Category: South East Asia

Final day in Kuching, rain rain go away, no Bako

Day 9 – 05 Jan 2012 – Kuching

After a bit of research over the past few days I have pretty much finalised the next phase of my trip so last night I booked a return flight from Miri to Mulu and some accommodation for three nights in Mulu National Park. I am hoping that they are the only things I am going to need to book ahead, or it could be a night in a doorway somewhere!

The plan is to catch a boat from Kuching to Sibu tomorrow morning, I will overnight in Sibu and then catch a smaller boat up the Batang Rejang (Rejang river) to Kapit. In Kapit I hope to hook up with some other travellers and organise a guided trip further up river to a longhouse for an overnight stay the following day. I am not sure if I will do one or two nights up river will have to see what other people are wanting and what it all costs, apparently it is not overly cheap. The boats from Kuching and Sibu are quite modern, sealed and air conned, yus!  I will then boat back to Sibu for a further night and then take an eight hour bus ride to Miri.

I have to be in Miri for the 12th as I have a 9.30 am flight to Mulu on the 13th. I am planning on staying three nights in Mulu Nat. Park, visiting the famous caves and hopefully doing an overnight walk. From Mulu I fly back to Miri and aim to do a day trip the following day to the Niah Caves. From Miri I will bus to Brunei and in Brunei I will plan the next phase – in Sabah !

So, let the challenges begin, as tomorrow I head off into the unknown by myself !

I have enjoyed my time in Kuching, it has been great to spend a few days with Alex getting to know a little bit about Borneo and Malaysia, sampling different foods, all wrapped in the comforts of a car and a nice apartment to return to each day. Alex has been a great host and I have much appreciated his time and company.

Today was the day we were going to head to Bako National Park, but the weather really did turn to crap last night, I woke up around 5.30 to some heavy rain and some big lightening ! There was no way we were going to make it out to Bako, which is a real sham as I was keen on visiting, but I guess I can always come back again. With the weather so crap, I pretty much stayed in bed reading most of the morning. Reports later in the day from some of Alex’s friends suggested this was a good idea, sounds like there was a fair bit of flooding in Kuching, with many places closed.

I also reorganised my pack – cannot believe it all fits in !

The only activity of the day was a trip to the mall for lunch and I picked up a pair of jandals. I have found it very hard to find anything that fits my feet, and I am only a size 10,  I would hate to have my nephews feet ! The Spring mall is the newest in Kuching and inside I could have been in Sylvia Park, most of the regulars were there.

Found a small bit of NZ in the supermarket !

I guess there are going to be days like this when not much happens as I travel through wet areas.

I have update “the plan” page with more detail for the next week or two.

A tester stroll in the hills

Day 8 – 04 Jan 2012 – Kuching

The weather was a bit uncertain when we got up so we decided to not head out to Bako National Park. So I went for my first run since I have been away, I left at 7:50 and managed about 40 minutes and two and a half laps of the complex before melting completely away in the humidity. I ended my run at the pool, only to find it being cleaned and not accessible, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I was absolutely dripping ! I staggered back to the apartment and had a long cold shower, but it still took a good hour in the air con to cool down.  It was nice to get out and run, though it was pretty slow !

The weather kind of perked up after that so we went and had a very early lunch (10.30) at Alex’s favourite Malay place, Rumah Hijau Cafe. We tried to eat there yesterday but it was packed at 11.00, it is a hugely popular place. I had an Indian Rojak, which was again delicious. I have been loving the food here.  One of the many advantages of staying with someone who knows the town is getting to eat excellent food at places that are outside the usual tourist haunts, its not that food is any cheaper, but I have seen a broader variety of foods and I have not had the same thing twice.

After lunch we took a drive out of town and went to Demai beach and to Mt Santubong, about 30 minute drive from town. There are a number of resorts at Demai at the foot of the mountain and we wandered through one to the beach. It was not a great day for the beach and the weather didn’t show it at its best, but it has lovely yellow sand, palm trees and a never ending view, except when you look to the base of the mountain.

