Singapore

It took two hours to make my way through customs at Singapore, and when i finally got to the other side my bus had left without me!!! Panic!!


its not too bad i had been queuing up with a couple from my bus, she was Singaporean but he was Burmese so they had a long wait too! Being Singaporean she knew how to get me into the city from the border! How lucky was that!!


I had not been able to get any Dollars in Melaka so they lent me the money for the local bus and took me to an ATM when we got to town, though they refused to have the bus money back. You meet some really nice people travelling.


I don't know why i keep doing this but once again i have arrived at my destination late at night, its gone 10pm now, and it takes me a good 20 Min's to walk to an area called Little India, this is where i will find all the hostels. I have been recommended a place called Ali's on Roberts Road by the chaps i met in Hat Yai.


I could not find the place and eventually asked at a cafe on the corner. It just so happened that a chap eating in there worked there, he took my stuff up to this little door with no identification and up some stairs. Each door on the landing had a number on it and the room he showed me into had towels on the beds like a guest house would be, but he seemed to have it in his head that as i was travelling on my own, unmarried and not a Muslim i was fair game. It took quite some time to convince him to leave the room, if it had not been so late by this time i would have moved. As it was i locked the door, put my backpack in front of it and slept in my clothes! I made a quick get away the following morning and found a fantastic place called The Inn Crowd and spent the rest of my time in Singapore there!


Singapore is just a big city- it is nice though and they do make every effort to keep it clean!! I think though that in my mind i had blown out of proportion the cleanliness of Singapore and i was a little disappointed to find things such as dust and mud and puddles still thrive here.

I did read somewhere a quote 'One cannot visit Singapore without eating at Raffles at least once' or something to that affect, and so i did. I had lunch there in the bar (couldn't afford the fantastic buffets with free flowing champagne!) and a Singapore Sling, well after all this is Singapore!

The hotel actually took up most of the rest of my day it is a very grand looking building as you can imagine (it even has its own theatre).It also has lots of fancy shops and for some reason i found myself in Tiffany's again looking for that necklace i liked in KL. They didn't have it.

I had a real good mooch around the centre the following day, did all the usual sites, The Museum (Originally Raffles Library & Museum), The court houses old and new, Raffles landing site (where Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore first landed) and the surrounding quays. Found a nice English style pub here (The Penny Black- full of English people too!) that did very nice fish and chips and best of all had vinegar to put on my chips- marvellous!!

And just to make me feel even more at home it rained all day!

well tomorrow i am heading out to Bali, i have seen all i wanted to see of Singapore on this occasion. i didn't really stray from the city centre but i am happy with that.

Singapore airport is fantastic- free Internet for all!!!

Interesting fact (to me anyway!):

The foundation stone of the Old Supreme Court Building, then the biggest foundation stone in the whole of Malaya, was laid by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Shenton Whitelegge Thomas, on 1 April 1937. Buried beneath the stone, is a time capsule containing six Singaporean newspapers dated 31 March 1937, and a handful of coins of the Straits Settlements. The capsule is due to be retrieved only in the year 3000.

SINGAPORE SLING
The Singapore Sling was created at Raffles Hotel at the turn-of-the-century by Hainanese-Chinese bartender, Mr. Ngiam Tong Boon.
In the Hotel's museum, visitors may view the safe in which Mr. Ngiam locked away his precious recipe books, as well as the Sling recipe hastily jotted on a bar-chit in 1936 by a visitor to the Hotel who asked the waiter for it.

Originally, the Singapore Sling was meant as a woman's drink, hence the attractive pink colour. Today, it is very definitely a drink enjoyed by all, without which any visit to Raffles Hotel is incomplete.

Recipe30ml Gin
15 ml Cherry Brandy
120 ml Pineapple Juice
15 ml Lime Juice
7.5 ml Cointreau
7.5 ml Dom Benedictine
10 ml Grenadine
A Dash of Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry