The adventure begins! A Singapore retrospective.

Well, here I am in Malaysia now and I thought it about time to get this blog up & running.

(Excuse the tense variations - I wrote bits and pieces on different days and cant be bothered re-jigging it now)

Rewinding back a week to begin with – the flight on the A380!

At Sydney airport – gate 61 I got my first up-close look at the almighty Airbus. And it looked BIG!

And when a puny 737 taxied by, it looked even bigger! Seriously, the engines on the A380 would have to be bigger, or at least as big as the fuselage of a 737.

On board i'm seated on the upper deck – by choice, as the upper deck economy configuration is 2-4-2, while below they have a 3-4-3 setup. This plane is definitely roomier than say a 777. And much much quieter. In front of me I had a 27cm lcd tv, and a superb selection of movies, hundreds.

Take-off in the A380 is quite different compared to most planes. This thing uses a hell of a lot of runway to get off the ground, so much so that it almost felt as though we were going to drive to singapore. It takes quite a while to pick up some pace. Eventually though, the plane lifts, but at a much shallower gradient than most planes.

Business class and first class look amazing on the Singapore jet. In 1^st class, you get a rather fancy leather recliner ...and … a bed. Not a chair that turns into a bed, but an actual bed!

Business class looked super comfy too mind you – fully reclining seats, massive amounts of room. And economy, well actually, it was roomier than other planes, particularly with regard to leg room.

The other noteworthy praise should go to the food. I dont know whether it's specifically A380 related, or whether it was just standard fare for Singapore airlines, but the food was actually very tasty. A choice of beef noodle salad, or poached eggs, chicken sausage and hash browns for breakfast, and for lunch, deep fried chicken, rice and chinese broccoli, or beef goulash with buttered vegetables. Singapore airlines, according to one of the stewards, also has a dedicated own cocktail mixer on each A380. Even in economy you have a menu of about 5 cocktails – the specialty, of course, being a Singapore sling! Naturally, I felt obliged to try one out. That turned into a about 3 by the time we reached singapore. Oh how i do love to give the hostess call-button a workout.

“Bing”.

Landing this behemoth was fairly standard, it felt weighty as it hit the tarmac, wit a bit of a wobble, and while for the most part, the plane is almost eerily quiet, you really hear the power when the captain reverses the engine thrust to slow it down.

All in all – I like the A380. If you have the option of flying on it, do it, it's definitely superior to the 777 and the almost antique, 747.

The view of Singapore from the air is prettty impressive. The super high-rise buildings are one ting, but it's the ship traffic in the bay that is most noticeable. I've never seen so many massive tankers and ships either anchored or approaching the harbour. There must have been more than 80 massive ships out there. It's apparently one of the busies ports in the world, and it shows.

I decided to take the thrifty option, and catch the train from the airport into the city. Only I had forgotten to write down directions to the hostel. Luckily, I knew where it was near, and getting off the train at Clarke Quay, I was most fortunate to also recall which direction it was the the quay, and after about 3 minutes walking from the station, I stumbled across the street I needed, and was making my way up three flights of stairs to the hostel entrance.

Being my 1^st hostel experience, I have to say,I was impressed. I had a top bunk, which sounded good in theory, in practice though, climbing up the ladder was not so easy. I must be getting old.

After settling in, I went for a walk to get my bearings. One of the reasons for choosing the River City Inn hostel, was the location. Just about all the main areas of Singapore are walkable. Close to the colourful Clarke Quay, 5 minutes to Chinatown, 10 minutes to Orchard road, plenty of nightlife surrounding. And if you can'tbe bothered walking, the train gets you most places very quickly. Perfect.

Met Pete from Brisbane when I got back to the hostel, who was on his way to Melaka in Malaysia to do a mime show. He had just met a german dude, Marco – so we decided to head out to get some dinner in the Chinatown hawker centre. The hawker centre was pretty cool. Almost like a giant open-air pergola, with tons of tiny eateries inside. Pig organ soup seems popular here. Hmmmm. But a fairly extensive range of cuisines and foods available, chinese, indian, korean, western, seafood, Haianese chicken & rice, japanese, vietnamese, to name just a few.

Cheap too. I paid SG$3.80 for dinner – and yeh, it was decent.