We then headed back to the trail head and did the 45 minute walk to the viewing point at 400 metres up the 1200m Mt Santubong.  We were too late in the day to do the full loop to the summit.

This walk was long enough, I was hot about fifty metres up the trail, it was very humid. The track was steep, rooty, but not too muddy – nothing compared to the Home track run in the Waitakeres a couple of weeks ago!  Getting all that trail running in really helped prepare me for these sorts of walks as, apart from the heat, I found the climb was not too bad, harder than Piha trails and easier than Huia I guess. The key difference is when you are walking the Waitaks you are not checking that you are about to step on a snake with every foot fall:) The bush is totally different as well, no ferns, a lot more primary growth here too.

About half way up the trail I heard a massive commotion in the trees and looked up to see a small group of monkeys, chasing each other around, hooting and barking and jumping from tree to tree, by the time I got my camera out they were out of shot, but awesome awesome to experience !

The lookout proved a real dud and totally overgrownt. I would have loved to have let loose on the way back down but was really conscious of turning an ankle on the wet roots, so took it pretty conservatively, though I did slip at one point and gave the ankle a wee tweak.

The mountain from the road back to town. The walkable side is not so steep!

Malay girls in school uniform from the local Santubong school. There is a version of the uniform without the headdress.

I am also updating “the plan” with the next couple of weeks activities, will add dates tomorrow night when I have booked flights and accommodation.

Please send me emails !  I get some news via FB updates, but always love to hear more detailed news about what is happening with friends and family !

Visiting the orange haired cousins

Day 7  -03 Jan 2012 – Kuching

Ta da – today is the day  – going to Semmengoh Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, Wahoo ! I have been looking forward to seeing orang-utans in the ‘wild’ for a very long time and seeing them was one of the primary reasons for coming to Borneo.

The park has a number of rehabilitated and semi-rehabilitated orang-utans living within its 750 or so acres. The orang-utans are collected from villages where they have been kept as pets and once rehabbed are returned to the wild, and hopefully, unlike  Lyndsay Lohan,  they don’t come back. The park has been going since the 70’s and there have been a number of babies born there. I was really hoping to see a young one. The park has daily feedings at 9.00 am and 3.00 pm when visitors are allowed in to see the orang-utans. Unfortunately it is local fruit season so there is plenty of food available in the forest (probably not so unfortunate for the O’s I guess) so there is never a guarantee that we will see anything at all.

Naturally, when I got up it was pouring with rain, after three relatively fine days it was a bit disappointing, but nevertheless we decided to carry on and head out to the park. We left just after 7.30 for the 20km trip to the park for the 9.00 am feeding session and got there just in time! As today was a work day and the first day back at school for some the traffic was worse than Aucklands!

The rain had stopped by the time we had walked down to the feed area which was great as I really wanted to be able to grab some photos. There was about 30 tourists there, lots of Europeans so hopefully that means plenty of people to hang with when I am out on my own ! We hung around the feeding spot for a while and then got the message that one of orang-utans had appeared at another feed station we (slowly – some old buggers there) made our way over to where the action was. Looking up as we walked we spotted a large hairy orange blob up in the tops of the trees, he moved over to a rope above one of the rangers and hung there for a while, before clambering down a tree and taking a piece of fruit and climbing back up to eat. The O that came to see us was Annuar. He went up and down the tree a couple of times to eat and after about ten minutes climbed back to the tops and swung away on a vine back into the forest – that swinging was so cool. For a large ungainly looking beast they are incredibly graceful in the trees and very quick ! I managed to snap a few photos, I am really glad i bought the long zoom lens as all these were shot on 200mm, the 20mm would have been hopeless.  Naturally Annuar managed to stay in a position where we were all shooting into the light!

It was a great experience and I am so glad I came out, I missed seeing a young one, but you never know on the day how many (if any) will come to feed. When I am in Sabah later on my travels I will also go to the Sepilok park as well, plus real wild ones are seen on occasion, so you never know !

 Also saw this cute little chameleon on a bush !

