Sat, 24 Aug 2002

author Tim	location Singapore
posted 23:14 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

A slow day, some site updates ( 3 photos )
Before getting into the details of today, take a little time to note that the header box above now has a working Itinerary/Photos link, as well as an added Contact link. We've got ten photos from Singapore online. The number we get to put up depends on how much time/money we have for Internet access. Plus, only having a few forces us to pick out the best ones!
Breakfast was in the hotel today - $20 each, so we ate like you wouldn't beleive, only to be outdone by a Greek couple at the next table who looked like they were intending to build The Acropolis with the personal bread supplies on their table. Dinner was at a food court where we ate cheaply but very well. $5 each or so, for a great curry (Liz), and some Thai (me).
We didn't do too much today - wandered up to the Internet place to catch up (as you may have noticed), and then across to Orchard Road to see what the fuss was all about. To cut to the chase, not a lot. If you imagine twenty Miranda/Hurstville Westfields together, with a few streets stalls and banks promoting credit cards (???) for good measure, you've got it. I guess we're just not shop-a-holics. Liz must be getting tired, because she usually is!
The only good thing that we did find (tune out now if you're not interested in nerd-detail) is that the Apple store there was running a promotion for the release of Mac OS X 10.2 - where I scored a free mouse (with no buttons!) and a T-shirt with my purchase. The T-shirt is great because it means we can go one day longer without washing. Which is a bonus because we (ok, Liz) was drying our clothes with a hair dryer earlier today in preparation for tomorrow's plane journey.
Which is the next item on the agenda - it seems that our time here has gone very quickly, and we now have a twelve hour flight ahead of us, touching down 15:30 Heathrow Time. Transfers are all organised, as is the wake-up-call (no SIM in the phone means we can't use the alarm - how very clever of us).
However, we've almost had enough of Singapore - Liz has a huge blister on her little toe from walking around so much, which she refuses to let me pop, and we're both looking forward to seeing Meaghan again (yay!), as well as getting out of this heat.
[The next day, we were on our way towards London.]

author Tim	location Singapore
posted 22:04 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Sentosa Island ( 70 photos )
Our first "real" touristy thing here, we spend the day on Sentosa Island. We were both expecting it to be very over-the-top touristy, but it wasn't as bad as we thought.
After a long walk which got us about half way, then a taxi for the rest as we gave up in the heat of the day, we took the cable car over to Sentosa, refusing the glass-bottomed variant on offer.
Suffice to say we have had yet another very good day, including a monorail ride, rainforest walk, beers on the beach, feeding peacocks, spotting monkeys, butterfly enclosure, Liz touching a snake, swimming, etc.
The only down side to the day is that my camera is playing up. Seems to dislike being powered on and off. However, we still managed to get enough shots in for the day, which is the main thing. I'll now have to try to get it serviced somewhere in London, which could be another adventure. Of course, this all happens after the three weeks of extensive testing before we left Sydney.
We're not sure what tomorrow will hold - will probably wander up to the Internet place again. Most of what we wanted to do has been done, yet it seems a waste to laze around by the pool.
It's mighty tempting though...

