Singapore - August 2015

Singapore and Japan 2015

Photo album

Time for a holiday! First up I headed to Singapore - I'd spent a few hours there back in 2008 and had been hoping for a slightly longer visit some day. It was also a good chance to celebrate the end of my Masters, although quite a few months had passed; and to make the most of a small dividend resulting from Japan Post's acquisition of Toll Holdings.

Sunday 2nd August

From Singapore 2015

After flying over Adelaide, Port Headland, Jakarta (blanketed by huge thunderstorms) and doing a few circuits on approach, we arrived and I could put the frosty Melbourne winter behind me. I sorted out an MRT ezlink card and took the train and then a 15-minute walk to my accommodation in Tiong Bahru. It was the first time I'd tried AirBnB and I soon ran into a problem - my host (the delightfully named Wu Hu) had provided me information to get to my 14th-floor apartment, but the building only had 11 floors-! After a couple of quite confusing phone calls where she organised someone to meet me at a nonexistent location next to the building, we worked out that she'd given me the instructions for an apartment in a different building she also rented on AirBnB.

With that problem solved, I went for a wander along the river & grabbed some dinner. I enjoyed a busker playing Kimi O Nosete on a violin(?) which was a nice precursor for a few days' later. A spooky moon appeared over the city skyline. I had hoped to catch a gig I'd heard about in town but it turned out to be a bit further on and with the evening fluster I was a bit wiped out. Still it was good to get my bearings around the local neighborhood - everything looked big & modern, there was plenty of activity happening around Clarke Quay, plenty of construction all around, and no shortage of SG50 signs.

Monday

From Singapore 2015

I'd been told to visit Haw Par Villa - a sculpture theme park built by the family behind Tiger Balm - it had seen better days but I guess it was kind of interesting. I then headed to VivoCity for brunch (quite hard to find a good coffee & cake deal), and took the cable car to Mount Faber - despite the rain it was good to stretch the legs and go for an easy hike around the bushland area.

I took the cable car over to Sentosa Island, where I'd spent most of my time on my previous visit. I was keen to see it again as a lot of construction had been under way last time. There were heaps of adventure activities available but I was happy enough to learn a bit of the history of Fort Siloso, check out the beaches (checking Google Maps I now dispute Palawan Island's claim to be the southernmost point of continental Asia) and be one of the few people to take a quick dip, and have a short tour of the Cable Car operations which was really interesting - I think the guide took a bit of pride in the service and possibly doesn't get many visitors. On one of the beaches I put my umbrella (courtesy of my accommodation) down when taking a photo for another tourist and was delighted to find it still there when I remembered it an hour later.

From time to time a fighter jet screamed through the sky at high altitude - presumably in preparation for the weekend's big party.

Dinner at Chinatown - yum!

Tuesday

From Singapore 2015

Buses are always a tricky prospect when you're new to a place as there are a lot more options than trains and require a lot more research to match up your desired location with the route's destination. And even when that all seems OK you can end up going in the wrong direction (as had happened in Wapping due to the route looping back on itself) - however the condo was very close to a major bus route spine so I chanced it and succeeded in getting to Orchard Road.

It was interesting to see the extent and sophistication of all the shopping malls along the strip there but I didn't have anything I wanted to buy. I grabbed a wholesome street vendor fried chicken lunch for probably less than the cost of a muffin from a shopping mall. Continuing on I passed the entrance for the grounds of the Prime Minister's Office, Singapore Management University, the National Museum and the Supreme Court, ending up back at the Singapore River. For the entire way I ran the gauntlet of bunches of uni students on a fundraising drive.

It was definitely time to put my feet up and enjoy a tourist cruise on the Singapore River and it was good to see some more of the sights. Marina Bay was in preparation mode for SG50, full of fireworks pontoons and with music from concert rehearsals booming across the water. I changed boats at Clifford Pier and alighted near the ArtScience Museum. I had a look around Marina Bay Sands and the SkyPark Observation Deck, and then wandered down to Gardens by the Bay. While a lot of it seemed to be designed for the express purpose of appearing on 'postcard' photos, it featured some great architecture - particularly the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome, and the area around the Supertree Grove was also laid out quite cleverly in that the paths didn't always lead to where you thought they would, which made the place feel a bit bigger than it actually was. I just made a return boat to Clarke Quay and walked back to the accommodation.

That evening I met up with Joyce, who I'd met in Melbourne, and her partner Jerome. They live in Tiong Bahru as well and they took me to one of their local restaurants - it was great to catch up with them and very nice to go to somewhere where the locals dine, rather than a tourist spot.

Wednesday

From Singapore 2015

With a little time left on my 24-hour hour cruise ticket, I headed to the dock near the Grand Copthorne to see a little bit of the upstream segment. The lady at the ticket desk was intent on setting me up with one of her friends while we were waiting, but given that my time in Singapore was rapidly running out and that her friend apparently had only a slight grasp of English, it didn't bode well. I took the cruise to Boat Quay (I'd hoped to get the guided commentary for the parts I'd missed yesterday but unfortunately my ticket didn't permit me to join a commentary-equipped boat after the initial journey, which I thought was a bit strange!) and had a look around the Merlion area and then Raffles Place - good to enjoy the shade of all the skyscrapers.