And my second favourite sites of the day, some awesome toilet signs !

 

After a slooooooow journey back into town Alex and I had mee jawa for lunch at Kopi o corner. (mee means noodles). This was another delicious chicken and noodle dish, the amount of chilli seems to be increasing per meal 🙂

I am really liking the default motor scooter fashion of wearing your jacket back to front, I have been trying to snap a good sample, and this was the best I managed. My favourite one had the hood up over the mouse and nose, but sadly it was coming the other way in traffic so I did not manage to get a shot at it.

Once we got back to the apartment (and after a wee lie down) we popped upstairs to see my old Hudson colleague, Andy’s sister and I delivered the Christmas presents I had brought over from NZ from him for his nephews. Claire and her family have been living in Borneo for a few years now but are packing up and moving to NSW fairly soon. They had an amazing view from their apartment. Claire gave me the phone number of some friends in Kota Kinabalu where I will be visiting in Sabah in a few days or so, which is great !

So, a good day !  I saw an orang-utan !

City of cats

Day 6 – 02 Jan 2012 – Kuching

Last night I watched the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, hope they don’t make another! The first three were great (apart from the bloody awful Keira Knightley), but this one did suck.

Breakfast included pomelo, a large fruit that was very much like a pink grapefruit in taste and smell with a similar texture, but a much thicker skin.

It was raining this morning, when I got up, but it was just a brief shower as the day was reasonably sunny again, funnily enough it was also hot and humid ! Alex had some chores to do so he dropped me at the jetty and I had my first few hours on my own in foreign climes. I cannot really count Singapore as being too foreign as most people speak English and it is very first world. BTW – I am not saying Kuching is third world ! somewhere in between I guess, in the main it is a normal first world city, power and water, some sewerage, lots of cars and traffic lights, shops and houses, some massive roundabouts, maybe it is  just a little run down in parts.

I took a couple of photos while waiting for the sampan ferry to arrive, the sampans pretty much only leave when they are full so I had  bit of a wait under a tree, the ride cost about 20c for the 100 or so metre journey.

The old Kuching Mosque, there has been a much larger new mosque built close to where Alex lives, but this one is better to look at.

At a guess I would say the ferryman lives on board, he has clothes hung from the back and a small boat stove and tea pot. He steers the ferry with the two oars and uses a small outboard for power. As the ferryman is up the front he has a long rope tied to the pull cord of the outboard starter.  As he is steering with both hands he has a string that he pulls with his toe to manage the speed of the vessel. All very clever and low tech.

The Sarawak state government building, the building is shaped like an Iban headdress – and must be a bitch to clean, it is huge.

I walked through the Indian section again and up to the mosque, surrounding the mosque is the old Islamic cemetery. Malaysia is officially a muslim country and the majority of the Malay people are muslim, this is not necessarily so for the tribes of Borneo of course.

From the mosque I wandered through some more street markets and saw this unusual t-shirt ! I am hoping that this is being sold in ignorance !

By this stage I was DRIPPING with sweat, the locals must have wondered what they had walking through their streets. I discovered the Kuching textile museum, what an awesome place ! No, I have not developed and interest in textiles, but the aircon was so sweet. I stayed for a wee while ! it is also a beautifully preserved building.

Kuching is the Malay word for cat, and there are a number of cat statues around the city, however it was not named so because of some bizarre cat fetish.

After another sweaty walk back from the cat statue I stopped at the James Brooke Cafe for lunch and a couple of cold drinks. I must remember that once away from Kuching I am going to have to ask for no ice in my drinks !  Lunch was a Kuching curry laksa and was damn good, I am also going to have to remember that noodles in a sauce can be messy !

The court house.

After lunch I had another small wander around town and then Alex and one of his friends picked me up and we went up to the Sarawak museum.  It was a small and interesting museum and it was good to see some of the local culture and
read a bit more about Niah man, which I will go and visit in a few days. After the museum we stopped for an ice kacang, a very sweet (read yum) local desert then went back to the apartment. The Sarawak Museum.

