Which is great if you are with - oops best not go there huh...
Well its definitely hot and humid in Singapore and I believe this is a seasonal occurance, just it starts on the first of January and ends on the 31st December, this isn't a place I would want to come and work in - I think my credit card company will be glad of that.
Anyway, from my last journal entry, I can let you all know (as I know you are dying to find out and even if you aren't, this is my journal) that my luggage has arrived, dirtier than I checked it in, but it has long since been pristine looking which is expected after 3 months of travelling so far.
Now that isn't all the good news it would seem, since I had already spent all their nice Singaporean "emergency" dollars on new clothes.
Why I hear you ask, is this not good news?
Well it's simple, my backpack is now 1.5kg heavier (well at a guess) so even more to carry round in hot countries - still it could be worse, I met someone that was carrying round 23kg + a day pack with about 6kg in, madness I tell you, and for once it wasn't mine.
Hmm what can I tell you about Singapore, well it's a shoppers heaven and when you are bored of shopping, you can eat and eat oh yes and eat....you need to really work hard at shopping to burn off the calories so that you can partake in the eating, but it's very cheap meaning it really isn't worth trying to cook for myself.
That's the excuse that I am sticking to, but an evening meal from a hawker centre, well any meal from a hawker centre cost between 1 and 1.50 pounds ($2.3-$5 NZ dollars/$2-3 US dollars - and no I am not converting it to Euros for the rest of you).
I seriously think that if "aliens" landed in Singapore, then they would think that we lived to shop and eat, and although I am beginning to like shopping, it really is too much, I think that you could eat/shop for a full 18 hours each day assuming you had the credit card and the stomach to do so!
Take for example the Geeks paradise, aka Sim Lim Square and Sim Lim Tower, I think between those 2 places, you can get anything electrical you want, from soldering irons to state of the art video surveillance and everything in between.
Oh and Doc, that computer case of yours, the one I called a boys toy, its a childs toy from some that I saw there, and yes, that means I went for a visit, so maybe I am a little geeky, or maybe, I was just educating myself with Singapore geography via air conditioned malls to cool down in, you decide on the reason ;-)
So I did all the typical tourist things, went to Little Malay, went to Little India and Chinatown, took a bum boat ride, walked around the Colonial district, saw the mad ex-pats playing a game of Cricket and finally went to Raffles.
Well, should I say, I tried to get in the main door of Raffles hotel when I was told "Madam, I am afraid those shoes aren't allowed in here", huh, did this man not know that Flip flops are the king of shoes?
So I offered to take them off instead but he didn't seem to see the funny side of that remark - ah well, relegated to taking a drink in the long bar with the rest of the tourists.
Since I was confined to the tourists bar, I decided I had to be a tourist, and so consumed my first Singapore Sling; all round the bar people were sat there making the most of their overpriced drink by eating the free nuts and dropping the shells onto the floor.
You could even buy one of their "snack menu's" which is basically a menu attached to a fan, I guess they used to lose a few, but if you thought the food was overpriced, the menu is more expensive than some of the food options.
Ahh well, it's good to be a tourist :-p
The only gripe about Singapore is the pavements are tiled in alot of places, now it may be a pretty thing to see, but the problem is that when it rains (daily while I was there) the pavements become ice rinks when I am in my favourite, but well worn flip flops.
Now I can see a few options here to solve this:
They can redo the pavements with a more sensible covering for all us well worn flip flop wearers out there I could wear a new pair of flip flops and throw these away (I am a hoarder and they are really comfortable ...) I can buy a new pair of shoes that have a grip.... I can wear the walking shoes and have hot smelly feet... yuck
Well I will let you guess which option won, but I am at serious risk of having more shoes when back packing than I regularly use at home...
Finally, if you ever get to Singapore, remember that one of the best times to see it is at night, the city lit up at night has a whole different feel to it, its less humid, cooler and of course, the shops and hawker centres are still open - so sleep the day away and hit the streets at night is my recommendation.
So on that note
