Singapore
11th
November 2012
We
landed in Singapore 13 hours after leaving London. It had been a shocker of a
flight as we occupied the two seats in the middle of four in the centre of the
aircraft. We arrived early afternoon and took a taxi into the city for 25
Singapore dollars.
Glenda
had booked our room at the Sovereign Park Hotel in Albert Street, a few blocks
from the Bugis Street market. The room was on the fourth floor and wasn’t large but the hotel pool and
gym were next to the lift and adjacent to our room so all was convenient.
We
hadn’t
been to Singapore since 1979 and nothing on the drive from the airport was
familiar. The trees and plantings had given the city a very tropical and well
ordered appearance. A long rest was in order before we headed down the road and
found Fatty’s Restaurant. A restaurant with good numbers of patrons
suggests a good reputation and we weren’t disappointed. The warm night air saw Glenda match me
drinking beer and this continued over the three days of our stay. Indeed, with
wine prices high it seemed the sensible choice.
12th
November
Singapore
Singapore is a great place to shop given our exchange rate
so we headed off mid morning with a sensible list of essentials to purchase.
Five storeys of computers & electronics
I wanted some earphones for my ipod but a clever Chinese
salesman at the entrance to a five storied computer store talked me into a new
lens for my camera which I really didn’t need. Once I get the hang of it it
should be useful but I still don’t know whether my final price was much of a
bargain.
Some Chinese love haggling as its part of their culture but
I tire of it fairly quickly, especially when the figures are done and you find
yourself quibbling over cents instead of dollars.
Hmm..I don't think so.
For lunch we tried a food court in the basement near the
store. There was a huge range of food options but we ended up with a
conservative choice of noodles as opposed to the local stuff which seemed quite
popular despite its name and the thoughts it conjured up!
Bugis Street Market
We moved on down the road and found Bugis Street. This place
advertised over 600 individual markets and a raunchy reputation that went back
decades to a time before Mr Lee became President and cleaned Singapore up.
Apparently he is still a politician, his son having taken over since he stepped
down from the top job some years ago.
Love for sale
We did have some concern about pick pockets despite the low
crime rate in the place. As we walked down the endless rows of tiny stores the
atmosphere of the place started to kick in. Night time would probably bring out
the seedier side of life here although adult shops and the like were well
presented during the day.
A monsoonal downpour began around 4 p.m. as I was about to
take a swim back at the hotel. It lasted an hour after which time we walked
down to Fatty’s restaurant. We chatted to a couple from Australia who come here
regularly through their airline. They told us that the original guy called
Fatty had died but his two sons continued the business. One was the guy
everyone called “Skinny” which was a laugh. His brother was more substantially
built and had been christened “Medium” by patrons.
13th
November
Bird
Park
It was
my hope to catch up with a Kendo friend while we were here. Peter Ong and I met
at the Saitama summer school in Japan back in 2001 and we have been Facebook
friends for about a year. Initially there was no training opportunity but late
morning Peter rocked up to take me to lunch with his Kendo students from
Singapore Management University.
Singapore Management University Kendo Club
They
had training but Peter wanted the day off to take me to the Bird Park which I
had visited back in 1979 before I had a real interest in birdwatching. It was
great to see this very dedicated Martial Artist who had put on some bulk since
I first met him.
Peter was a great host and talked with passion about Kendo
and Jodo during the day. I would really like to take some of Ballarat’s
students to train with his club.
Bird Park Entrance
With lunch over Peter drove me to the Bird Park. It was a
public holiday (an Indian festival) so there were lots of people about. The
Bird Park was very well set out and I immediately fell into trying to
photograph every species I could. While captive birds don’t count on my world
list there were some wild species that came in to visit. Despite that I just
loved getting close to species that I may never see in their natural habitat.
Scarlet Ibis
Cock of the Rock
flamingo
A rather evil looking bird
"You talking to me?"
I bade farewell to Peter and returned to Glenda fairly late
in the afternoon just as the rain began. We waited it out before heading back
to Fatty’s Restaurant where Skinny acknowledged our third visit and gave me his
business card to show around.
14th
November
Singapore
to Australia
The motel was happy to let us leave our luggage with them
after check out time so it was time for one last venture around the town. We
took a tourist bus for an hour and had the famous landmarks such as Raffles
Hotel pointed out to us. By far the most impressive building was the three
towers with a ship built on top to connect them.
An amazing bit of architecture & construction
We didn’t have time to have a close visit to this place but
if a tsunami was to hit it might be a useful refuge!
Another monsoonal storm hit us around 4 p.m. when we were a
few blocks from the motel. We tried waiting it out but bought an umbrella (our
third for the trip) and headed back. By the time we reached our luggage we were
drenched from the knees down and on one side each. That said the relief from
the heat was good. I gave the umbrella to the motel concierge and we headed to
the airport in a taxi.
It was a long wait for the departure but we amused ourselves
in the airport waiting area. The plane was full but we managed a window seat. A
Scottish lady sitting next to me made me lament on how little we had seen
during our time away. True we’d covered a lot of places and discovered much
more off the beaten track but on reflection I would have enjoyed talking to
more of the locals than we did. That, apart from the locations we didn’t see,
is a good reason to return!
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