Walking for 2-3 hours in this heat really takes it of me, and I am wasted again ! popped out to the local mall for dinner I had Kueh teow and 3 sour drink. The kueh teow is similar to the pad thai and the 3 sour drink is a lime drink with a lime, a pickled lime and a pickled plum in it to give it some extra sour, and a wee bit of salt.

When we got back to the apartment I tried ramubans, another of the local fruits we bought yesterday, a bit like a lychee in taste and texture.

Shaved tonight, it has been a while so it was a bit of a mission ! So glad I don’t have to do that every day – well most working days at least 🙂

Food glorious food

Day 5 – Kuching – New Years day

When I first thought about doing a blog, I sort of promised myself this would not turn into a food blog, day 5 and I have broken that rule. Today was pretty much about food, mainly looking at it, partly recovering from the amount consumed, and a wee experiment with something new.

Up earlyish again to another sunny and humid morning, cup of coffee for breakfast as still full from last night !

We set of at eight for the Kuching Sunday market to check out some sights and look for some local fruit and snacks for me to sample. The market was fascinating with lots of fresh fruit, fish and meat and home made snacks along with the usual market fare of cheap imports from China.  We sampled a few of the of the snacks, prawn fritters, curry puffs and bought some odd looking fruit to take back for me to try later on.

Dried chillies (it is Malaysia after all)

Fish (and flies) for sale – (go the Arsenal ! The Malay’s are really into football and there are a lot of English premiership shirts in Kuching, you have no idea how long I had to wait for the bloody Manchester united fan to get out of shot ! )and for eatingwhole chickens (the sun was shining through an orange canopy, so the chickens were a normal colour)Huge Jack fruitand a take away snack of rice baked in bamboo

After the heat of the market I had a wee lie down back at the apartment before we were picked up by a friend of Alex’s and his family and went for a swim and lunch at the Kebah golf club. I had a burger and fries, mmmmm first chips for a while and maybe last chips for a while. There is a McDonalds in Kuching, so assume there will be in many other places, but I really do want to not go there, local foods as much as possible !

I am pretty sure I have neither of these, but I thought that before I went to Hong Kong !

I spent the rest of the day mooching in the apartment, updating the blog over a couple of beers. After 4 days of walking around in the heat and not drinking enough water I was feeling a bit drained. As I am in no particular rush to be anywhere at any time I want to rest up every now and then, at least until I get used to activity in the heat and humidity. I did go for a wee walk around the block.

Alex’s apartment block,  from across the man made lake – the one on the left.

The first of the weird fruits, durian. apparently these are banned from many hotels in Malaysia due to the smell ! They are quite pungent. I had a couple of pieces, the first was OK, the second tasted like the smell, and was off-putting sadly. A quote from Wikipedia.

“The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine and gym socks. The odour has led to the fruit’s banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.”

With all this food, I am going to have to be careful I don’t turn into a blimp ! Sucking down a whisky now, so I guess that isn’t helping much either 🙂

Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo

Day 4 – 31 Dec 2011- Kuching

Mystical and mysterious Borneo, a place I have longed to visit, primarily to see the orang-utans, which I am utterly fascinated with, but also as it is such a ‘new’ place. I have memories of reading stories about head hunters and lost tribes being discovered well into my childhood.

Kuching is nothing like that though ! It is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Sarawak and has a population of about half a million, predominantly a mix of Chinese and Malay. I am staying in a large apartment owned by a NZ friend Alex who is originally from Kuching. The apartment is on the eight floor of an eighteen storey building in a block of four buildings about fifteen minutes drive from the city centre.

Andy, one of my recruitment colleagues from the Hudson days has a sister, Claire, who lives in Kuching with her family. I am playing santa and have brought some gifts over from Andy for her kids.  To prove how utterly weird and small the world is, Claire lives on the fifteenth floor of the same apartment block !!