It's humid here as you'd expect, and as usual, I was sweating my guts out, so after dinner it was time for beer! Tiger beer is the local beer – we get it back home, and its a good drop.

SG$16 for a jug at the Hawker centre (that's about AUD$12-13) – my shout.

We headed back riverside for, well, yeh, more beer. Clarke quay is a busy, touristy section along the river.

It was Pete's turn to get a jug – and at Clarke Quay, the price jumped to SG$37!

So following that, we decided to just buy beer from 7-11, which gets you a 500ml can for around SG$5. Much better.

Marco suggested we head to a place called Bar Asia, at the top of the Swissotel.

It turned out to be 71 floors up- the highest bar in SE Asia, with a sensational view of colourfully lit Singapore. It really is a bright, colourful city at night. But it's also colourful during the day, with bright, if not sometimes garishly coloured paint jobs on buildings and houses.

The bar was pretty fancy I suppose. Pants were required, which required a slower walking pace to avoid over-heating. A glass of beer in Bar Asia was about SG$15 – cocktails were only marginally more expensive, ranging from SG$19-22 – so we got on the Singapore Slings. A pretty tasty drink too. And strong. Which was good, cos the DJ was rubbish – he only managed to beat-match once, in throughout the entire evening. Met a couple of scottish ladies on the dancefloor who were en route to Australia for a sojourn. The bar closed at 2am, and I was feeling pretty wrecked. 2Am in Singapore meant it was 5am back home, and i'd been up since 6am the day before.

But i'm not one to simply hang up the boots when a bar closes. Marco and I headed back towards the hostel and stopped in at a place called 13 Sisters. A dark, tinted windowed bar a few doors down from the hostel. And low & behold, it was filled with gorgeous Singaporean girls cranking out Karaoke, in what I think was Chinese. So it was more jugs of beers and Bombay Sapphire shots while we checked out the wares and listened to Singaporean boys and girls serenade one another.

3.30am – close time. And we were both pretty well oiled by now, so we called it a night.

I mentioned before, that getting up to the top bunk was difficult. Well doing it pissed wasn't any better! Not to mention trying to do it silently.

Waking to the sound of a concrete compounder on Thursday morning at 7.30am across the street wasn't quite what i'd had in mind. I managed to make it to about 9.30 before I'd had enough and decided to get up. Which meant getting down.

Cloudy day. Hot, but not too hot, which was good considering I was a little hungover.

After breakfast I slowly marched up towards the little India district. My plan for the day was to get an idea about where I might get me some good photos – but the harsh light from the cloudy day wasn't really inspiring me. The other plan was to get myself a small digital camera – I had always planned on doing this – it was in the budget, as I knew that the DSLR wasn't really suited to nights out on the town, due to it's size, and the potential of losing it or breaking it after a few drinks.

This lead me to Sim Lim Square – the electronics & gadgets mega mall! Heaven.

Mission accomplished.

Then I hit the wall. I felt caned after the night before, drenched in sweat, sore feet from all the walking, I had to have a siesta and so headed back to the hostel ...very, very slowly, and with frequent stops at 7-11's en route for water. By the time I made it back to Clarke Quay, my feet felt as though they had been bludgeoned with a rolling pin, but I made it. And rested.

Bumped into Marco who told me that Deepavali was being celebrated in Little India in the evening – which is a 5 day Hindu festival, the festival of lights.

There is even an interesting legend behind this festival.
The story goes that Narakasura, a demon, ruled the kingdom of Pradyoshapuram. Under his rule, the villagers suffered a lot of hardship as the demon tortured the people and kidnapped the women to be imprisoned in his palace. Seeing his wickedness, Lord Khrishna set out to destroy the demon and the day Narakasura died was celebrated as Deepavali, the triumph of good over evil!

We would go get some Indian food and check it out.

He too complained about his feet – and so we decided it was time to take the train.

Well, Little India lives up to it's name. It's just like, ummm, a little India. Jam packed with Indians, of all people! Thousands of them! Everywhere. It was manic. All I could think about though, was getting some tasty Indian food for dinner!

After having a quick look around, we stumbled across a neat little Indian restaurant down a side street that looked good. And to my delight, they had a spice-scale for their dishes, from 1-6.

I LOVE my food spicy, and I reckoned these guys would thrown down some pretty serious heat.

And fuck, they sure did! I was going to order my curry as a 6 on the spiceometer.

