It is the evening of our last day in Singpore and we have decided to head off to the white sandy beaches of the Phillippines tomorrow for some jungle trekking, mountain hiking and hopefully scuba-diving - YAY!!. Here is what we have discovered of Singapore so far:
Singapore is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. The nationality here is Singaporian but the people here are a mixture of Chinese, Malay, Japanese, Thai, Philippino and Indian ethnicity. There is a small percentage of white/Westerners too. Because of the heterogeneity of the country, you see influences of all the different Asian countries in the food, the customs celebrated here and the places of worship....in any one street you will find a Christian Church, a Buddhist mosque and a Hindu temple. Food courts provide a wealth of delicious and cheap food where you can choose from dozens of different cusisines ranging from Thai curries, Japanese sushi, Indian sweets, Chinese noodles and Western fish and chips all side by side. You can eat off a palm leaf or drink from a coconut. We have visited Chinatown and Little India, and been to both Hindu and Buddhist religous temples asnd eaten more than our fair share of many tasty dishes including prawns on a stick and stripey rice cakes in pink and green. We have smelt the Durian fruit - a large green and spikey fruit about the size of two footballs which smells so strong and so bad that it is banned in many public places including all metro stations and shopping malls with a large fine to pay if caught with one!
Much to our suprise, we discovered that there is a Sophia Road and a Neil Road in Singapore - spelt the same. There are also subway stations with British names such as Somerset, Dover and Redhill. In the business district there are amazing modern buildings tall, glassy and impressive. There is a viewing tower which looks like a flying saucer on a tall tower, another building here which looks like an upside-down bunch of bananas, and of course the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel which is - well it is nicknamed the giant surfboard by the locals and it is an infinity pool completye with swaying palms built on top and bridging across three tower blocks (more shopping malls - this time - so exculsive you have to pay to get in) with views across the harbourside. There are a few old colonial buildings from the time of the British rule back in the early 1800's which immediately take you back to England
We came across a hotel pond with 88 carp swimming around. 8 is a very important number in Chinese culture as the word 8 is similar to the word meaning luck and the fish came in five colours to represent the feng shei elements of fire, earth, water, air and metal . The national symbol of Singapore is a Merlion - which is a mystical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. You find it tall and concrete on the harbourside with water jets pouring out of its mouth...its slightly disappointing, and I must confess my first view of it from afar I did think it was a giant prawn! There are also the Esplanade buildings on the harbour front which mimic a giant durian fruit! (Sorry we will try to get some photos uploaded onto our blog shortly, we are also hoping to upload all our photos onto one website to save them for storage which we may also make accessible to view so you can actually see what I am describing).
The transport links here are excellent, the under and overground metro system that has several lines very similar to London runs quickly, efficiently, frequently and is always clean and air-conditioned. It is also very cheap. There are plenty of buses too and yet there never seems to be queues or congestion as it seems so spacious. You find esculators EVERYWHERE - and I do literally mean that - often there will be no staircases at all just esculators - and travelators too. I have been on esculators OUTSIDE and Gigi confirms to me there is a four-stair esculator on a grassy bank somewhere in the city centre. I mean, come on. Ironically there are posters in every MRT (metro) station encouraging you to get your 150 minutes of exercise a week, cut down portion sizes and use the steps instead of the esculators - ha ha ha!!!
Overall Singapore is modern, clean and well planned with American style grid roads and blocks. Singapore is also a perfect blend of urban city with lushious green tropical foliage and flowers. It is literally a city that has grown up out of a rainforest but one that is in perfect order and maintained -as every palm and plant has been neatly planted at equi-distance from the next. There are parks everywhere, and never before in my life have I been to such beauiful and verdant gardens as the Singapore Botanical gardens and Orchid gardens. Singapore is described in the guide books as a Garden-City and I can certanly testify to that. Orchids here grow tall and elegant and in every possible colour and shape, and all over, from the pristine and orderly aiport to parks and gardens. Indeed the national flower of Singapore is an orchid called 'Vanda Miss Joaquin', and Singapore is hosting the 20th World Orchid Conference in November this year.