I was awake early again and watched the sunrise out the window of my room, it was going to be a sunny first day in Borneo, apparently it has rained for days. After a healthy breakfast of fruit and yoghurt Alex and I set off for a tour of Kuching’s old town.  Rather than taking the longer road into town we drove down to the Sarawak river and caught a small ferry boat over to the town, I failed to get a decent photo of this ! But took this one from afar later in the day.

As in Singapore the old town is split into small districts, we visited the Indian side of town first, with a good array of Indian dress and foods on display, unlike Singapore a lot of the food was not covered and there were a few flies around, hmmm. We walked through Chinatown and visited a couple of temples, stopping for a refreshing lime drink on the way through. The day was warm and humid and the chance to sit and drink an iced lime juice was most welcome.

mmmmm spices !

The entrance into Chinatown was guarded by dragon statues.

Hiang Thian Siang Ti temple. Originally built in 1889, and renovated in 1968. There are a number of temples in the china town are and I am fascinated by them all.

The old town from a neighbouring 8 storey carpark. The large building (monstrosity) on the far side of the river, is the new Sarawak state headquarters. We caught the boat from a jetty nearby.

A friend of Alex picked us in Chinatown and we went out to Foody Goody, a suburban Malay Laksa restaurant for lunch. I had the Sarawak laksa (chicken, prawns, vermicelli noodles) yum ! Alex’s friend had a kueh chap  which is basically boiled egg, pork and pig entrails with flat noodles, yuck ! The waiting staff were mainly lady boys, which was  worrying as I could not tell  which was which in some cases ! Next to Foody Goody was Sweet Babies, which also sounded like a food shop from the old days 🙂

kueh chap

After lunch Alex and I walked around the final sections of old Kuching and then went back to the apartment for a swim.

New years eve was spent with Alex’s parents and one of his brothers at their favourite Chinese restaurant. The food was very nice, we had a banquet style meal with multiple courses, green beans, with a minced chicken dressing, followed by steamed fish, chicken, tofu and finally a very nice prawn dish,  all washed down with chrysanthemum tea.  I could barely waddle when we left the restaurant, very full.

This “manucurist” was close by the restaurant we went to for dinner. Such a cool name 🙂

I went to bed pretty early again, missed seeing in 2012 !

A belated Happy New year to all – 2012, hopefully will be a good year for all – and not the end of the world !

I am having a photographic crisis of confidence at the moment ! Not sure why. I am not getting the photos I want, some are badly exposed and some are  out of focus (even when on auto focus !!) I am not sure what I am doing wrong and am getting disappointed ! more practise I guess, but I am missing my 5d !

Changi prison, Singapore shoppers heaven (or hell) and off to Borneo !

Last night was another night in and early to bed, some noisy neighbours in the night and the aircon was making a noise like a freight train but somehow I managed some sleep. I think I am making progress in resolving my must have dark and quiet to sleep issue.

Even though I did the same amount of walking on day two as I did on day one I didn’t feel nearly so wrecked after a day in trail running shoes, I am wondering if I will get used to walking in sandals soon as it will be a tough holiday otherwise.

It is my last day in Singapore and I need to be at the airport for 4:15 this afternoon,  so a short day and the first sunny day of my time in Singapore. Up at 6.00 and a sunrise ! (shot through my window)

Breakfast today was baked potatoes and baked beans, they have not quite got baked beans to the normal hotel standard, nice an congealed – just how I like them, so it was a bit disappointing 🙂

Leaving my bags behind, I checked out of the hotel before leaving for the day and got the train out to Tenah Mirah for a visit to the Changi Prison Museum. The train was above ground for a good portion of the  trip so I got to see a lot more of suburban Singapore,  lots and lots of low rise towers, but it all seemed clean and tidy. Even out in the burbs they have full length bariers at the train station.

At Tenah Mirah, I,  along with some English tourists, failed to read the directions to the bus properly and had a wee moment of confusion before being helped out by one of the women waiting at the bus stop, I guess we were not the first tourists to miss-read the sign !

