I am thinking this could be my last update before arriving back in Australia?? Maybe one in the Airport tomorrow evening…how knows.
Well the past two days have been interesting ones. Travelling by yourself allows you far more freedom although so far I have found it only 1/4th as fun as the past 3 weeks were, 1/11th as the 3 weeks before that.
Yesterday I managed to sleep into, cough, 12pm so I figured most of the morning was given to jet lag. After crawling out of bed I managed to make my way to little India where I did the walking tour recommended in the Singapore Lonely Planet….well most of it. See I got a bit lost and ended up I think in the slums of Singapore. For those of you in Melbourne think commission flat building in collingwood, carlton and Fitzroy. Singaporian druggos isn’t the best to hang around I figured so I hightailed it to a local safehaven (711 store) and asked for directions. Little India was just as cool and probably more appreciated than Little China. Little China I saw with majorly bloodshot eyes after a plane flight from Paris, Little India I saw after a pretty good 8 hour sleep. Spices, curries, hindu temples, electronics and a mosque which I visited. Seeing a Victorian style mosque is an interesting thing to say the least, completely different to other ones I saw whilst in Turkey. People where sleeping on the floor in this mosque for one thing, they weren’t praying, just sleeping. It was that hot that they needed a nap after praying I guess.
After this little trek and its supposed 2.5 hour walk turning into 4 hours I made my way to the zoo. You would think by now after all the times I have missed museums and shit due to not checking the opening and closing times of places I wouldn’t make the same mistake, well you are wrong. I arrived at the zoo right after they closed admitance to the zoo(differnet and earlier to closing time….grrrr) so I bought tickets to see the night safari and the zoo. I did this for two reasons, to force myself to see the Singapore Zoo and also it was cheaper.
Night Safari was I guess you could say, ummm, interesting. I have a real problem with caged animals to say the least but I am not going on a safari anytime soon so I thought why not. I thought I may have changed my opinion or this zoo maybe different to all the others I have seen… nup. The reason why the night zoo is supposedly so good is that you don’t see the cages that the animals are enclosed in so you feel closer too them…. This is bullshit as you still see how small the enclosures are. I did the walk around, took the wanky bus trip through it all (only did this because it took you places you couldn’t walk) then caught the next taxi ride home skipping a few other things I could have seen. Partially it was due to tiredness but mainly I did a runner because, as I said before, I don’t like seeing caged animals. Once I arrived back at the hostel I must say I piked (around 11 pm) and slept…ahh sweet sleep.
Today I woke up bright and perky, a bit less stressed about caged animals so I decided to see the Singapore Zoo (yes different to the night safari). This was slightly better, although only marginally so. A polar bear being in a equatorial climate?, penguins too? are there polar bears and penguins around the equator?? I couldn’t imagine anthing worse. One thing I did like about the zoo is its message of conservation and rainforest depletion. I thought the amount of Indonesians and Malay’s that see the message may eventually have an effect…who knows. As soon as I saw more than one pacing and rocking animal I decided to quicken the speed of the zoo and leave.
From the zoo I made my way to the Marina bay area to do a Colonial walk mentioned in Lonely Planet. Not too bad, a bit boring but still alright. I think Singapore really is geared towards shopping so I can accept that most walks that don’t involve shopping won’t have as much to do. After the walk I sat in the Fullerton Hotel and had a cold beer, some calamari and read my book. That I must say was my highlight of the walk, the beer at the end. Maybe I should have just started and finished there….mmm beer. From beer to watching Pirates of the Carribean 2, not a bad transition really. Recommend seeing the movie if you havn’t already.
Well this is me, probably my next update will be me back in Melbourne making a very long awaited, well by some people at least, photo update. I will hopefully cull the crap ones and only upload good ones. Leigh will be doing the same I am sure when he finds the time away from saving his company.
I will have to say I hope to see you all soon, at least to rub in the fact that I am tanned, well as tanned as a geek like me can get.