Singapore

The initial amusement of Singapore wore off as soon as I got to the Thai embassy. At the moment they are doing free tourist visas to try and entice tourists back after the riots, however they make it so complicated and were SO rude that it's a wonder there's any tourists going there at all. So I went to pick up the form that I needed but there were a few things I didn't quite understand and I wasn't sure exactly what type of visa I needed, as the website makes no sense and there are no guide notes to the form. Therefore, I thought it only reasonably to ask the lady processing the visas a couple of questions, especially seeing as there was no one else there and she was just sitting doing nothing. As I approached her, the rudest woman I have ever met stepped in front of me, saying "No flight, no visa!" I tried to explain that I just wanted to ask a few questions about the visa, as I wasn't sure what type I needed, but again "No flight, no visa!" Well that established that I wasn't allowed to approach the lady at the desk. So I tried to talk to the woman standing in my way, but all she would say was this phrase, then walk and stand a few feet away from me. I followed her and tried to ask her another question but she barged past me and went and stood a few feet away in the other direction. This ridiculous process went on for some time until I couldn't contain my anger any longer, so I stormed out before I erupted into something that would have got me kicked out.

Well I worked out from my extremely annoying encounter that I wasn't going to even get to talk to anyone without a flight in and out of Thailand (which I personally think is stupid thing to buy without first getting the visa, but there we go). So I bought a flight in, a flight out and proceeded to try and fill out the form without any idea of what type of visa I was supposed to be getting and only guess work to help me fill in the half of it that seemed ridiculous or didn't make sense. In the end I had to give the name, address and telephone number of someone in Thailand who could vouch for me and someone in Singapore who could vouch for me! This was completely, ridiculously, stupid. What tourists would generally have this! It was because I was staying over 30 days (58 in total) that I had to apply for a visa, unfortunately visa runs overland are now restricted to 14 day periods in the country. Luckily I was able to get people in both countries who knew me to let me give their details, but I have no idea what most people do!

Well as you can imagine, I was completely fuming, when I was on my way back to my hostel that afternoon, and matters were only made worse by my next encounter. It was 3pm, in a perfectly respectable street in Little India, I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, no short skirts, no make up. Remember that I'm in sterile Singapore here.... A middle aged Indian man comes up to me and walks along side me, saying something under his breath. I could hardly hear him, he was being very discreet about talking to me, but I worked out that he was asking where I was from. I told him England, then tried to work out what he was whispering next and suddenly realised that he was asking me for sex, in a totally serious manner, as though I was a prostitute. In London or somewhere I may have expected this, but Singapore?! Shocked, and very much conveying my shock in my voice, I told him firmly no, and walked five times as fast. He ran along beside me calling "I always pay!" I was appalled and now over my initial shock I turned round and shouted at him. The attention scared him away. I was now even less a fan of Singapore.

I spent the rest of the day grumbling to myself in my hostel.

On a more pleasant note, my friend from HK happened to be in Singapore on business for the time that I was there, and I was quite glad of a familiar face. She took me for dinner that nice in an organic vegetarian restaurant and I had such a nice meal, I forgot how good it felt to eat good, healthy food. Not that the food I had been eating in Bali was bad, far from it, but this was the kinda meal that made you feel like you'd just done your body a massive favour.

I returned to my hostel that night much happier, and in a far better mood to receive my crazy room mate. Apparently he was travelling on the money that the Norwegian governement gave him because he "thought too much". He refused to talk about China because if he gave his views on communism the Russian's (who are tracking people from Northern/Eastern/Central Europe everywhere) would kill him. During his sleep he tossed and turned so violently, and coughed a very pronounced, ridiculously fake-sounding cough that I, the worlds greatest sleeper, couldn't get the tiniest second of sleep. A very bizarre guy.

Well Singapore so far had been really weird, so I decided to try and actually see some sights, have a normal, holiday type experience, and the hostel I was staying at - an excellent place actually, called the Inn Crowd - had free guided tours of the local area of Bugis. It was really interesting actually, and our guide, one of the hostel workers was great. First of all we went to a beautiful green and yellow mosque, covered in moons and stars. Some of the girls on the tour - English, surprise surprise, were wearing little dresses and didn't understand that to go into the mosque they had to cover up, so that caused a bit of a problem, but I had come prepared so I went off to explore it by myself. It was just as pretty as any of the great churches or temples of other religions, though I found myself thinking that the lampshades and carpets would look quite good in a house of my own.

Next we went to a Chinese temple where our guide taught us how to ask the Goddess of Mercy our fortune. We each took three incense sticks and lit them on a gas lamp. First we faced south, bowing and waving the incense, praying to the south; then we faced the Goddess to do the same. After we had prayed, we put the incense in the giant incense holder as an offering and went inside the temple. Here we collected a container of bamboo sticks, and knelt before the goddess, shaking the container and focusing on a question we wanted answered until one of the sticks fell out. Then we had two moon shape chips that we needed to hold while praying to the goddess and toss them on the ground. If the chips were opposite ways up, then the stick belonged to us. Our stick would have on it a number, that we would look up in a book, providing the answer to our question.

The book told me that "the path is misty" as an answer to my question about a future career in international diplomacy/human rights that I am considering, but then went on to say that travellers would face difficulties. Uh oh.

Our guide told us that Chinese are very superstitious people and sometimes if they are told of a bad fortune from this Buddhist temple, they go to the Hindu temple next door to pray for a better fortune. So this is what we did!

Next we went to a local hawker center selling all types of local food. Here I tried some very strange bright pink, very sweet, drink in a plastic bag and an ice cream sandwich. Think I will stick to the nasi goreng. Rather unimpressed by this food, I went to meet my friend from HK, Fleur, in her hotel. Her company is putting her up in the hotel in an executive suite, which means she gets access to the executive lounge and is allowed to bring guests. Cue free cocktails all evening.

The following day I decided to go to Sentosa Island - the place I had seen so many adverts for whilst studying my inflight magazines at work in HK. I imagined it to be a bit tacky, but thought I may as well see what it is all about. Actually I was quite impressed. It was sort of a big theme park island, with a revolving/elevating look out tower, a giant "Merlion" statue, an aquarium, animal centres, eco-trails, go-karts, a giant ski lift type thing, a museum on Singaporean history.....and gorgeous beaches! Not something I would have expected in Singapore, but they were nicer than the beaches in Bali even! This island also contains, conveniently labelled, the most southernly point in continental Asia. So I went and stood there, gazed out to sea for a bit, and took a photo. All in all, I was quite impressed. I only had a look around and spent a few hours there, but it's the kind of place you could take the kids for a long weekend and have a very pleasant time.

For a final activity in Singapore I had to go to Raffles hotel with Fleur for a Singapore Sling. For those of you who don't know, Raffles is a very posh, very famous, very colonial hotel where people have afternoon tea, and that type of thing. It is where the cocktail "the Singapore Sling" was invented. It was rather nice. Just to make sure I didn't get mistaken for a classy person like everyone else there, I asked if I could nick a few free coasters to keep as a souvenir. The waiting staff were quite amused, so happily consented.

My flight the next day was at 7:30am, so I needed to be at the airport at 6am, before the first MRT would have got me there. So in order to save money on an overpriced taxi and accommodation for that night, I decided it would be a much better idea to sleep in the airport. So much for a tropical climate! I almost froze to death! Horrible night, not doing that again! (I give myself about a month before I come up with the same "clever" idea again.)