SE Asia I - Singapore Smile

Singapore is the friendliest city I have visited on my travels. It is big, busy and full of people yet still manages to maintain a relaxed atmosphere. It is a melting pot of Chinese, Malays and Indians. I expected to see alot more Western faces than I did. Singapore is addicted to shopping. The shops are busy all day and well into the night. They also love food and you can understand why when it is excellent and it is as cheap as chips, a main meal will set you back just 2 pounds. The streets are busy into the night and feel safe throughout. I wandered the streets at all hours and had no problems,they don't even have the Western problem of drunks spilling on to the streets in the late hours (I think the expats jump/fall into taxis).

I was told by many people that Singapore was a sterile place with little atmosphere and no character. I found Singapore friendly because of the people I encountered and the atmosphere in the streets. It is safe and it is generally clean but that doesn't make it sterile. If you want things to be a bit crazy you can visit Little India, which is even more packed and crowded than the rest of the city. Singapore is heavily Westernised, but I thought that was a great quality. It is Asia's take on an ultra modern city and they have managed to do a better job than most.

I had to visit Raffles while I was in Singapore. It is very much out of the Empire and it is a great set of buildings to wander around. I had a Singapore Sling cocktail in the Long Bar and was a little disappointed, it doesn't have the greatest air to it and is just a general tourist spot. I also went to Sentosa Island. It is a tourist resort for the locals and can be reached in a variety of ways. The best one is to jump on the cable car from Harbour Front and be whisked over the harbour on to the island. It is so good infact, that at night couples have candlelight dinners in the cable cars. It could well be very romantic but each time you reach the other end people stare at you as the car doors open and you swing passed eating dinner. Sentosa is a great place to watch the sunset, with beautiful man made beaches and a view of the city skyline.

Changi airport is by far the best airport I have been through. It feels big and open. It is also easy to get around. Once you go through immigration you walk straight through to the baggage carousels and then out through customs to the waiting taxis. There isn't a maze of confusing corridors to negotiate. There are also free internet terminals as you walk to immigration. Immigration was the friendliest I have came across, they didn't question you within an inch of your life and they even had complimentary mints. They weren't the cheap fifty different types of urine mints, but the individually packaged ones.

I flew to Singapore from Perth with Qantas. I've flown with Qantas domestically in Australia and internationally. In general I find their stewardesses snotty. They seem to have the attitude of how dare you sit on my plane. On the flight into Singapore they were much better than normal (possibly to do with the average being below the Qantas norm in the mid-twenties). I also discovered that flying on the small planes in and out of the mine sites in Western Australia means you appreciate the comforts of the modern planes even more. I couldn't believe how smooth the takeoff and how much room there was on board (nor how big the wing looked).

I stayed at the New 7th Storey Hotel near Bugis Junction. It is far from new and it isn't 7 storeys high (it is actually 9). It is, however, great budget accommodation. The dorm rooms only have 3 or 4 beds in them. They change the sheets everyday and give you a new toothbrush and a new bar of soap everyday. There is a TV in the room and air-conditioning. I was as ever pleasantly surprised by the people I met during my stay. I met Harry a German who was on his way to Australia. I spent a very entertaining afternoon with him shopping on Orchard Road (a Singaporean institution). He bartered with the shop owners and they gave him very funny banter back. I also met Annette from Australia who introduced me to her Singaporean friends and the delights of fish head soup. On the subject of fish head's they are a Singaporean delicacy and apparently when served a fish head you eat all of it. Another culinary delight is Pig Organ Soup, which is full of pig organ's including the intestines. I also had an unlikely dorm mate in an Orthodox Jew who was extremely shy and even more uncomfortable in his surroundings.

I was lucky enough to be able to move into a friend of the family's place in Singapore. Andrew (from Perth) put me up at his place in the Twin Regency Condos. I spent a very leisurely week at his place enjoying the 40 metre swimming pool and the close connections to town. The Singapore MRT is the best train system I have come across in a city. It is modern, clean, very cheap, and gets you where you want to go. The only complaint I have is with the locals who seem unable to fathom letting people get off the train before getting on the train. I don't know if I am looking back on the London Underground with rose tinted spectacles but I am pretty sure people would let you off before attempting to get on. Andrew also showed me Orchard Towers and Four Floors which is a great place to people watch, even if the people in question may not be of the highest repute.