Let me just start off by saying that Singapore airport is fkn rad. There is a litre of 50% Smirnoff for the equivalent of $17 Aussie dollars, so if that doesn't make you want to move here then you need to seriously question your priorities in life. So we got our bags, and our $10 bottle of jaeger (definitely the more important of the two) and sat at this bloody adorable french cafe, in Singapore, 'drinking' coffee (it was foul - but it made us look cool and worldly so we soldiered on) and munching on a cookie covered croissant and a mushroom and bacon chowder for ridiculous prices (the good kind of ridiculous). Speaking of soldiering on, there were casj soldiers with machine guns strolling around looking intimidating. Hell casj...
I booked the coolest place ever to stay for the night, which I'm super proud of because it was one of the cheapest I could find and was really not expecting that much, but it's probably up there with one of the coolest places I've ever stayed in. And coolness is good because Singapore is so hot (the kind of hot in your bathroom when you've had a really steaming hot shower and forgot to turn the fan on, so you're sweating and can't really breathe - and when you open the door it's like you're born again). I mention this because there is icy cold air-con in every room so kudos to me for finding this place. But for real, massive kudos to Mr Christopher, the owner, for creating the best backpackers you could imagine, basically a home away from home. If you ever find yourself in Singapore for the night make your way (via the $9 shuttle bus) to Central 65 Hostel and Cafe, and then thank me later. You help yourself to food and coffee and tea and cold water FOR FREEEEE, and do the washing up afterwards. But here's the real kicker - FREE WIFI. FOR FREE. AND IT'S ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD! (Jake is currently complaining that he can't get onto facey but there are approx. 20 of us all in one place sucking the internets dry... but we love Christopher so we still say his wifi is fab).
SO last night we (I) were pretty damn starving so we ask old mate Christopher where to go, totally didn't understand what he said except that we should try the hot and spicy soup, so we wandered around the streets (which are pretty dodge and scary and road rules don't exist) until we found the busiest place, and assumed it must be good. Damn we were right... once we'd figured out how the whole thing worked. We had to get a menu and an ordering sheet and hang around with the 30 odd people on the side of the street, choose what we wanted and fill out the form to get what we wanted. Then we kind of stood around like the lost western tourists that we were, until we figured out you have to use an iPad to register yourself in the queue of people before you could get seated. After we did that, we were sweating more than a pedophile in a playground so we made our way to t he grocery store and grabbed the first cold drink we could find, and by the time we got back there was a table for us. The food came ridiculously quickly and was ridiculously good. Unfortunately bae was unprepared for Asia and his chopstick skills were compromised... the dumplings were fine but the fried rice was a challenge. Actually, the dumplings were more than fine. Possibly the best dumplings I've ever had in my life, and as an avid dumping eater I will keep you updated on our dumpling tasting adventures. I'm sure I'll sample a wide range in the continent where they originated.
Dinner was only 10 bucks each and I've never been so full of fresh, healthy food before in my life. Let's all sing praises for Singapore.
Our bed was also super rad. We shared a room (aka. shoebox) with 4 other people, and I was kind of worried about privacy but old mate Christopher had come up with an excellent solution. The beds were built into the walls like little cubby houses filled with blankets and pillows, each coming equipped with a light, a towel rack, a safe with power points and a lil curtain that you could pull across for complete privacy. We had a top bunk cubby though, and climbing the ladder into our cute little bungalow was interesting. I wish I got a video, or even a picture, but I totally forgot (#devo). It was awesome though. The beds were super comfy and the air con was super cold which is basically all you want on an overnight stay in Singapore.
This morning we went down into the common area (where the wifi is - hallelujah) and had some toast, and a major tea mishap. I couldn't work out if the tea was black or herbal, so I tried it without milk or sugar and it tasted weird, so I added milk and it tasted even weirder, so basically I still haven't figured out what it was, but I didn't get to enjoy my morning cuppa (almost a deal breaker for me). I was trying to write my fully sick blog about our fully sick adventures but JKG was sick of ma shit (aka. taking so long with nothing for him to do) so we rifled through our bags to find towels (which were at the very bottom, obvs, cos I figured we probably wouldn't use them) so we could tackle the shower situation. Let's just say it was an experience, and leave it at that.
Making our way to the airport was the next adventure, so after writing down directions from the front desk into my little travel journal like a savvy traveller would do, we wandered the streets looking for the bus stop, got lost down some dodge alley, backtracked and realised it was literally right outside our hostel. Then came the hard part. When our bus finally came (and bae was well and truly sick of me trying to take selfies with him) we tried to give our money to the driver and he literally wouldn't take it. Obvs we don't speak Singaporean (is that a thing? Malaysian?) so had no clue what he was saying aside from the fact it was going to cost us $4 but he wouldn't accept the money we were trying to give him.
We went back to ask our buddy Christopher what da hell was going on (by this stage both very hot and bothered and I hadn't had a coffee yet and it was pushing lunch time) and apparently you just chuck your money into the little box at the front and you don't get change, and the driver just drives and doesn't do maths. It was pretty public school (aka. so random). At least we got to where we wanted to go.
We didn't get to see any of our machine gun mates at the airport, but we got something even better. Our first Burger King experience. Had to dig into the hidden emergency money to pay for it, but damn it was worth. Hello BBQ Bacon Turkey Grilled Chicken Burger (and yes, hello diabetes). Then went into a food coma and tried to keep it down (also included a "medium" aka. supersize drink and fries and sauce).
We (I) took heaps of selfies on the giant tree thing, which are hell cute n funny and got to flick them onto the screen for everyone to see. This was about all the exciting things that happened at the airport besides finally being able to get some wifi and check how many likes I got on my status.
I'm writing this on the plane to Phuket where we get picked up by our chauffeur and our luxury holiday begins. Ooh la la. Adios peasants.