There is a saying that I read on one of the metro's here which is:
'In this present fast paced lifestyle
Money should be well spent
Time should be used correctly'
From my observations of Singaporians this sums up exactly the lifestyle and attitude of people here. My brother who is an English teacher out here at the Bristish Council tells me there is a very strong ethos that encourages you to always strive to do your very best, and to get ahead of others. Even the way people cram and squeeze onnto the buses is evidence of this. I saw some words painted on the side of a primary school today that said something along the lines of, "strive to achieve and excell above all else" so the menatality starts at a young age. Crime rates are very, very low here, as are unemployment rates, which could be explaimned by this. Sanctioning is taking very seriously so fines and imprisonments for the smallest of crimes are heavily enforced. However, there is no form of state pension for old people, and disabled people are also left to fend for themselves.
Singapore is a masively Westernised place with brand new shopping malls on every street corner and food courts and resturaunts in between. It seems the main acitivities to do here are just that - shopping and eating. Everywhere is air-conditoned and covered which makes life much easier when the tropical climate can cover so many weather types in 24 hours. Just yesterday we were relaxing in the pool getting nicely crisp by the sun in the morning, by midday it was pouring torential rain, and by the afternoon it was overcast and cloudy. By night there were heavy electrical storms of thunder and lightening.
Oh and just one thing an oddity I have not figured out since we have been here - the public toilets. Of course they are all immaculatly clean and probably made of marble - but I still do not know how they are supposed to work. They have sensors so you do not need to do anything - there is no button, no flush, but in my experience the toilet flushes completely at random either before, during or after I have gone. Or, not at all. On more that one occaion I have waved my hands jumped up and down and even walked in and out much to everyone's suprise to try to trigger the flush - to no avail.
Well, I am off now to pack for the Philipinnes. Neil and I are fine -save my second run in with some red ants - this time they got in my hair and down my back when I stood next to some flowers/bushes for a photo. We also had our first joys of mosquitos whern we wandered off into some rainforest and upon the joys of being surrounded by banana plants, coconut and cocoa trees forgot we had no mozzie protection on and I had a grand total of 26 bites on me. And I am certain that number went up by the hour for at least the next 24 hours. Oh how I hate mosquitos!! Anway, cheerio for now,
Neil and Phe
P.s. Phe's blog contribution 100%, Neils is sadly still 0. Maybe he will get some inspiration in our next tropical destination ;-)
p.p.s Having just read this alound, Neil now claims a contribution of 1% because he gave me the spelling for the Phillippines.....
Thursday 27 October 2011
Thursday 20 October 2011
20/10/11 The trip begins...
Hello everyone, welcome to our very first blog for our travel adventures across Asia and Australia. We have left our jobs, our home, and bought one way tickets for what we hope to be the experience of our lifetimes! The vague plan has been to fly to Singapore and then travel for 4 months, backpacking across various countries in South-East Asia. We are then heading on to Australia in the end of January on a 1 year working holiday visa for more lounging around in the sun, swimming on the beach and generally chilling out...ahem, no I mean, working hard and immersing ourselves in the culture...of the Aboriginal people...
We hope to update, inform and amuse you of all our discoveries and experiences along the way, so I hope you will enjoy it :-)
I am writing this first post in my brother's nicely air conditioned appartment in Singapore. The temperature is hot and sticky degrees, the food is spicy, the pool is huge! It is coming to the end of our second day here after landing in Singapore yesterday afternoon, and we are jet-lagged but happy and contented.... This is a country where rainforest meets highways, where you can buy bread in a vending machine, where chewing gum is illegal and the temperature rarely dips below 30 degrees.
Our journey at 20.30 on Tuesday 18th October began from Heathrow airport, flying BA for 13 hours straight to Singapore. The flight was ah, an experience and consisted of the usual attempts to convince yourself that you can sleep in an upright chair over the roar of the engines, eat unidentifiable food at random times in the middle of the night, and consume plenty of alcohol simply because it is free and it passes the time. The most eventful happening was probably Neil throwing wine on his trousers and shirt (red, of course) halfway through dinner; or possibly me clutching a paper bag, going pale in the face and fanning myself furiously in a desperate effort not to throw up as the plane attempted to land for half an hour whilst circling Singapore in, well, circles. I believe I can safely say that our plane was probably the oldest one still flying the skies as it rattled and bumped its way to our destination. From the moment we took off, the patient and long-suffering lady sat next to us had her tv screen on the back of the chair in front of her literally drop out of its fixture and onto her lap at most timely points of the journey without a moments notice, so it would land in her food, her gin 'n'tonic, her lap, her book... the entire way, no matter how hard myself, Neil and the stewardesses attempted to squeeze, whack, push and shove it back in place time and again.
