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South East Asia here I come!

That's it.. i'm here!!!!!!

I arrived in the deliciously humid and sweaty Singapore after another fabulous flight by Qantas.. officially love that airline.  I made my way directly to the hostel I had booked as it had already gotten dark and I wasn't sure about the area I was staying in.  Turns out it was a great little area.  My hostel was in a quaint market street surrounded my Morrocan and Vietnamese restaurants, jewelry and pashmina stalls and was right beside a Mosque.    

The hostel is fab!  I definitely struck gold when I booked this one.  It's a very chilled out place with an amazing ambience.  They serve a lovely aray of fruit for breakfast (free) with tea and you just chill out on the wooden (cushioned) couches inside or out while you watch the world go by or surf the free tinternet!! Superb.. not to mention that the staff are brilliant.. nothing is too much trouble.  It's so close to the heart of the city and public transport is brilliant here so i've had no trouble getting around.  Many of the people running the public transport don't speak great English though so mainly figuring things out on my own.

My first night I crashed.. after a fairly long day I was bushed.  I was woken by singing from the Mosque at 5am.  Is was surprisingly nice.. I actually found it quite soothing, especially as the sun was just about to rise so it had a blue haze over the city.. and the streets were deadly silent. My dorm has wooden shutters that open out onto the street.. we usually keep them open during the night as it gets so hot in the room.  The next day I was up bright and breezy.. made my way down for my delightful brekki before catching the MRT (Train) into town.  I spent some time sauntering around the city centre to get a feel for the place and took in Orchird Street.  Where, by the way, I have never seen so many shopping malls.. they don't seem to do single shops.. there must have been over 100.. crazy.

The weather is insane.  I don't think i've ever sweat this much without my running trainers on. At times it's just unbearable and I find myself making my way to the nearest indoor shop to have a brief relief of AC.  Yes.. I do get strange looks from locals and staff.. they abviously don't think it's that hot as they glide up and down the streets and in and out of shops without a BEAD of sweat on their forehead.. I ask you.

After a full day of sight-seeing, picture-taking, sushi-eating madness I made my way back to the hostel (a cold beer was just too tempting).  So there I sat on Bussorah street in central Singapore sipping my Tiger and soaking it all in (this is the life I thought!).  I met two English folk, Kate and Simon, who, having seen my ice cold beer, were also unable to resist the temptation.  The three of us sat through sunset on front patio with our Tigers.. great night.  After a few hours another member joined the crew.. her name was Sarah and she was also from England.. London I think.  I had the strangest feeling i'd met her before but we exhausted all possibilites and came up with nout!

The next day Sarah and I spent a fair bit of time in the town centre and checking out Circular Quay.. right along the riverside.  It's beautiful there.. we had a spot of lunch and carried on our sweaty way.  We headed to China Town which was a maze of stalls all selling everthying you can imagine.  Apart from the food stalls.. I had no idea what half the stuff was.. almost everything was dried.  That night we took a boat cruise along the river.. it was stunning.  To see Singapore at night was something else.  the architecture and sculptures are amazing.  After our cruise we set upon a wild goose chase to find a hotel called Raffles and to sit in one of the most famous bars in Singapore and enjoy a Singapore Sling.  After a lohh-hot of walking (I swear the heat makes you feel like you're walking a marathon) we made it.  Upstairs we went (feeling somewhat under-dressed) and made our way to the bar.  Ordered ourselves a couple of drinks and sat down to enjoy them.  I wasn't aware of the tradition to dispose of your peanut shells on the floor.. and had muttered something to Sarah about the fact they could have at least given the floor a brush.  Sarah found this hilarious and then filled me in.  The cocktail was delish and it was just as well we could only afford one or we'd have been there all night!

The following day I had just enough time to get my gear together have some breakfast before I was hoofing my rucksacks to the bus station.  That's me away to Malaysia now.  Kuala Lumpur first then hopefully Borneo if I can get my flights sorted! 

I have to say.. if Singapore was taste of things to come I am going to like the next 2 months!

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