Come Fly With Me – Currently in England

This is the next chapter in our around the world trip where we are moving further away from our comfort zone and into SE Asia. For this we travel to Singapore & Malaysia and later into Viet Nam. After Africa I was eagerly anticipating the unknown where Annamarie slightly feared it.

To give you an insight on the research done before we went these were the key points. Singapore was a part of Malaysia but separated in the 60’s to become its own entity. It has its own flag, government and set of laws. There is tension between the two parties concerning the trade of natural resources more specifically fresh water for drinking ect. Singapore has industry but Malaysia has natural resources and they try not to let this political battle spill out in view of tourists.

Starting with Singapore there are plenty of opinions on the web from other travelers and 90% have a similar view. They say Singapore is the city without a soul. That it is plagued with efficiency, strict government intervention and laws, a robotic population in a daily routine, and a youth culture trying to break the mold. It has been said that there is clear evidence of past British rule, and despite their independence they have retained many laws from that period and follow them to the letter while Great Britain have adapted and evolved the laws in keeping with changing times. I stumbled across words such as sterile, bleak, characterless, soulless, and overall disappointing.

Malaysia had a slightly more favorable opinion poll on the web claiming it had a good balance between culture and economics. What I think they meant is they were happy to spend time seeing poor people in rice paddies but escape into the home comforts of a big city, Kuala Lumpur.

I can now say that I am going to stand in the 10% and disagree with these assessments. One thing this trip has taught me so far is two people can stay in the same place and see the same things, one may love it and one may hate it. It might be that people feel encouraged to write about their bad experiences and all those who liked Singapore and Malaysia are sitting at home with their photo albums and not sharing their story with the rest of the world.

Is Singapore a big city….yes. If you prefer quiet villages, the country, or a beach holiday then you may think this isn’t the place for you. Singapore has a rain forest in the middle of it, it has beautiful beaches on Sentosa Island, and Pulau Ulbin is as remote and country like as you can get. It really is a place for everyone. All over the city you see a movement towards art and culture with art galleries, and the very impressive Esplanade Theatre. This I am sure is no accident and will hopefully transform Singapore into the place people want to see. I was extremely impressed with the lack of crime and efficiency of the city. The MRT is the subway system/underground/metro system and what the government has done is make it modern, clean and affordable. The people making the smallest of wages can still afford to commute to work using the MRT. People are provided with a good standard of public housing and around 75% of the population lives in them. When you have a job part of you wage goes into a fund for you to be used in a few ways. The main one is to go towards buying your own property. Your employer has to match the same amount into the fund for you. Employment stats are through the roof and I saw no signs of beggars, bums, or even street performers. That said I rarely saw a policeman or cop car. A City ruled by a heavy hand with no sight of the hand at all. Some laws were funny like when passing under a bridge you couldn’t ride your bicycle else face a $1000 fine! No spitting, no chewing gum, no J walking, and absolutely have nothing to do with drugs of any kind! We laugh but in a way it makes sense. They have their heads screwed on right and many irritations that we see in our own cities just don’t exist. If Singapore had removed just one annoyance we are used to, tourists may not have noticed but they have cleaned their streets of almost all of them which I think is why it gets the label of a soulless city. It may mean that the guy playing a guitar in an underground station, graffiti on the subway and buildings, the stench of sweat and god knows what everywhere you go, a street person sleeping in a telephone booth, cyclists blowing past you with inches to spare, gangs of kids up to no good outside your house, and people spitting next to your shoe constitute what they think is culture.