But I held back, and played it somewhat safer, and went for a 5. When I ordered a 5, the waitress gave me a wry smile and a wee chuckle, before checking that I was sure. Last time a waiter did that to me in Thailand my head almost got blown off.. And sure enough, that grin & chuckle meant the same thing – cos 5 was up there with the spiciest meals I've ever had. Super tasty, and super spicy! It took about an hour after eating before my tongue worked properly again. The next morning I had a burning desire to go to the toilet. Turns out “burning” was the operative word.

Anyway, the Deepavali celebrations were rockin along, the streets were jam packed with people. We walked along Serangoon Rd (the main street in Little India) until it came to an end. We ended up walking back to the hustle & bustle as midnight approached, to see what Little India had in store. Turns out it was a fairly mediocre firework display, nothing to write home about.

After the fireworks we made a b-line for the MRT – only to discover the last train had just left. Damn. Massive crowds make for difficult cab hailing. I suggested we head to the nearest hotel – they usually have taxi ranks. Luckily, en route, someone jumped out of a cab – and we jumped in.

Back to the hostel around 1am. Bed time.

Friday November 5^th – Up fairly early. My time at the hostel was up – they were full the next few nights, so I had to locate new lodging. Turns out all the other hostels nearby were full too. I didnt really want to stay in another area, this location was prime. I walked through the streets, and saw a place called Hotel Tavern. I thought that has to be a hotel, or tavern – both of which may well offer accommodation. I was right! It was about twice the price of the hostel – but not unreasonably expensive like most hotels seem to be. In Singapore.

There was a reason it wasn't overly pricey. The single-bed room was tiny. Really tiny. I reckoned it to be about 2 metres sq. The bed was probably about 10cms shorter than me from head to toe. And took up half the room. The rest of the room consisted of a cabinet stuffed into one a corner next to a window, a tv (atop the cabinet), a tiny bed-side table, and air-con. Mmmmmm aircon.

Shared bathroom.

Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, Singapore

But all was very clean & tidy, and so it was a done deal

Next I needed to collect my KTM train ticket, for the trip from Singapore to KL.

Taxi to the station was about $6. Nice old station, if not on the smallish side.

The station wasn't far from the harbour, so I made my way down to a place called Vivo Vity. A huge shopping complex by the water. There I saw the cable car to Sentosa Island, and in the other direction, Mount Faber. I needed to refuel before doing anything else though, so I stopped in and ordered myself a Fried Kuay Teow – a personal favourite. Cost me $3.80, and it was pretty damn good!

Fried Kuay Teow

View from Vivo City

Next stop, Sentosa. I thought I'd hit up the cable car, get myself a nice view. Not exactly cheap though at about $20 for the return trip. Still, the view had to be good.

It wasn't as good as it could have been, as it was a cloudy, misty day. I did get a good view of two massive cruise liners in the harbour though. One of which had a waterslide on-board! Very cool I thought!

Once on Sentosa, the first thing that struck me was that you have to pay to do anything on this artificial island. They had plenty of things to do, but all at a price. None of which particularly enticed me. An elevated sky-tower thingy – no thanks. A display of images of Singapore. A chairlift ride. Pfffft. The only cool thing was a luge ride,x but even that looked fairly tame.

I had a $7 beer instead.

I went for a wander down towards where Universal Studios was. I wouldn't have minded going – if the price was right, which I didn't think it would be. It was $72 for entry. And I could only wonder whether that included everything, or admission only. I would think about it. If I were to splash out, I'd want the whole day there, and by now it was mid-afternoon.

The rest of the island was pretty much made up of big, obscenely expensive hotels, and fine dining restaurants, many of which has international chefs that they advertised on giant posters – bound to expensive, and they were.

Plenty of fountains which children were having a great time in, trying not to get splashed, but did.

And tons and tons of people. Everywhere!

For a “resorty” place – it's possibly one of the least relaxing places I've been to. This was a Friday afternoon, imagine a Saturday!

View from Sentosa beach

Around the back of the island is a fake beach. And they couldn't even make this bit relaxing. The beach basically peers out into one of the busiest ports in the world. All you can see from the beach are hundreds of massive cargo ships, and some sort of industrial district across the bay.

