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.