relocated to another location... so we gave up, realizing that we would not have time for any visas anyway this day.

So we ended up exploring the area of the embassies instead, and wow – this area is such a huge difference from downtown Singapore. Most of the buildings are very tall, new, modern and look really nice. The shopping centers are modern and have lots to offer. We did look around a bit, had breakfast at a Vietnamese place and just relaxed, before we headed back to the hostel were we had stored our luggage. But before arriving at the hostel we decided to check out Lavender street though. Lavender street seems to be the street many of the main hostels are located in Singapore. Buy after seeing Lavender Street I have to say that I am really glad we didn't go for any of the hostels in that street. Lavender Street is really not nice at all, but the accommodation is cheaper here... We eventually came down to «Little Arabia» again and got to explore the streets here, before returning to our hostel. We had several hours to kill and we actually spent almost all of them at the hostel-café surfing the web while I was uploading photos for as many as 4 past entries to our travel blog! Wow – I doubt I will be able to post photos to so many entries at the same time ever again during this year... so I did a good job, just for you my friends back home to enjoy;)

Bus to KL

We had dinner at a Japanese place which was very good, before we had to find our way to the bus. We decided to take the bus to Kuala Lumpur since it only would take maximum 5 hours anyways with the bus. It wasn't that expensive either, only 25 Singapore Dollars, so we definitely saved money by taking the bus and the bus was very nice as well – with recliner seats – and I almost fell asleep right away. Though we had to get off at the border to show our passports and our luggage of course had to be scanned – that was a bit of stress cause the busdriver told us to hurry up – but how the hell do you hurry up at border control, especially when you are not wearing shoes? I had unfortunately taken my converses off in the bus and wasn't able to put them on properly so the busdriver got annoyed with me, haha. It did turn out that they didn't seem to care much at the border so we did get through the passport control quickly:) I then fell asleep on the bus again -and if it hadn't been for Kenneth I would not have woken up when arriving Kuala Lumpur, because as it turned out we were the only ones actually getting off here. Where the bus was headed for next is still a mystery to me today, so I could have ended up lost somewhere in the wilderness – haha;)

So to sum it all up – Singapore was a great experience, but it could have been way better since there were a lot of things that we would have liked to have done that we did not get to do, both because we did not want to spend so much money and because we did not prioritize the time correctly... well well. But I know that I will return to Singapore maybe even as soon as next year, so I will catch up on lost activities then, hopefully – that is, if I still have money after upgrading all my electronics;) haha.

Since Singapore is a "typical city" the photos are of typical City photos as well.. maybe not so exciting but well well... here they are:

@ "Little Arbia"