Singapore: Lion City

Wasn't planning on going so far south, but having already come as far as Kuala Lumpur, I thought I would make sure Rebecca got back to Singapore safely, plus it was only another few hours and would be a chance to see Gavin again.

Singapore, means "Lion city", while I do like lions, I wasn't so keen on Singapore last time, it feels as if it is misplaced in this world, as though it doesn't fit into the SE Asia environment. It's clean, tidy, efficient, polite, expensive and full of rules and laws that people obey. That's just not South East Asia, but maybe there are some postives to it???

This time around I did get to see a bit more of the local culture, a walk up to 'Little India' an area full of ethnic Indians with market stalls and cafes galore was a hot, humid, but interesting days outing. An evening visit to Singapore zoo, which they claim was the first 'night safari' in the world, gave a chance to catch a glimpse of some wild animals in the dark, though you could not see everything clearly, some were visible and appeared to be real and not just models! Among the cast were Elephants, giraffes, a tapir, a fishing cat (it just hangs around the edge of water and when hungry flashes out a paw and nabs a passing fish, cool), Malayan Flying Fox (the largest bat in the world), civets, leopards, hippos, lions, sloth bears, malayan tigers (sponsered by tiger balm ;-)) and a few others I'm sure. You can walk the trails or take a tram like vehicle along the main loop, or do both if you have time.

I spent one morning and lunchtime around the Chinatown area, - I must have been missing China again - it's a big market area, with as you might expect lots of Chinese food, Chinese art and handicrafts and Chinese people who speak yet another strange dialect of Chinese, Hokkien, that I also could not understand. One evening while wandering with Gavin we also stumbled across a Chinese dance performance in the street which was a lively one to catch.

Left: Rebecca and me on the Singapore night safari.

Right: Singapore's government building.

Good news on the football front! Thanks to South Africa's satellite channel Super Sports, I was able to see Wales' match against the Czech Republic live on TV all the way away in Singapore, a reasonablr performance from a young team, really needed to win it, but I settled for a 0-0 against one of the top 5 in the world.

Finally, one afternoon we all spent at the bach on Sentosa island that is just a bridge away from Singapore island, it has some nice sandy beaches, lined with bars and cafes, people playing football, volleyball on the sand and out at sea you can gaze at the oil tankers in the port, hmmmmm, not quite the seaside view you normally expect..

Left: Watching Wales v Czech Republic live in Singapore!

Right: Sentosa island beach.

After a few days at Gavin's luxury appartment, I took a bus back up to KL. Despite the fact that it's the same bus companies that run the route in both directions obviously, it costs around twice as much as the other direction! Hmmm, that's Singapore for you. Bye bye and off I went back up North.