I was a bit disappointed at the museum, unfairly I guess, it was small and interesting, but no photos were allowed and it was only near the original site, so everything was a re-creation. Changi is/was Singapores main prison, during WWII thousands of allied troops and Singaporean civilians were housed there by the Japanese. The museum commemorates this and a number of atrocities carried out during the war. The prison itself has been expanded and built on many times since the war but the original gates are still standing, however you only see them via sideways look through the main prison entrance with the front view hidden behind a massive green fence. I was disappointed to say the least.  At Changi I made photographers blunder number two and left the camera on manual focus and didn’t notice till later in the day.

Changi museum and a replica of one of the war time chapels.

I wandered up to a local Caltex and bought a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, my first bread for 3 days – YUM, then caught the bus back to Tenah Mirah and the train to Orchard Rd. Orchard Rd is the premium shopping street in Singapore and as you would expect was packed with tourists ! it is not my place at all.

Emerald Hill Rd, is a side street of Orchard Rd and  less than a hundred metres up the hill are some wonderful old cottages, some have been converted into cafe/bars but most still appear to be residences. I could have spent some serious time here, but was pushing the time I had available to get to the airport. I was surprised (or not), that given the number of people on Orchard Rd, it was deserted up here.

I caught the tube from here back to the hotel and learnt a lesson in travelling outside of (relatively) polite NZ, I let other people squeeze onto the train first and then could not get on myself as it was jammed. For the next train I was first in and stuff everybody else ! All for one and all for one !

I was then off to Changi  airport, leaving behind Singapore and its air-conditioned shopping mall sanctuaries on every second street corner and head for the new hot and humid world of Borneo.

Changi is a biiiiiiig airport…

The Air Asia flight from Singapore to Kuching is about an hour and a half, jammed into a full  A330 I could barely move my legs. We left Singapore slightly late, with a cloudless sky and with a setting sun behind us.

We arrived in the dark at Kuching with a thunderstorm lightening up the sky, just how I love to fly ! Kuching is the main city of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo and is in the same time zone as Singapore. Alex picked me up from the airport and we went back to his apartment in the Petra Jaya area of Kuching.  Shower and sleep.

I liked Singapore, certainly felt like a place I could live, but I only saw the glossy tourist side of the place I guess.

Travellers mistake for day 3, I left my power plug adapter thingy in the hotel wall, and I “borrowed” that from my shipping company employer as well ! Next time I leave somewhere I will double check the room.

Singapore – Day 2

Day two started a bit later than day one, I slept well and was still dozing at 6.30 which was great. Breakfast consisted of a baked egg and ham pasta and baked beans… Yum !

I was just getting ready to get out the door for the day when the fire alarm went off. I threw a few things in my bag and made a slow exit down the stairs, no obvious signs of fire so I was in no panic and the people in front of me seemed less so. We all made it down to reception by the time the alarm stopped, and people were already heading back up the lift, so I did likewise…

I started off the day with a walk through Little India, checking out the Tikka Centre first, though it was probably a bit too early for real action, but the food court was interesting with a good mix of butchers, fish mongers and green grocers selling their wares. The smell of spice was pretty awesome 🙂

The first floor of Tikka was pretty much dedicated to tailoring and the selling of saris, and no, I do not want a suit or a shirt made, though I had plenty of offers.

I mooched around the Little India for a couple of hours, stopping for a beer, a rest and a wee at the Inn Crowd backers. The place was pretty full but everyone seemed to be doing their own thing and the guy who’s table I invaded seem none too thrilled at the intrusion, I am assuming he didn’t speak any English as I apologised for the inconvenience and he didn’t even bother to grunt. We were obviously not going to be travel buddies!

The Sri Veeramakaliamman temple was my next port of call and I spent an interesting half an hour wandering around its interior.

From Little India I moved down to the Kampong Glam area, an old Malay Muslim part of the city with some cool old buildings and the Sultan Mosque. I had a chicken kebab and apple tea lunch just outside the mosque, so got my daily protein in.

The area also had Hadji Lane, the “alternative” street in Singapore, which had a cool selection of shops and the only graffiti I have seen in Singapore. There were two quite funky bike shops.

and the Blog Shop…..

A fashion store.