author Tim	location Singapore
posted 17:17 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Little India, Pulau Ubin ( 36 photos )
What a great 24 hours! Without going too far into the history or politics, Singapore is traditionally divided into three main Ethnic Quarters. Our hotels have been near "Chinatown", and yesterday, we went for a walk up to "Little India". A huge eye-opener! We went on a walking tour around the area, and saw a huge variety of Indian traditions - gold jewellery, saris, body art and of course food.
We suprised ourselves by walking into a vegetarian restaurant, and doing the "I'll have one of what they're having" trick. Liz was excited when the menu came, since it was in English. Imagine our deflation when we realised that while the letters were English, what they came together to form was certainly not something we had encountered before. The communication with the waiter was quite amusing - he came back to ask if we wanted one of the things or the other. "You'll have to suprise us", I said.
But, as you can see on the left, it was all worth it - fantastic food, highly recommended. We just have no idea what it was. It was about a 45 minute walk from our hotel - in the heat, we're both sleeping a lot and feel very fit from not yet taking a taxi, even though they seem to make up around 50% of the traffic.
Today we followed on a suggestion by Alan Heighway, and took a trip out to Pulau Ubin. Pulau seems to mean "Island", and Ubin is the particular island. It is quite a long way off the beaten tourist track - in the strait between Singapore and West Malaysia, but governed by Singapore. This involved a walk to Outram Park station (about fifteen minutes), train to Pasir Ris - the end of the line (CityRail could learn a lot by sending a few representatives over to observe the trains here - they are absolutely fantastic), a bus to Changi Village (at the North East corner of the main Singapore Island), then a ferry to Pulau Ubin (actually called a "bumboat"). Yes, it was a very interesting trip.
The island itself seems to survive mainly on tourism - most of the shops hire out bikes, which we of course did. Liz had two out of fifteen gears working, mine managed four. We ate lunch out there before heading back, utilising all the modes of transport that we did before.
This was the first part of the trip where the GPS has worked - in the city the tall buildings obscure the signals, since there are very few satellites directly overhead (being so close to the equator). It was very handy, but we've found our way around most places using low-tech maps and memory.
We feel we've accomplished and seen a lot here already, and still have a few days to go! Might need to spend a little more time in the hotel pool (pictured right, from our room's window), and we're still intending to get to Sentosa - possibly tomorrow.
Until next time...

author Tim	location Cyberstar Internet Cafe, Singapore
posted 17:02 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Woohooo connectivity! ( 24 photos )
A nice little internet cafe which will let us use the laptop. I'll attempt to bundle some pictures for the next update.
The new hotel is the Novotel, and it is quite a bit nicer than the last one. The pool is actually outside, which is a strange concept here. We've both worked on our tans a little (don't worry mum I'm not pink yet!).
This cafe is right near the Raffles Hotel, which has some historical significance in that some guy landed here, walked up the beach a bit and built a hotel. Or something.
I managed to restrain myself as we walked through eight levels of heaven at the I.T. Mall - so many computers! Liz had to physically restrain me as we walked into some of the shops. Interestingly enough, they had a few "girl" shops (Liz's term, not mine) to keep the women occupied. This worked well enough so that I bought an extra set of batteries for the camera.
Enough for now, will write again in a couple of days. Cheers!

author Tim	location Singapore
posted 10:52 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Concorde Hotel ( 24 photos )

(Continued from Before Leaving Australia)
We've successfully survived a flight, transfers, lots of queues, two meals and a very hard bed.
It's been great so far - last night we went to a place called the Heng Heng Fish Head Steamboat (I'm serious) for dinner. The food was great, washed down with a few Tiger beers. However, it was a bit overpriced. We stand out a mile away over here - taxis stop and beep to see if we want a lift, and the menu prices are only shown if you ask enough - some not at all. It was late, and we just wanted some food.
So, this morning we set out to get miles off the beaten tourist track, and instead had breakfast at a little "cafe" in the middle of a business district. Prices (suprise, suprise) were much cheaper, and the food just as good.
The hotel is reasonable - we're on floor eight out of twenty-seven, and there's open-glass style lifts in the middle which are lots of fun. The "entertainment" at the bar downstairs last night was four young kids and a drum machine doing Abba hits, so we stayed well clear.
I had to teach Liz how our shower worked last night - it's one of those ones where you only have one set of taps for both shower and bath, and you have to pull a little button up to get the shower to come on. I think they are going to become very common sights from now on.
We're just having a bit of a break now before we transfer to our other hotel, which I can see out our window so it's not a long haul, and then head up to Orchard Road to hunt out Internet connectivity, change some money and perhaps spend some of it.

(customised)