We discovered Orchard road while there and it was described as Las Vegas Shopping without the gambling. It has all the top designers and great shopping malls! I had to peel Annamarie off the Gucci sign, it wasn’t pretty. It was nice to window-shop but on a RTW trip you need to curb the temptation. Singapore also boasts malls like the Mustafa Centre which is huge and open 24 hours and right in the middle of Little India. We stayed near to little India and it was a treat for the senses! The spices of Indian food cooking in the street, noisy pedestrians calling out to all their friends, blaring Bollywood tunes from the shops and henna tattoos on offer from artists on stools on the pavement. Filled with preparations for Deepvali celebrations it was a pleasure to walk around and soak it all in. Not far away was Sim Lim Shopping centre which is a mall that will stay in my memories forever. It is about 14 floors of a mall dedicated to electronics. It has Laptops, cameras, stereos, TV’s, mp3’s, software, hardware, cables, accessories, and gadgets to die for all at reasonable prices. If I was there on holiday I would have gone to town and spent some serious dough!

Now that you have a picture in your mind of Singapore just as a shopping hub let me tell you it’s there if you want it but not in your face and so much more than just that. The Colonial district is home to Raffles Hotel which is the place to be if you like hotels and history. In its bar was the creation of the popular cocktail the Singapore Sling which is a must do while in the neighborhood. The barman will spot you a mile away and have it on the bar before you sit down ( i didn’t claim it was original). The Colonial district also has a beautiful cricket ground and surrounding this is a collection of remnants of British occupation such as the courthouse and city hall. They are an architectural contrast to the skyscraper skyline and is a nice walk to take on the way to the waterfront or to the Quayside.

Towards the Waterfront you come across the Esplanade Theatre. If you haven’t seen a picture it looks like a big silver hedgehog with spiky triangles all over it that move in the wind. It is an impressive sight and although I didn’t see a production in it I am sure it would have to be good to be hosted in such an extravagant setting. You also get to see the Merlion. It is Singapore’s mascot with the body of a fish and the head of a lion. In its history it is said that a Sumatran prince spotted a lion on the shores while taking shelter from a storm and believed it to be a good omen so he set up a city called Singapura which translated into Lion City. It then was nothing more than a fishing village before it took off as a trading hub in the early 1900’s. To represent this history the Merlion was born and it’s often referred to as the Lion City on souvenir tat. It is still an impressive statue that spits a huge stream of water out of its mouth into the harbour.

If you go down the river to the Quayside you will find a collection of funky cafe’s and restaurants. They are all trendy and on the expensive side with the exception of hooters. We had lunch there and Annamarie didn’t mind because this is Singapore which is conservative so the waitresses although beautiful wore a conservative uniform. It’s just a nice place to relax and watch boat taxis run up and down in their junk like wooden boats with eyes painted on the bow for good luck. From the Quayside you are a short walk to Chinatown.

In Chinatown we found great market stalls selling all sorts of things (knock off designer goods etc.). We had a lovely walk around and a nice meal watching the passing crowds. The architecture of the buildings was stunning and it had a few worthy temples to see. One temple was open and people from far and wide had flocked there to prove their devotion to the faith by walking barefoot over hot coals. We heard no screams and saw no ambulance so gave it a pass. It was nice to walk around and feel safe with lanterns lining the streets and quaint side streets full of stalls.

Sentosa Island is connected to the mainland by a causeway and takes all of 10min to walk it. Beware as when we were there they were in the middle of construction of a monorail so there was no pathway on the causeway and was a little dangerous at dark. It’s a nice place and very touristy. Underwaterword is here but quite frankly disappointing. The beaches are worth it and free to use. Instead of walking you can take the cable car from Faber Mountain or by the MRT station by the waterfront. It offers great aerial views of Singapore. If I had to do it again I would save my money as the best things on the island are free. It is just a nice walk around and would be good to swim on the beaches.

We were also addicted to safaris after our stint in Africa and we heard good things about Singapore Zoo and its night safari. We were again disappointed as it created an illusion of safari but was a Zoo none the less. It was just difficult to see where the fences were as it was dark. Many of the animals were pacing which is always a sign that they are in too small an area and overall unhappy!