Behind the beach are a number of bars, some cranking out tunes, one clubby kinda place also had a pool which was basically a giant foam pool which was amusing. I decided I didnt really like Sentosa very much at all – it was time to leave. A good place with kiddies perhaps, but you'd need deep pockets. But not the place to go to relax, unless you never leave your resort hotel – even then I bet you cant escape the noise.

Back on the cable car – back over the cruise ships, damn that waterslide is cool. Onwards and upwards to Mt Faber. Pity the weather was pretty average, and starting to rain. Some good photo's to be had from Mt Faber. With the rain on it's way though, I decided to get going, and head baclk to the hotel. Plus my feet were killing me again. I did see a nasty lookin spider though.

Spider on Mt Faber

Decided a quiet night was in order, I hadn't caught up on lost sleep, and all this walking was taking it out of me. The weather was poor too, a drizzly evening along Clarke Quay, which proved beneficial, since it was quiet, restauranteurs were eager for business. Along the quay there is someone outside every restaurant trying to win your business. “$4 beer sir, then happy hour for you.”, or “2 for 1 beer with your meal sir”. What they dont tell you is $3 beer, plus 10% service charge, plus 7% tax! Ha! A friendly Indian man named Richard accosted me and offered me 1 free beer, then happy hour. I said 2 free beers and I'm in, to which he obliged. I then proceeded to order a fairly cheap egglant curry dish, rice and a garlic naan, which wasn't all that cheap, but beers were $7 + service + tax, and so I thought it wasn't a bad deal. Turns out the food was really good, money well spent. I wanted to take some photos of the city skyline with the tripod, but rain prevented more than a couple of pictures, and so I wandered back to the hotel in the refreshing rain, and called it a night.

Had a bit of a sleep in, although because the bed was so short, I kept waking up from hittin my head on the headboard, or kneeing the wall as I turned over during the night.

It was Saturday, about 11.30 by the time I made it out of the hotel. I went for breakfast at a place nearby called Ya Kun. I ordered a cheesy toast with Kaya. I didnt know what Kaya was though, and discovered it was coconut jam. Seemed like an odd combination, cheesy and coconut jam on toast, but I went along with it. But it was weird. Savoury and sweet, not really my cup of tea, but edible.

I later found out from a Singaporean boy who worked at the hotel that this was fairly traditional Singaporean breakfast.

I thought i'd head off to the Singapore Botancial Gardens for the afternoon, Marco has told me it was really nice. It was about a 20 minute bus ride. Thankfully, it was free to enter! Finally, something that was free!

The gardens were indeed very beautiful though. I'm not much of a plant and flower person, but they did have some really cool flora and fauna, and it wasalso the 1^st place i'd been to in Singapore that could be described as relaxing. But the day was hot. Probably the hottest so far, the sun was beating down, and no wind, which slowed my pace to a crawl. Which suited the gardens really.

From there I made my way on foot towards Orchard Rd – from what I'd read, the shopping district. Big malls and sshopping centres consumed the road, and plenty of eateries. I stopped in for a beer at a Spanish bar – 2 for 1 beer again. I then followed Orchard road for a while, stopping in for a brief glimpse of a couple of shopping centres, but since I wasn't in the market to buy anything, I didnt stick around too long, and set my coordinates on the esplanade area, where one finds a place called Marina Bay Sands – which from a distance, looks like a ship in the sky, sitting on top of three shiny buildings, anf from which there would be some good views, and therefore, good photos. It was about 6pm by the time I got there, sunset at around 6.30. I had plenty of time. That was until I saw the line to gup to what they call the SkyPark. Lining up outside to get on the elevator to go down didnt take too long, but the line at the bottom of the escalator was another story. The line wasn't to go up, the line was for buying tickets to go up – another $20! Just to go up a building?! Geez. What really pissed me off though, was that tripods were not allowed! Grrrr.

I made it up in time for sunset though, just, but unfortunately like most days so far, it was cloudy, and so less than ideal. Bit i'd paid my $20 now so there was no going back. Indeed the view was good, and I think I magaed to get some good shots, albeit, without the tripod.

View from the SkyPark

Singapore at night

After about half an hour a storm starting coming in – they close the SkyPark during inclement weather due to the wind gusts and so on. Luckily not the case today, so I fired of a few more shots as night time set in.

