Tuesday 28th August 2012
We arrive in Singapore around 7pm.
After trying to phone Matt's bank from the airport, without any luck (he put the wrong PIN in twice, in Java and now it won't pay out!), we make our way to 'Little India'. By the time we have sorted out how their underground system works, and purchase 2 multipass tickets for S$12 each, (which incidently, I promply loose, well mine at least!) we get to Little India around 9.30. We trapse the streets for a while, getting prices from various hotels and are surprised to find out how expensive it is.
We end up in a 'rough' looking place called the Prince of Wales. It is in the Lonely Planet, so how bad can it be! - Well where do I start! -
I have to say, the young english lad behind the bar-reception, is very welcoming, that's when we can eventually hear what he is saying. He has to take us out of the bar area because the live music is so loud we can't actually hear each other. (You may ask why we have plumped for this place, - well by now it is after 10, we are very hot and every other room we have ask the price for is too expensive!).
We take the double room with a bathroom shared with one other room for S$70 (roughly 35.00p) this includes breakfast, which is a bit of a DIY job apparently. Our room has a sealed concrete floor with a mat in the middle, 2 windows but only 1 curtain, the ceiling is not finished, so has foil backed insultion showing oh, and the biggest TV! (A must when traveling!)
Next morning we go down for breakfast at 8.30, there is no sign of life, other than another man waiting for his breakfast. We ask a young girl coming out of the loo's what time breakfast starts, 9.00am came the reply! We are not very happy, with it being so hot, you need to get out early.
At 9.10 member of staff arrives and starts to set up breakfast. It's 10 before we get out for the day! Great start!
Singapore's rail system is very good. We normally walk everywhere, but as it is so hot, we take advantage of the air-con trains! We head for the harbour, as usual we have no real plan for the day. We walk up what looks like a small hill(116mts) called Mount Faber, by the time we get to the top we are sweating buckets! The views are pretty good though!
We get on the cable car to Sentosa Island, what a mistake, it is the most touristy place we have seen for a while. The only good thing about it was they were holding the International Junior Climbing Championships here - on the man-made beach! We don't stay long.
We jump on the Monorail to Chinatown, this is a lot nicer than Little India (picked the wrong area, again!), have a good walk around and find 2 amazing temples. The first is a very small but colourful Hindu temple, called Sri Mariamman Temple, admission is free, but we were asked to pay $3 to take photo's. (It amazes us when people are asked to pay a small amount of money and they refuse, yet their camera's are worth 5 or 6 100 pound.)
The second is a Buddhist Temple, 5 stories high, with the largest 'Prayer Wheel' in the world in the rood-top garden! It has literally 1000's of mini buddha's surrounding it. We spend a good hour or more here, there is so much to look at. (Admission is free which is always a bonus).
On the way back to the station, we stop at the local food hall for a well deserved drink, we haven't sat down since we left this morning, expect briefly for a quick lunch with the locals in another food market by the harbour. The man on the next table smiles and say's hello, the next thing we know, he is buying Matt a beer and is joining us! He used to be a sailor on the cargo ships, he could say 'I love you' in so many languages, it was untrue! (as long as they weren't land-locked, that is!) 'No money, no honey' was his motto! We had a laugh with him and he refused to let us buy him a beer in return!
We return to our PoW camp and have decided that 2 nights and 1 day is long enough for us in Singapore, we are moving onto Malaysia in the morning!