A few things to be wary of…..the taxi drivers will try to overcharge you and will have no idea where you want to go. I tried naming streets, naming famous landmarks (president’s palace), I tried everything and finally got in the habit of taking a map with me just to point for them. Coming from the airport, they stand at the airport shuttle desk. As you approach the desk for a shuttle they take you to their car and charge $35 claiming at the end to be a limo. I fell for this so make sure to ignore them and speak to someone behind the desk it is considerably cheaper.

We took a first class train to Kuala Lumpur and it took ages. It wasn’t great scenery and if I had to do it again I would take the bus. We took an Aero line bus back and I recommend this option. They feed you and show movies and is much quicker than the train.

Kuala Lumpur…what a great city. Malaysia is much cheaper than Singapore and has just as good shopping. Chinatown is legendary for getting the designer goods. I walked away with a Rolex, a pair of Oakley sunglasses, and a Ferrari polo shirt all for under 17 pounds. Annamarie got Gucci’ed up and we had to stop ourselves going back for more. They have a great public transport system as well but everything is close enough to walk. We stayed in Number Eight Guesthouse and were pleased with the value for money and its location. I am glad we only stayed 4 nights as we felt we were running out of things to do. We never felt that way in Singapore. After the Patronas Twin towers and a little shopping we felt like we had seen what KL had to offer. It seems like its setup for short stopovers for Europeans on their way to Australia.

We enjoyed both places and would go back again. From the Lion city, the fishing villages and the designer shopping, it was clear that both places are treasures in SE Asia and when I return I would like to explore further a field in Peninsular Malaysia.

Now that our travels in Africa are over I can look back and reflect on the 5 week adventure. We made mistakes and I can’t say I don’t have some regrets. Would we do it differently if we had another chance? A few things yes, but the majority we wouldn’t change for the world, not even the mistaken death drive through Swaziland!

I was excited to start the world trip with South Africa as in my head I had designed a picture of what I thought it would be like. In this picture was a flat brown landscape with Lions peeking out of long grass, Elephants drinking at a nearby watering hole and tribal African men herding their scrawny cattle over the plains. This is what I would label as “The African Experience”. This is what I set off to see, expecting to see it 10 minutes after landing. Although naive you have to let me have an imagination and expectations even if it doesn’t come true!

Did South Africa deliver “The African Experience” as expected? I can give it an A for effort however we discovered it to be too modern a country with modern day problems it needs to focus on, rather than working hard feeding the tourist need for safari. That said, Kruger park was amazing even if I felt a little safe in the car on a paved road. The Zulu dancers were incredible acrobats but it put me off that they all arrived to the hostel in the back of a pick up truck and their spokesman wore levis jeans and wore an expensive leather jacket. After meeting many other backpackers, we got the feeling that what we were looking for lay further north in Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, and Mozambique.

With this new found knowledge we were now able to wipe the slate clean and take South Africa at face value not allowing the African stereotype to interfere with the rest of our trip.

Johannesberg gets the bum wrap as being the crime capital and not safe for anyone. This is partialy due to the proximity of Soweto the largest township in the world on its dorrstep. As I now understand it, Johannesberg is fairly safe during the day but has pockets of dodgy areas within the city that could be easy for a tourist to accidently wander into. Everyone therfore suggests a guide but with a little bit of sense and a well labeled map marked out by a local you could navigate it on your own.

Soweto once the largest, poorest, and most dangerous township has come a long way. Part of the cost of a tour to Soweto goes back into the community and it now seems to be thriving. There is still sections preserved for the tourists as they describe it, a “Shanty town”, but for the most part looks very much like a poor neighbourhood in the USA.

The worst section in the city is an area called Hillborough, which South Africans say has been taken over by the Nigerian Crime Syndicate where they pump drugs and prostitutes into the street. While we were there some police were shot in that area and this contributes to the difficulty in policing Hillborough. This is only a small section of the city, where the heart of it is its business district. Here you will see skyscrapers and men and women in business suits walking to work. Johannesberg is thought to be by South African’s, the most prospourus city in Africa and the financial centre of Africa.