I missed the Singapore Flyer due to the rain (and lack of camera) yesterday so walked back down there today, I was not planning on taking the ride but once I arrived I decided to spend the thirty bucks and go for a spin. The views from the ride were amazing ! I will take back any comments I made yesterday about the lack of high rises in Singapore, they are just well hidden.  The photos are all taken through thick ‘blued’ glass, so apologies for the colour cast, and I cannot be bothered trying to correct it.

Don’t tell anyone, but this shirt was worn on Christmas day and has not been washed, I am running out clothes, but will wash in Kuching. I am practising for the feral life of a backpacker 🙂

When I came in from the airport two days ago we drove along the coastal highway and I was amazed at the number of large ships that were queued up waiting to get in to port. I used to work for a shipping company, if you were wondering why this was interesting !

On the walk back towards the city I got to test out the umbrella mum bought me for my birthday, it worked fine, which was good as it hammered down. I made it into a mall, through a convention centre to another mall where I stopped for a coffee at Starbucks. Best coffee of the trip so far, a sad indictment on the standard of coffee in my hostel as I am not a fan of Starbucks coffee. When I popped out of the mall the rain had stopped and by good fortune rather than good skill I ended exactly where I wanted to be, which was completely the wrong place ! The building I thought might have been Raffles (it was old and majestic) turned out to be the Park View hotel

A bit more map reading and I found Raffles, which looks nothing like the Park View !

I made my way up to the Long Room bar where I laid my thirty dollars on the counter and bought myself an original Singapore Sling cocktail (a Singapore must do !)  It was nice, I could have sunk a few if I wanted to spend all my money and end my travels today. One of the key features of the long room is the free peanuts, it is customary to shell the peanuts and throw the skins on the floor.  What miffed me about the Raffles experience was the guide books (and interweb) said there was no admittance to the bar in shorts or sandals, so I sweated in long pants all day only to discover most of the patrons had shorts on. Oh well, it was Raffles Hotel!

After my cocktail, I headed back towards the hostel, past the Singapore Art museum. The sun made a brief appearance as I walked back and it got seriously warm for a while.

Past the Photographic Society of Singapore.

I picked up a couple of cans of Tiger from the local seven eleven and went back to the hotel for some serious relaxing and another early night.

Observations from day two;

  • Singapore is very “English”, all the signs are in English and they drive on the right side of the road – being the left hand side 🙂 You can also buy single cans of beer which you cannot do in NZ.
  • Tourists don’t necessarily want to socialise with other tourists.
  • There is almost no graffiti, I saw some in Hadji Lane today, but I suspect that was part of its “alternative” character. I saw a couple of gig posters for old gigs that I would maybe have gone to, but nothing new, and have been unable to find a decent gig guide for Singapore. I really hope I will get to see some bands while I am away, Indonesian death metal maybe ?
  • For a city with a lot of rain, there are a lot of tiled footpaths….

Tomorrow I will experiment with another format and load photos to Flickr and link them. This post took close to two hours to create, and the text was pasted from Word. Maybe there is a better way to do it. I did at least find out how to do line spacing !

Singapore – Day One

Wow – first official day of travelling and a different life!

I was awake around one am with my body clock telling me it is six o’clock and it’s almost ready for the day to start, thank God for wi-fi  as I could not go back to sleep. Breakfast in the hotel was free and interesting, I am not entirely sure what it was I ate, it looked like a baked omelette but it was sweet and had raisins in it, at least it tasted OK. Coffee was awful, I think I am going to have to get used to that 😦

The weather is solidly overcast with occasional showers and of course warm (30) and humid and my start was delayed due to rain. I had a bit of a loose plan, but my tourist ‘map’ only had main roads and had no scale markings at all so I had no idea of distances between the things I wanted to see so I would just have to see where it all went.  As you would expect I took a few pictures and have included some of them.

First stop was Fort Canning Park, at 60 metres, the highest point in central Singapore and a key part of the history of the city. I loved the trees and the sculptures in the park  !

