Diary of a Global Nomad! (Singapore)

Monday, 19 - Jul - 1993

By about 04:20, we had cleared customs and were directed onto another coach; it was all very confusing. At 05:10, we arrived in Singapore, at the bus dropping-off point, somewhere to the north of Orchard Road, where four of us disembarked. As we didn't have a Singapore cent between us, we couldn't use a taxi, so we started walking towards Orchard Road; so-called from the many nutmeg and pepper plantations that lined the street during the 1840s!

On reaching the park in front of the YMCA International House Hotel, we found a seat to rest. At 07:50, I went into the YMCA Hotel and asked if there was a room available. "Yes"; cost SGD 28.10 (£11.81) per night. Even though I had a reservation at the Lloyd's Inn, I decided to take the YMCA option; I don't know why (perhaps convenience!).

After freshening up, I located a tourist office (in the nearby Raffles City Shopping Centre) and booked myself onto a city tour for tomorrow, including an 08:30 pickup from the hotel. Remembering what I was told in Kuala Lumpur about Jakarta, I took a Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) train from City Hall to Somerset and made my way to the Garuda Indonesia airline office to i) bring my onward flight forward from next Monday (26^th) to Wednesday (21^st) and ii) to change my next destination from Jakarta to Bali. I continued along Orchard Road to locate the Hard Rock Cafe, then to find Lloyd's Inn. Once I had found it, I must admit, it didn't look too bad! [Apart from the recommendation of the Lloyd's Inn hotel in Kuala Lumpur, it was also recommended to me back in Bruxelles; as too was the YMCA International House Hotel in Hong Kong, but the one in Singapore was not as good!]

Two of the guys that travelled down from Kuala Lumpur and myself had arranged to meet in the Long Bar (home of the Singapore Sling) at the Raffles Hotel, at 19h00. Fearing I didn't have the correct form of dress code (only T-shirts), I bought a polo shirt from a Giordano store along Orchard Road. After a freshen up, I arrived at the Long Bar at 19h05 and had my first ever Tiger Beer. Wow, did that taste good! Admittedly, I think anything in that heat would have tasted good! It was interesting to see what things might have looked like, in old British colonial times, but one thing surprised me. Free peanuts were provided at the bar, with the empty shells simply being thrown onto the floor!

At 19h25, the two co-passengers arrived and had a beer and a coke. We then left, and walked past the cricket ground and across the Singapore River. We ended the evening with a milk shake in a Burger King opposite their dormitory.I arrived back at the YMCA at 23h00 and, after requesting an alarm call at 07:15 the following morning, hit the sack and 'went out like a light'.

Tuesday, 20 - Jul - 1993

I awoke at 07:10, just before my wake-up call. It was across to the local McDonalds at 08:10 for breakfast, where I had egg muffin and orange juice. The pickup arrived at 08:40 and the tour commenced at 09:00. The tour visited Little India, the river estuary, the financial district (where we walked last night), Chinatown, the Sri Mariammam Hindu Temple (at 244 South Bridge Road, Chinatown), a craft shop with gold leaf orchids for sale at SGD 38 (£15.97), then to the Singapore Botanic Gardens (including the National Orchid Garden), where orchids (the national flower of Singapore) were growing in suspended baskets; see Photo SG-008. As the air is (so) humid, the orchids obtain their moisture from the air; they do not need to be planted in the ground. Amazing!

Photo SG-001	Photo SG-002	Photo SG-003	Photo SG-004

Photo SG-005	Photo SG-006	Photo SG-007	Photo SG-008

The tour ended at 12:30. I got a lift from the coach driver to the Sheraton Hotel to view a famous waterfall, but when I got there, I think it must have been the wrong hotel! I took an SMRT train to Orchard and bought a T-shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe and then walked around the malls until 14:50 when I called the UK to speak to the children. My daughter had received a commendation for her project on Malmesbury Abbey and my son was in a fishing competition on the following Saturday.

I felt very emotional having spoken to the children, but the two guys I spent last evening with, were sitting near the phone. It was a good thing that they were there, as I had to control my emotions! The three of us chatted for a while; they said they had SGD 1.80 to last until tomorrow morning, when they would be departing for Tioman Island in Malaysia.

I changed two £10 travellers cheques (at a rate of SGD 2.38 to £1.00) then bought an SMRT Tourist Card and headed east to Pasir Ris (on the East - West SMRT line) to see what that part of Singapore looked like; (see Photo SG-009 and Photo SG-010).

Photo SG-011 shows the inside of an MRT train. Note that unlike many global metro trains, there are no doors between the carriages!

Photo SG-009

Photo SG-010

Photo SG-011

Photo SG-012

I returned to Raffles Hotel (Photo SG-012) to take a few more photographs, then, feeling hungry, headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe (by the MRT station) and had fish, with a baked potato and salad, and a beer (SGD 30 (£12.60)). After a busy day, I retired at 22:20 as tomorrow was an early start.

Wednesday, 21 - Jul - 1993

I awoke at 05:10 (again, just before my alarm), checked out of the YMCA Hotel at 05:45 and made my way over to the bus stop for a bus to Changi Airport. I didn't have to wait long; the journey lasted from 05:50 to 06:15; so much for a journey time of 45 minutes that someone told me. Mind you, there was hardly any traffic around at that time of the morning.

At the airport, I changed my remaining SGD 20.20 into 25,000 Indonesia Rupiahs (at an approximate rate of SGD 1 to IDR 1,237). I thought that some of the prices in the duty free shop were expensive, but they may have been aimed at the Japanese tourists. Apparently, a bottle of XO Cognac cost SGD 960 (£403.36!) in Tokyo, but SGD 290 (£122) in the duty free shop; a saving of SGD 670! It made me wonder about the general cost of living in Japan!

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