South African women are breaking down barriers as well. Currently there are politcal problems but one positive seems to be the deputy president being appointed recently who happens to be a woman. There is some resistance to her appointment not due to her being a woman but due to her political credentials. Some of the locals thought that if they were to have a woman president that they would prefer someone older and experienced such as Nelson Mandella’s ex wife. In the poorer areas we still saw some backward thinking as women were made to ride in the back of pick up trucks while men occupied the front seats and on some occasions the passenger seat was empty! Still a way to go…

Pretoria, the capital city was nice. You could see that some of the federal money was spent on the appearance of the city which is the same feeling I get when I go to Ottawa. Pretoria is where all the Embassies are and is home to a university that hosts more than 250,000 students. No I didn’t typo on the zeros there it really is a mini city within the capital. With all the embassadors, diplomats, and foreign students it makes sense why police have made a concentrated effort to clean up Pretoria and make it a safe place to walk around at night. The downside of this is it isn’t really geared up for tourism. There are some really nice museums but if you wanted to do an organized tour they will always point you to Johannesberg or a nearby game reserve. It is still a pretty city with tree lined streets that bloom purple in the spring, and huge mansions for the wealthy diplomats. I have to say with the mansions came the most extensive security systems on the market and if any sector was profitable in northern SA it’s the security sector!

Kruger National Park is where we trucked off to next. South African’s claim it’s one of the largest National Parks in the world but I happen to know of some in Canada and Austrailia that are bigger. However this is not the time to be competitive, it is immense and once we discovered this fact I became extremely skeptical on seeing anything except open plains and bush. I pictured the day spent searching out high ground, parking up and waiting, scanning the terrain with binoculars. On entering the park my worries disapeared as we saw elephants, giraffe, kudu, zebra, and wild boar just on the way to our camp and some within 20 min inside the park. This good news also contributed to the evaporation of “The African Experience” as there is something to be said about making it a challenge to spot wild animals. Take the challenge out of it, stick it on a plate infront of you and give you what you want…it was just too easy for me (but at the same time I was thrilled to see it all (cant have your cake and eat it too!)). The following days produced sightings of Lions, hippos, crocs, and many other strange looking creatures. We were happy with our decision to rent a car and “Self Safari” as all we did for sightings was follow the big safari trucks around and stop when they stopped. The occupants of the trucks will have paid a small fortune for a safari package and they didn’t have the flexability to drive off when they had seen enough. I would highly recommend our way as it was so cheap!

Leaving Kruger we needed to head to the coast but found no easy way to do this. We could have gone through Swaziland but we were unsure on the insurance regualtions on our rental would allow it so we chose the safe option and went around. To do this you need to travel through an area called the Traneski aka the wild coast. This is one of the sparsest areas in South Africa and very rural. As much headway as politicans have made moving the country forward, the change happens the slowest in these areas and our white faces were not welcome. This was not a place we wanted to break down, unfortunately being poor and rural even the main roads were in dire need of repair and if we were to puncture a tire this would have been the place.

As it turns out we didn’t break down, something far worse happened. Our map claimed that the road we were on joined a major ‘N’ road that would take us around Swaziland to the coast, however it never connected but instead the pavement abruptly ended and turned into dirt. With no turnoff’s for about one hour behind us we pushed on hoping for the illusive connection to the ‘N’ road. This didn’t happen and soon the dirt became a road only fit for quad bikes and logging trucks. It took us up huge mountains through twists and turns with no signs or barriers keeping us from toppling over the side. We were so in the middle of nowhere I started to make a checklist in my head of the survival gear I would need to take with me and what I needed to leave behind. We eventually came accross a man in uniform asleep on the hillside and a crude barrier accross the road. It turns out we were in a remote border pass into Swaziland and by the look of things the last car admitted was from 1986. With very broken english the border guard gave us directions to salvation and we were able to take a deep breath knowing that there would be many more.