So another day of walking, even though my feet were recovering much faster now, I cabbed it back to the shopping centre near the hotel, and walked the rest of the way.. I jumped online to see what was on this Saturday evening in Singapore. What luck! Miss Kitten (DJ fromGermany) was playing at
 Zouk nightclub, one of the big clubs in town. $30 entry with 2 free drinks! I was tired, but it had to be done! Of to the quay for a quick indonesian feed at a place recommended by the Footprints guide. Beef Rendang, rice, and a freshly squeezed lime juice, all of which were good, not amazing, just good. Back to the hotel to freshen up, and then off to Zouk was the plan.

I didnt know where Zouk was, and had received conflicting information from two different hotel staff. One had told me I'd need to take a taxi, it was a 40 minute walk, the other had said go to Clarke quay, it's about 10 minutes from there.

I went to Clarke quay, and asked a security guard at a nightlcub there for further confirmation – he should know of all people. And he did – it was to be a taxi ride.

Arrived at Zouk around 11.30 – I was expecting a huge line. There wasn't one. Either this was a Singapore nightclub with Singapore efficiency, or it was a bit early.

It was a bit early. Lucky for me, they had 2 for 1 drinks until midnight (not fogetting my 2 drink tickets with the entry fee), so I proceeded to the bar for 2 beers, and then again at about tenminutes to midnight. The club was filling slowly by this time. Nice place too, cool bars, good layout, and what sounded like a decent audio system.

A tall bloke pulled a seat next to me and sat & stared at the dancefloor. His name was Paolo, he was Belgian – someone to speak French to! Excellent! He was there on his own, in Singapore visiting his parents before heading to Melbourne for a year to work. He spoke english of course, but preferred to speak in French which suited me,except that he spoke very quickly, and with the music it was a bit difficult to get everything processed. Really cool dude though, bit of a party machine it seemed, ran parties back in Paris where he lived, had some good stories to tell. One of which included a party he had hosted, where he had done nothing more than call up Iggy Pop's band manager while Iggy was in Paris, and simply asked if they'd like to come play at his party – and they did, for free! Just give us alcohol and a been they'd told him, and they were there!

Met a couple of ladies from the UK, Essex to be exact, but they were soon lost in the crowds as the club picked up the pace.

Miss Kitten really banged it out, really rockin tunes, good solid tech/tech house as I would call it, or minimal techno as Paolo described it. But it didnt mattter, it was good, very good, and so the rest of the night was spent tearing up the dancefloor! A fairlymixed crowd, probably quite a few locals, althought it can be difficult to tell who's a local in Singapore, as there are so many different ethnicities both living in Singapore, a well as travelling.

The club closed at 4am – which was fine, because by 3.45 I was knackered and headed home for bed. Strangely enough, after a fairly decent workout on the dancefloor and another day of walking, my feet felt pretty good! My knee didn't though.

Sunday, I thought, would be a lazy day. I had myself a good sleep in, up at around 1pm.

After a fair amount of drinking the night before, it was time for some good old Hungry Jacks, or Burger King as it is here, and everywhere else.

Sated, I went for yet another stroll. Chinatown today, for a few photos, and some hawker food.

A fairly good day,cloudy, hot, but a decent breeze blowing to keep things coolish.

Saw some temples and some of the local chinatown haunts. Took in a delicious serve of Haianese Chicken on Rice at a hawker centre - $3.

I took the early evening off and chilled out at the hotel for a bit and had a chat to the singa boy, who was also gearing up to go travelling, not unlike myself, on the trans-siberian train journey. He had already been to most of south east asia, and gave me some recommendations for Vietnam, China and Cambodia. He also recommended that I check out Singapore Zoo – I had planned to go to the night safari, but he seemed to thhink the zoo should be seen, so I penned it in for Monday.

Tonight I was off to the Arab quarter for dinner, I'd not yet been there. I took the MRT to Bugis and proceeded on foot. It was quiet, possibly because it was Sunday night, butmore likely because it was raining. I meandered down the streets, saw some rather extravagent temples, before getting to Arab street, where there was a host of Turkish and Arabian restaurants. Good timing too, because just as I decided on a place to eat, it began to rain very very heavily.

This meal though was to be a highlight, at a place called he Istanbul Grill. It was delicious! One of the best i'd had so far. Kardemen Kebab is was called. It was basically spiced mince meat, encased in a sort of turking break, served on a spicy tomatoey sauce, with some tzatziki dipping sauce. Yum!