From Fort Canning Park I wondered down through Clarke Quay on the Singapore River. The area is a bit like the viaduct in Auckland, bars and restaurants, but far uglier and in my opinion a wasted opportunity to do something visually appealing with some lovely little terraced houses there. I tried to get a photo, but there was too much junk to capture what I wanted, on to China Town.

First stop in China Town was for a strawberry and peach shake – Heavenly ! I would have taken a photo of the drink, but the battery died in my camera, right after I took a photo of the shop – DOH ! and I call myself a photographer…

Next stop was to find a shop that sold batteries and get ripped off with tourist prices. The battery was not fully charged but at least I could take some photos, though it did not last the day. The frustrating thing was I had a spare battery in the hostel, my first lesson learnt.

Meat seller –  the shot of the ducks didnt work !

I paid a visit to the Hindu Sri Mariamman Temple, which is a must for all visitors to Singapore, it is places like this that I would love to have the candid photo skills of my buddies Jocelen and Brian. Something I aim to develop as I go, but i did muster up some courage and point the camera at some of the people there.

Buddha Tooth Relic temple.

After a light lunch of spring rolls and water I took a long slow walk down and around downtown Singapore, slowly speeding up when I needed to pee and could not find any public toilets, quick nip  into a Starbucks, no loo so no coffee, and the pace quickened. I finally found a small mall below a tower block and paid 20c for the blessed relief.  Second and third lessons learned, toilets are not easy to find and keep coins handy.

The downtown area of Singapore is only a few small blocks but there are some very tall buildings ! Feeling slightly more relaxed I wandered down past Marina Bay and the massive new Standard Chartered Bank towers made from blue glass over to Marina Sands.

I am not sure what to think about Marina Sands,  the architecture is ambitious and stunning, but the cost must have been grotesque. The complex is comprised of a MASSIVE mall, a casino, three hotel towers and the skypark and I am sure there are parts I missed.  There was probably only half a dozen shops in the mall I could afford to shop at, all the big exclusive brands were on display with sections of the mall dedicated to individual products The watch and jewellery sections had security guards and were conveniently located outside the casino.  The best part of the mall (apart from the aircon) was the indoor canal and gondola rides !  I wandered up through the hotel to try to get to the skypark, hoping to be able to buy a beer up there and snap some shots, but only the outdoor viewing area is open to non-hotel guests and as it was raining heavily at this stage I was advised it was not worth spending twenty bucks, so I left.

Marina Sands Hotel and Skypark, the mall is the long low building at the front.

After a cheap feed of Singapore noodles in the mall foodcourt while waiting for the rain to stop I started walking further around the marina and then the second battery in my camera died. I had pretty much done everything I planned on at the start of the day so I headed to the newest train station and caught a train back to my hotel.

At the station the tracks were completely barriered off from the waiting passengers and there was a bit of a squash even in mid afternoon. The train was crowded, but not terribly so, I would hate to imagine what rush hour would be like,  but being taller than most of the passengers at least I got some semi-fresh air.

As I walked up the hill to the hostel it started to drizzle again, I had been on my feet for most of five hours so I was ready to call the day quits mid afternoon. After the rain I had a quiet can of Kingfisher strong lager on the rooftop of the hotel. I was going to go back down to Little India for a snack and a drink after dark, but it was absolutely pissing down in the evening and the hostel is a good five minute walk to the nearest shelter so I flagged it and went to bed early, after charging camera batteries.

The Hangout hostel. I am on the top floor at the back, under the airconditioners…

Hostel rooftop garden, 2 self portraits in one day !

Day one thoughts ?

It was a good first day out, I really like Singapore, it is clean and reasonably friendly. There is plenty of green, some lovely old buildings mixed in with the new.

I didn’t meet any new people or do anything outrageous like ask to join people at their table. I have hardly seen people in the hostel, the public spaces are largely deserted.

I learnt at least 2 lessons, and will pack my day bag differently tomorrow.

I need to eat some protein and drink more water.

WordPress still sucks ! I cannot work out how to do line spacing properly, grrrrr