So we landed in one piece at 16.30 local time on Wednesday (just about) retrieved our luggage without problems and were warmly met by my brother Nick at the airport. A half-an-hour taxi ride later and we arrived at the lovely apartment where Nick and his wife Gigi, and their sun Sasha live in Yishun, a district in the North of Singapore. The apartment is in a very nice condo called Yishun Sapphire where they have shared use of several pools, a jacuzzi, gym, tennis courts and lovely tropical foliage. Yes, very nice. We have eaten delicious food cooked by Gigi (she is Philippino), swam in their huge pool surrounded by leafy palms, played endless games with the Sasha, been to the mall, eaten at the food court and given a wide berth to a food place called 'Pig's Organs Soup'. Mmmmm. Neil has nearly choked on a mini-donut leaving him bright red and spluttering; meanwhile I have very nearly had poisonous red leaf-cutter ants in my pants as my absorbing attempts to capture them up-close on camera left me oblivious to the steady stream of them going up right my leg. I then did the silly screaming, stamping dancing thing in a circle in the middle of the park whilst Neil stood their laughing....
Well, it is well past midnight and well-past our bedtime. Neil's contribution to the blog = 0, mine 100% I'm keeping scores....
Good night and goodbye, and warm greetings from the lovely Singland.
x Phe and Neil
We hope to update, inform and amuse you of all our discoveries and experiences along the way, so I hope you will enjoy it :-)
I am writing this first post in my brother's nicely air conditioned appartment in Singapore. The temperature is hot and sticky degrees, the food is spicy, the pool is huge! It is coming to the end of our second day here after landing in Singapore yesterday afternoon, and we are jet-lagged but happy and contented.... This is a country where rainforest meets highways, where you can buy bread in a vending machine, where chewing gum is illegal and the temperature rarely dips below 30 degrees.
Our journey at 20.30 on Tuesday 18th October began from Heathrow airport, flying BA for 13 hours straight to Singapore. The flight was ah, an experience and consisted of the usual attempts to convince yourself that you can sleep in an upright chair over the roar of the engines, eat unidentifiable food at random times in the middle of the night, and consume plenty of alcohol simply because it is free and it passes the time. The most eventful happening was probably Neil throwing wine on his trousers and shirt (red, of course) halfway through dinner; or possibly me clutching a paper bag, going pale in the face and fanning myself furiously in a desperate effort not to throw up as the plane attempted to land for half an hour whilst circling Singapore in, well, circles. I believe I can safely say that our plane was probably the oldest one still flying the skies as it rattled and bumped its way to our destination. From the moment we took off, the patient and long-suffering lady sat next to us had her tv screen on the back of the chair in front of her literally drop out of its fixture and onto her lap at most timely points of the journey without a moments notice, so it would land in her food, her gin 'n'tonic, her lap, her book... the entire way, no matter how hard myself, Neil and the stewardesses attempted to squeeze, whack, push and shove it back in place time and again.
So we landed in one piece at 16.30 local time on Wednesday (just about) retrieved our luggage without problems and were warmly met by my brother Nick at the airport. A half-an-hour taxi ride later and we arrived at the lovely apartment where Nick and his wife Gigi, and their sun Sasha live in Yishun, a district in the North of Singapore. The apartment is in a very nice condo called Yishun Sapphire where they have shared use of several pools, a jacuzzi, gym, tennis courts and lovely tropical foliage. Yes, very nice. We have eaten delicious food cooked by Gigi (she is Philippino), swam in their huge pool surrounded by leafy palms, played endless games with the Sasha, been to the mall, eaten at the food court and given a wide berth to a food place called 'Pig's Organs Soup'. Mmmmm. Neil has nearly choked on a mini-donut leaving him bright red and spluttering; meanwhile I have very nearly had poisonous red leaf-cutter ants in my pants as my absorbing attempts to capture them up-close on camera left me oblivious to the steady stream of them going up right my leg. I then did the silly screaming, stamping dancing thing in a circle in the middle of the park whilst Neil stood their laughing....
Well, it is well past midnight and well-past our bedtime. Neil's contribution to the blog = 0, mine 100% I'm keeping scores....
Good night and goodbye, and warm greetings from the lovely Singland.
x Phe and Neil
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