Kardemen Kebab

After dinner it was still raining, although not to heavily, but heavy enough to warrant purchasing a 7-11 umbrella. With the umbrella, I thought, I could also take some photo's on the way back home, with the tripod. Arab St was a fair distance from Clarke Quay, but the route home on foot would pass by a number of good photo opportunities.

In particular, I wanted to have a squiz at Raffles Hotel, which i'd not yet visited. Unfortunately I was wearing pants, so I would not be able to enter the Long Bar, but a photo would do me.

Raffles Hotel

I ended up with a good few photos on the way back, even a couple that I'd not expected. By the time I made it back to Clarke quay it was 11pm, and the rain was picking up again. I walked past the restaurants along the river, they were still hassling me to come in for dinner, at 11pm on a Sunday night!! But I proceeded straight through, blocking their attempts with my umbrella, which, might I add, had already broken, but was still useable.

And then it was Monday morning. My last day in Singapore, and glad it was to be honest, i'd had enough. It was to be a day at the Zoo, followed by the night safari.

Breakfast, I had decided, would be from a nearby bakery. A cheese roll, I love those! Not this one though, it was another sweet cheese roll, so I washed it down with a coffee to get rid of the weird cheesy, sugary taste.

I was so disappointed with breakfast, that I thought i'd spoil myself for lunch, and a french restaurant in Little India that was fairly well repotred on in a number of guides. To my dismay, when I got there, it was closed – dinner only! So I settled for a nearby food court and had a tasty claypot meal.

From here though I was alreaddy on the way to the zoo, sort of. I had about more 8 stops to go on the MRT, followed by a 40 minute bus ride. I got off the MRT at a place called Ang Mo Kio – an abbove ground station out in the 'burbs. I made my way to the bus terminal, at which point it starting thumping down rain. You could see more than a few metres in front. But it was short lived, as it often is in Singapore it seems, and by 4pm, when I arrived at the zoo, it had stopped raining completely.

Singapore Zoo & Night Safari - $42.

Well, let me start here by saying that Singapore Zoo is the best zoo i'v been to! Not that've i've been to very many really, but I was really impressed – and it completely validaated the recommendation given to me. Not only was it fairly comprehensive in terms of the animals they had, but rather than standard, boring enclosures that i'm used to, the enclosures here seemed like they were really quite authentic in terms of the animals natural surroundings, less like an enclosure, and more like they've cut out a piece of land or jungle in the animals natural habitat, and dumped it in Singapore Zoo. Not always that roomy, as is expected in a Zoo, but impressive nonetheless. The other aspect though, was the edducational side of things, signs up everywhere telling you curious things about the animals you're viewing, but then taking it one step further, and educating the viewer about things we do as humans that cause problems for these animals, and what we can do to minimise our impact, and protect and preserve the worlds wildlife.

And now onto the Night Safari.

This was busy. It opened at 7.30, and there was queue to get in.

And then a queue to get on the tram-ride, which is actually a bus. And a queue to, well, do anything, except do the walk. So I did the walk.

It was good – but I actually think the zoo in the day was better. They Zoo & the Safari are not the same – it's almost like 2 different Zoo's, next door to each other, one open in the day, the other at night.

I was all alone on the walk for the first 30 minutes – and when Igot to the Spotted Hyenas, they all stopped what they were doing, and stared at me, which was quite disconcerting, because there was only about 2ft of fence between them & me. But they just looked and stared, nothing more. Some of the animals weere hard to see, because it was dark. Others were resting. So while it was kinda cool – it wasn't that amazing. But it was a good walk, and I'd recommend checking it out, although the day Zoo is better in my opinion.

It was difficult to take photos at the Night Safari – no flash photography allowed, which is fair enough, and so slower shutter speeds mean blurry pictures when hand-held. Tripods arent much use because animals move..

And that brings me to day, Tuesday November 9^th. Oh boy what a day.

I had a very early start, up at 6am to pack and catch the train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It should have been a fairly straight forward day of transit, but it was everything but.

I arrived at the station for the KTM train at just after 7am. Boarding and immigration was at 7.30am, for an 8am departure.

