I arrived in Singapore shortly before 2 o'clock in the morning. I
hadn't had much sleep on the plane and was panicking going through
customs that I might be arrested for smuggling chewing gum into the
country. There was nothing to worry about. My arrival was not noted.
Here, as opposed to other parts of SE Asia, I am invisible. Not a bad
thing when you want to go unnoticed and have a sneaky kip in the
airport until the metro opens.
Unfortunately
I couldn't get into my hostel until the afternoon, so I had seven hours
to waste in the city. So where does one go unwashed, after sleeping on
a bench for just a couple of hours? Raffles, of course! I've crashed
some of the most exclusive hotels in the world and this was a doddle.
It was lovely, but sadly too early for a Sling in the Long Bar. I spent
the rest of the day wandering around in Little India and the Colonial
District trying to find a happy medium between the steam bath outside
and the ice blasting air conditioning inside the malls. I was happy to
get into my hostel for a well earned rest.
The
next day I checked out some of the museums and art galleries and looked
about Chinatown. Singapore is world famous for shopping, but it's
really only good when you've got a big enough purse and a big enough bag. I
have to keep reminding myself that I'll be back here again soon. On
Friday night I headed off to the Night safari. A compliment to the
Singapore Zoo, the Night Safari operates while the Zoo is closed and
lets you see all the nocturnal animals. It's a well put together show
which runs remarkably efficiently despite the enormous numbers in the
weekend crowds. But you would expect nothing less from Singapore. It's
all true.
Tomorrow I'm off to Malaysia.
