It’s a Goa!

Just when we thought we’d caught the best bus in the world to get to Cameron Highlands, the Business Class Transnasional service from Kota Bharu (a stone’s throw from the border with Thailand) to Singapore arrived. Once on board and settled into our sumptuous reclining armchairs we were each given a bottle of water and a plate of suspect-looking but very edible cakes.

I don’t remember much of the journey so I assume I must’ve slept for most of it. We arrived at the bridge linking Malaysia with Singapore during rush hour. A lot of people seemed to be commuting to Singapore for work. We had to get off the bus to go through customs, border formalities and warnings that we’d be faced with a death sentence if we had any drugs with us. Oh, and it was forbidden to bring any chewing gum into the country.

Once we arrived in Singapore, we teamed up with another British couple called Dan and Cheryl to find a taxi. In an experience quite opposite to any other taxi-related transaction we’d experienced so far, we had to grapple with drivers who didn’t want our business because they were ‘too busy’. Eventually we convinced a driver to take us but he was reluctant to take us to an ATM on the way to the hostel as he didn’t have time, so instead we paid using his amazing high-tech onboard credit card system which buggered up and ended up taking far longer than pulling over at an ATM somewhere. Singapore taxi drivers really are a different breed.

We were dropped off in Little India (which of course being in Singapore was totally free of all the dirt and unpleasant smells of real India) and Dunlop street which has a choice of hostels. We looked into a couple that were either too full or too arrogant to accommodate us so eventually we opted for the Prince of Wales whose reception/bar area looked and smelled so much like a British pub it was unreal. We had to hang around a while for our room to be cleaned so we headed up the road for our first proper Indian thali in ages! Yes! However it was much more expensive than we were used to… in fact Singapore was shaping up to be one hell of an expensive place already. It was to be our first time staying in shared hostel dorms during our trip and it was by far the most we’d paid so far for a night’s accommodation.

Over our Thali, we were getting on like a house on fire with Cheryl and Dan. When we got back to the hostel our dorm was ready so we offloaded our bags and took the opportunity for a decent shower and change of clothes. I don’t know how the next bit happened but we ended up spending all day in the bar of the hostel drinking hideously expensive wine and playing Travel Scrabble!

Dan and Cheryl had met some Singaporeans on their travels in Vietnam or somewhere and arranged to meet with them that evening, kindly inviting us along. We’d seen nothing of Singapore so far other than reluctant taxi drivers and the inside of a bar that looked and felt like a British pub so we agreed to join them. Really glad we did as we had a great time being shown the sights, local food and so-on by a pair of locals, whose names now escape me. It was fascinating to speak to them; highly educated people. It was like talking to Google - any question we asked was met with a comprehensive response including facts, figures and statistics! Amazingly they insisted on paying for everything - 0ur meals, taxis, the lot and it was clear we were offending them by offering to at least contribute.

Singapore came across as an exciting, vibrant place and not quite so anally retentive about cleanliness as I’d expected although there are signs everywhere stating the fine you’d have to pay if caught doing someting you shouldn’t, such as eating on public transport (S$500). The locals are all immaculately turned out. We felt like a bunch of proper scruffbags. Our tour was topped off by a cheeky toilet stop at the incredibly posh Fullerton Hotel. After going in there we were loathe to return to our hostel!

The next day we decided to check out Orchard Road, which has loads of shopping malls. Basically it seemed like Singapore was all about the shopping. No wonder everyone was so well dressed what with so many shops to choose from. Interestingly, nobody shops online in Singapore - why? Well if you live on a little island that is all but completely taken up by one city with shopping malls dotted all around the place why would you ever need anything delivered… We managed to pick up a few items of clothing to smarten ourselves up a bit, despite wincing at the price somewhat. All these shops and all the well-dressed people made me wonder if such a highly disciplined society allows itself to rack up huge credit card debts as is happening in the West?

We decided to visit Sentosa, a little island just off the South coast. We accessed it by cable car but there was also a train that closely resembles a suppository. Sentosa is the closest to countryside Singapore gets and it is highly manicured with escalators taking you up and down the hills! There’s also piped music! I tried to figure out just where this music was coming from, a hard task as it just seems to be in the air with no particular source. Eventually I found a small green dome nestled in a flowerbed that bore the brand of well known speaker manufacturer Bose on top of it!

Sentosa really was surreal. We looked around for a while, visiting the beach and what was supposedly the most southerly point in Continental Asia. We visited the Merlion which turned out to be a very tacky tourist attraction indeed. The trip back on the cable car was more interesting as a huge cruise liner had docked, so we got a great aerial view of this massive ship with all the luxuries on deck.

One night we were wandering around Singapore and noticed these strange UFO type things in the sky. As we got closer, it turned out they were in fact remote-controlled kites (with little motors and propellers on them and LED lights all along the wings). The inventors were putting on a display to publicise the product. They really looked like great fun and will probably be the next big thing next Christmas!

Just before we left we had the fantastic opportunity to meet up with Sue & Ian who we’d travelled with all that time ago from Agonda to Kerala and around! They got to hang about in Singapore with us for a few hours while waiting for their connecting flight to Australia. It was so great to see them and we just fell back into the old conversation like we’d seen each other only a few days ago, rather than a few months! They treated us to a Singapore Sling at the famous Raffles Hotel before they had to shoot off to the airport. We enjoyed every minute of their company, even Ian getting us lost on the way to the hotel! 

We never went to Singapore Zoo (which is what most people ask if you say you’ve been to Singapore) and decided to head back to Malaysia as we’d seen what we wanted to see. It was certainly a big change from the Perhentian Islands and indeed anything we’d done so far. To us, Singapore is just a massive rat-race of working your arse off in a big shiny skyscraper for a big company, then giving all your pay to another big company to make sure you’re dressed nicely, whilst making sure you don’t give yet more money to the police by breaking any of the many rules. However, the people of Singapore seem happy with it and in many ways they put us lazy, decadent Westerners to shame because of how hard they work and how much they value achievement and success.