I had one of the tastiest meals thus far at the station, an Onion Prata, which cost me SG$1! It was fantastic! Basically a roti/paratha type bread filled with onion, accompanied by some condiments.

Then it was all aboard! I was in the carriage immediately beinhd the engine, 1^st Class – although you wouldn't know it. The train was pretty run down, and in need of an overhaul. Apparently a new rail line is in the works, hence the lack of up keep.

We pulled away from the platform just after 8am. We picked up speed, problably pushing just past 70-80km/h, and remained this way for approximately 25 minutes, before slowing down again, to I assumed may have been a station. We slowed probably to around 30-40km/h, and then there was a small jolt, changing tracks I remember thinking. What followed though was rather bizarre. The train was probably decellerating slighlt,y and the the carriage shook roughly, and then violently. I thought to myself that their train lines probqably aren't that smooth or something, but the next thing I knew, the carriage leant to one side, shook violently again, and then everything came to a grinding halt. I said out loud “that doesn't sound good” to which the other passengers, a couple from Australia, another from the UK, a young Chinese girl, a couple of Malays nodded in agreement, and it was then noticed, looking through the window at the front of the carriage, that the engine was only half visible, and on an degree angle. That violent quake and lean was the engine derailing, and almost tipping over. Unbelievable I thought. Thankfully, nobodyy was hurt, the train driver was fine, now out beside the tracks scratching is head in amazement. It was raining quite heavily outside, but we opened the door a climbed out to find the engine semi-dug beneath the rocks, sleepers, track buckled and bent, diesel fuel spewing out the side of the engine.

At the time I was thinking, wow, that's pretty crazy, we've been derailed. In hindsight, it was incredibly lucky thaat we had slowed down. At 70kmh I don't think i'd be writing this now, and it would have been a far more serious accident.

The crew didnt really know what to do. They talked amongst themselves for some time, eventually a couple of them began walking to the next station to get help. The engine was completely out of action, the tracks ruined, the 2^nd carrige, our carriage, had also come of the rails, the 3^rd as well. Beyond that the tracks weere ruined as far as the last 2 carriages, and the caboose – the food car.

I jumpback on board, grabbed the camera and my semi busted, bright orange 7-11 umbrelaa, and hopped back down on the tracks to take some photos of the damage.

The question now, was what woulld happen. We were stranded in the middle of nowhere, no roads visible, no people, just some busted tracks, a ruined train engine, and bunch of bewildered passengers.

How would we get to KL? Would they take us back to Singapore? The trains are out of action for at least a few days to fix the mess no doubt. Buses to KL? But what about people getting off elsewhere on the way? The crew didnt know. Neither did we.

About 90 minutes later we could see a group of men in bright orange vests approaching from the distance. /it was a crew from KTM coming to check the damage. They surveyed the situation talking amongst themselves, writing notes and taking photographs.

Then we were told they would bring another enginefrom Singapore and tow what they could back to the station. Some saiad there would be buses to KL. Others saaid we would get a refund, but no one really knew.

Another hour passed, and a guy from the news turned up taking pictures and video. He said that officially we were in Malaysian territory, which meant we were on Malaysian time, meaning, no rush, it'll get sorted out when it gets sorted out. Great. The new engine didnt arrive until about 3 hours after the accident. WE then had to wait for another crew to arrive to decouple the carriages, and attach the engine, which probably took another 50 minutes or so.

After nearly 4 hours, we we re ready to be taken back to Singapore. Carriages disconnected, new engine hooked up, they zoomed the 3 carriages unscathed in the incident back to our point of embarkation. Back in Singapore. Not what I had hoped for. I really wanted to be in KL. For me though it didnt matter to much, I didnt have to be anywhere, unlike some other passengers.

Rriving back at the station we weren't told much about whats next. It turned out that all that would happen would be a refund for the ticket, and we had to make our own arrangements to get to our destination. Slightly annoyed, but not surpised, I took my refund, and headed to the taxi rank, knowing that Vivo /city, where I had been just a few days earlier, was also one of just two depots where buses left for KL. I arrived at the bus terminal around 12.15 pm. Found the ticket office aafter asking a few security officers about where it was located, and pulled up at the ticket Counter. “Any buses to KL today, with seats available” I asked. What luck – there was one leaving at 2pm. SG$20 cheaper than the train too! I would arrive in KL at 7pm. Nice!