I then headed back to Tiong Bahru Plaza - where most shops were being rapidly packed up prior to major renovations - to enjoy a networking lunch with some of the people from the local branch of a social group I'm in. I hadn't met any of them before but they were very friendly and welcoming, and were involved in some pretty interesting work and activities.

They suggested that I might like to check out MacRitchie park, so after lunch I caught a train to Caldecott and (only needing to ask for directions once), I set off to explore the park. It was pretty humid but it was nice to get out of the city and I needed to get a few more kilometres into the legs, so I left behind the schoolkids doing their fitness circuits and set off for the treetop walk, around 4km away. Progress was a little slow given the weather, and I needed to rush for the last few minutes to just make it by the 4:45 close. The views weren't overly amazing and I wasn't quite sure whether to trust the pack of monkeys that decided to join me, but it was still great to look around. I shared the walk back with some local students that I'd met on the boardwalk and it was great to get their perspectives of living in Singapore.

We hailed a taxi to take us back to the city but soon hit a traffic jam so we diverted to Marymount station. I took the train to Choa Chu Kang (parting ways with the others), and after a restorative fast-food dinner, caught the bus to the Night Safari. Checking the map now, it's not actually that far from MacRitchie Park as the crow flies - only 4 or 5km, but without a direct transport connection you have to go 20 or 30km out of the way - and surprisingly, the public transport connections to the Zoo precinct were a little bit clunky. This all meant that I didn't have time to enjoy all of the Night Safari activities, but the guided tram ride was excellent. The concept of having a night zoo is good although I didn't feel that the animals were a lot more active than what you see during the day, and they were often very hard to spot.

As the activities started to wind up I caught the (very slow!) bus back to Ang Mo Kio and then the train back to the condo.

Thursday

From Singapore 2015

I'd bought a 3-park ticket at the Night Safari, so I returned to the zoo precinct. I was delighted that the young Chinese family that were staying in another room of the condo had booked a maxi taxi to go to the zoo with some friends of theirs, and had invited me to join them on the journey, saving quite a bit of time.

I spent the day at the River Safari and Singapore Zoo which was all quite enjoyable, even with a tropical thunderstorm hitting just after lunch. I took the option of taking a tourist bus back to Orchard - for $6 it was a lot more convenient than taking the suburban bus, particularly considering the queues!

I collected my luggage from the condo and headed back into town as I'd heard that there might be a fireworks display - although it turned out not to be the case. Instead I checked out the laser light show in the Supertree Grove; again it had been difficult to confirm details but I only had a short while to wait and had a good chat with another tourist in the meantime. The laser show itself was pretty impressive and a good way to round out my visit.

An attendant at Bayfront station had told me that there was a suburban bus to the airport from Marina Bay Sands, which would've saved me 3 changes of train, but after searching for a bit and failing to find it, I went to ask the information desk. The young lady there was being extremely helpful... to the people she was speaking to on the phone, with numerous afterthoughts being added to the conversation, despite a queue having formed in front of her desk. The family in front of me gave up the wait, and the guy behind me ignored the idea of having a queue... thankfully the information girl addressed my question in the correct sequence. I headed to the station barrier gates but they rejected me, even though my ezlink card still had $2.94 credit, and the fare for the airport was only $2.60. Apparently you need to have at least $3 on your card to enter. I had about $5 cash left, which was less than the minimum top-up of $10 (which would've cost me quite a bit more if I'd've paid on credit card) and putting this amount on a card when I was just about to leave the country would've been a bit bizarre. At least there was the option to buy a single ticket ($2.80).

Finally settling in to the Scoot departure lounge for my red-eye flight, Kimi O Nosete was played on the PA system, nicely book-ending my visit and setting up the next stage of my travels.

Singapore overview

The AirBnB experience was interesting; it appears that my host is managing multiple condos, renting out individual rooms. Some friends have said that this is becoming a standard system, although some frown upon it - suggesting that the idea should be for locals to rent out rooms in their own accommodation. My host did live elsewhere, but I met her a couple of times and she was pretty cool; and the whole experience was quite good once we had sorted out the initial directions. My condo-mates were a hot-tempered (as far as I could tell from overhearing his voice from his room) Indian guy who was in Singapore for a few weeks' internship, and successive Chinese families with young kids. The condo had a big pool which I had to myself the times I used it, and the Wifi had a few odd moments but worked well most of the time. I made good use of the convenience store next to the apartment building - cup noodles made for a great breakfast.

Singapore was great to visit, although a few of my contacts there turned out not to be available - it seems everyone works crazy hours and are regularly abroad. It was certainly nice to enjoy some warm weather and there are plenty of tourist activities to keep you entertained for a few days. Next time it'd be good to see a few more parts of the island as well.