Once we hit the coast many things became apparent. As long as you stayed on the coast you were following in the path of tourism. The further south along the coast you went the more government influence there was to highlight that as a better place to be. It felt like you were going to view a house and the estate agent would keep steering you towards the highlights of the house and would try to keep you from seeing the unfinished parts of the house just in case you disaproved. Starting from St Lucia, the one street town geared towards fishing enthusiasts in the north; to Cape town at the southern most tip where serious redevelopment has taken place along the waterfront and table mountain towering over the the city being a serious wow factor!

For the rest of this message I would like to explain it using a top 10 format as there is a lot in between St Lucia and Cape Town and by picking out the highlights I won’t have to send you tooth pics to prop your eyes open. So here goes;

Top 10 Likes….

1. Kruger Self Safari
2. Wine Tasting in Stelenbosch
3. Walking throught the Drakensberg Mountains
4. Wlaking with Elepahnts
5. Surf Lessons in J Bay
6. Exploring Cape Point
7. dancing with Zulu Dancers
8. The Table Mountain experience
9. Durban watrfront and eating ‘Bunny Chow’
10. Driving through every small town

Top 10 Dislikes

1. Driving in SA
2. Poverty next to wealth in dramatic proportion
3. Our driving through Swaziland
4. The Quality of food on offer…MSG, poor meat, trans fats, etc.
5. Johannesburg Airport
6. Evident racism and tension in the air
7. Night spent in Mossel bay on a dirty train / hostel
8. Knocking the wing mirror off the car and having to pay for its repair
9. everyone drives white cars…it just looks odd
10. Seeing things I would like to buy but can’t carry

Top 10 scenic sights that were a must see…

1. The viey from /of Table Mountain – Cape Town
2. The view from a lookout deep in Kruger park
3. The view from the balcony of our beach house in J Bay
4. The view from our pool inInkosana looking at the Drakensberg Mountains
5. The view from the plane as we landed in J’Burg
6. The view from the N2 coastal road watching the African sunset over the hills
7. The Boschendal vinyards
8. The view from Cape Point
9. The view of Bloukrans gorge bungee jump
10. The view at dolphins point which was nice unough to make the cover of our rough guide

Top 10 suprises found on the roads of SA

Before you read this picture your busiest road in your country. It might be the M1 in England or the Trans Canada Highway in Canada. This is where all of the following took place not on some small out of the way place as you might expect!

1. A variety of livestock such as turtles, cows that look like camels, sheep, horses, and some form of badger-dog
2. Large quantity of poisonous gas spewig from every vehicle contributing to a countrywide mist of pollution
3. any vehicle able to carry an external load actually used to fit as many men, women, and children on the back
4. potholes the size of moon craters
5. Middle aged white women driving blue cars are the worst drivers there it was a weird coincedence but they are crazy
6. The longest stretch of roadwors ever where they close one lane and hold one side of traffic for 25min. dist – 3.7km long
7. Instead of signs or lights indicating roadworks there are people employed to wave big red flags and boy do they wave them!
8. Roads that suddenly have no lines and and tehn turn into a dirt track
9. People walking along the roadside with nothing for miles around. Sometimes 4-5 in a group in the middle of the road having a meeting and looking at you as you swerve around them as if you are an intrusion
10. The crazy driver of all award goes to the 12 seater mini cab drivers that make up to 40% of all vehicles in SA. They operate on their own set of rules and somehow cram 20+ in the 12 seater!

In summary I came for the “African Experience” but didn’t get it. Instead I got the “South African Experience” which did not disapoint! I was thrilled to go and see such a beautiful country and treasure my experiences there. It is by no means a small country and it was a lot of driving but well worth the effort. I would reccomend this way if travelling with other people but on your own use the Baz Bus as other travellers we met raved about it.

Patrick Riddell
October 2005