The bus was way better it turned out. New, comfortable, food provided, and an hour quicker.

The journey was fairly straight forward, not much to report other than the security check at the border, where Malaysian customs scanned our luggae, but never actually looked at the security monitors as they were busy chatting to one another.

One other point of significance. We had now transitioned from hyper clean Singapore, to Malaysia. In Singapore I could count on one hand, how many pieces of rubbish I saw littered on the streets. Not more than literally 10 seconds into Malaysian territory, I spiotted empty drinks cans and rubbish along the roadside. Quite amusing.

And that brings me to now, in KL, at Lodge Paradize, just minutes from all the action! What a great hotel – just 2 nights here, then back to a hostel, but for AUD$40 a night, this place is awesome! So so sooooo much cheaper than Singapore. And the moment I got off the bus, the city had a buzz about it that Singapore lacks. I'm glad i'm here, even moreso that I'm in one piece consdering today's events.

I had a green chicken curry, a thai mango salad, and rice for dinner, in the hotel mind you. AUD$4.

Thank-you very much! Oh. And a Carlsberg, $4. Now that's what i'm talking about!

Now, on a final note for this entry. Singapore. What did I think think of Singapore? Like it or hate it? Well, neither and both.

For me, it's just OK. It's a bit of a weird place in my view. It seems a bit artificial. And to some degree it is. A Country, that's a city, that came into money, and decided to blow it all on creating a metropolis. It feels as though it hasn't evolved naturally, as though they just drew up some plans, and did it all in one massive hit.

Then there are ll the rules. Everywhere you go, rules are sign posted, with harsh penalties.

Smoking strictly prohibited, $500 fine. No train ticket, $1000. Food & drink in the railway stations, $500. Durian fruit on trains. $300. Flammable liquids, $500. Littering, $500. They have lanes to walk in throughout the stations.Yet there is little etiquette in many respects. Getting off the train you get bowled over by people boarding, and although this occurs in Melbourne too, not to the same extent, partly due to the sheer volume of people.

It's expensive. For the most part on par with costs in Australia, although currently, with the strong aussie dollar, things are roughly 10-20% cheaper, but thats a best case scenario. With the exception of food (hawker stalls),and transport. Weather? It was cloudy everyday while I was there, except for a few hours of sunshine periodically.

In it's favour would be food. Such a terrific variety of cuisines to choose from, and every meal I had was decent, if not delicious.

The transport system is fantastic. Rather than time tables, they have set frequencies. The train system is robitic. By that I mean, no drivers, no ticket inspectors. Fully autmoated And it's extremely efficient without any human intereference. No waiting for passengers to board. The moment the doors open at a station, a voice announcement tells you doors are closing, and you're off again. The longest wait I had for a train was 6 minutes.

The women are beautiful. I'll give it that. And lots of them. Obesity is virtually non existent, save for the tourists, and the odd chubby Indian. Everyone is tiny. Skinny, and small. Which is odd, considering how much they love to eat, and the serving sizes of the meals.


Banks are open until 8 pm on weekends which is handy?

The city actually reminds me of London. The pace, the volume of people. The lack of etiquette.

People can be rude, as if asking for directions, or assistance is a bother.

It ddoesn't have much character either. It'ds all new, and still being developed. There's heaps of construction still going on, probably to cope with the population. You feel restricted at times, not knowing whether what you're doing is an offence.

There's much more to do that I had thought. But so much of it seems purpose built.

Sentosa is a perfect example. It's labelled as a resort everywhere you go, but to me, a resort is relaxing and pictureqsue, and Sentosa just isn't.

When I really think about it, I can't see the reasons for going to Singapore, other than for business. And maybe that's it. It's a business city.

Sure, food is good, and if your'e into shopping. They have it all. But you could find the same in Bangkok or KL for less money.

The same applies for food as well.

A relaxing holiday? A honeymoon? Resort style? Not in Singapore. Sure, they have some awfully tasty hotels, and service is, from what I hear, outstanding. But that's where it ends.

Accomodation is horrendously exxpensive, and while service may be good, you could do just as well elsewhere.

So all in all, yes, it's a kinda cool place. Particularly if money is no object. It's clean, efficient, if not somewhat clinical in presentation. Food is good. But it's not for me.

5/10.