Singapore part 1

I LOVE SINGAPORE!

I know I say this about a lot of places but I'm having such a fabulous time I thought I'd say it again.

So this is whats gone down so far..

Day 1 - I leave the ship and after an evening of drunken tears and then a lot of teary goodbyes on the gangway I get casually abandoned by the friend I was supposed to be sharing a hotel with, turns out his friends had suprised him with a hotel booking in a posh resort in Sentosa. Not the best start to the holiday but I was still in high spirits. I grab a cab to the hotel, the driver was very interested as to why I had chosen Geylang to stay in. With it being the red light district and general party zone of the local malaysians they dont get a lot of westerners staying there. But I told him exacly why, that I'm poor and the hotels there are cheap.
  I find the hotel, and its much better than I had expected, the staff are lovely and the MRT station is only a few minutes walk away. I decide to go and explore rather than sitting in the hotel, so I jump on the train and find my way to orchard road. Its crazy busy with tourists and shoppers so I gave that a miss for the time being and head to the gardens by the bay. Basically the gardens of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, it was pleseant enough but gardens aren't really my scene, the hotel is very impressive though. Its one of those hotels that has a mall attatched to it, a mall with a canal in the middle of it where you can get boat rides to the other side of the shopping complex....just to give you an idea of the scale of things over here. Heres a picture of the hotel and the gardens.

Marina Bay Sand Hotel, sun was setting behind it but can't really tell here.

These are what they call 'Super Trees' in the Gardens by the bay, basically mad made structures that have plants growing all over them. You can see them from accross the city.

So I'm pretty tired by this point and still a little hungover from the crew bar the night before, back to the hotel, dinner by the roadside and then sleep. Oh heres a picture of the hotel and the area around it......not exactly high class but its comfy enough.

Geylang is deffinately for the locals, not a lot of tourists here!

 Day 2 - I didn't have much of a plan or that day so I just kinda found myself in little India, had some lunch in a curry house and managed to get in contact with some family that live here in Singapore. Got myself to vivo city at the harbour front, basically another massive shopping complex, where I met them for a quick sushi sessions. Good restaraunt actually, with an awesome view of sentosa. They took me to see 'The Great Gatsby' at the 'gold service' cinema at vivo city, very similar to the one in Dubai only a little smaller. They then took me to see their house on Paradise Island. Very impressive, you can tell my uncle has been a banker since the 1970's, he must be minted to live in that place. Bascially its a bunch of chinese mansions that no-one lives in, the owners live in china and buy them, dont live in them but keep them to make money on the interest. So its a very quiet area since no-one lives in the houses. Its a shame really, all these amazing, huge houses that are just sittin there, empty. Could always give one to me.....:P They drop me back at the station where I head to china town for some food, everything was closed by the time I got there at around 10pm so I ate my food and headed back to Geylang. Chinatown is going to be one for another night I think.

Little India, basically a tiny are with so much 'india' packed in you would know you were actually in south east asia.

Every street in Little India basically looks like this, only some with veg stalls on the road....

Day 3 (today) - So it started off as usual, didnt really have anything planned so I just decided to get off the train somewhere I hadnt been before and see where I ended up, and I'm glad I did. I found my way to Merlion park, I dont really know the history behind it but its pretty at least.

 I had a coffee and admired the view of the Marina Bay Sands hotel once more, this time with the Merlion in the foreground. Heres a pic..

I then decided to try and find Fort Canning, its apparantly had some significance in the second world war so I thought I'd enjoy the history of it....pity I couldnt find it because there apparantly arent any maps in Singapore. Oh well, I found ochard road again, this time more up market end. Lots of Gucci, Prada etc. H&M beconed me and suddenly I was shopping, bad Toby!! Oh well I like my new clothes so it was worth it. Back to the hotel quickly to drop off the bags and get ready for the evening (bare in mind it takes me half an hour to get back to the hotel, Geylang isnt exactly city central)

Then the nightime adventure began, I got a taxi to the Night safari park. It was fantastic!!! If you enjoy nature and wildlife then this is deffinately worth a visit, even if your not into it much I would still reccomend it! It starts with a show of nocurnal animals, wolves, snakes, hyenas, crazy animals that youve never heard of and look weeeird!! Lots of fun, then off to the tram ride around the park. Its a bit creepy riding around the place in the dark, theyve kept the park as wild as possible so your pretty much in the thick rainforest for most of it, and at night its more alive than you can imagine, noise everywhere! So you get your typical animals, elephants, lions, tigers etc. But when you get off the tram and start expoloring on foot, thats when it kicks in. Its a bit spooky, particularly if youre by yourself, I mean its dark and the animals pens consist of you...a ditch...and the animals, plus its dark except for a night light for the animals. And you dont realise just how free roaming some of the animals are until a giant fruit bat flys past your face....scared the crap out of me! I dont know if youve ever seen one, those things are not small!! Then on the way out theres a fire eating show....not bad for less than £20 for the whole thing!!! Couldnt take a lot of pics since it was dark and youre not allowed to use a flash since it screws up the animals but heres a few of what i got.

Then once I'm back in Geylang, the taxi driver dropped me off right in the wrong spot. Right on the corner of my hotels street and the main road.....complete with about 50 teenage girls who bascially saw I wasnt asian and all but chased me down the road. Prostitutes of course, I swear if I get asked if i'd like some 'company' again I might do something drastic. Its all very funny to me though, I just giggle at them. Almost burst out in hysterics tonight though when one of them yelled 'whats the matter? you gay?'....haha if only they knew. 

 So anyway, now I'm chilling out in my charming hotel room, gonna hit the hay. Wonder what the next few days will bring....

ciow x

Lombok, Indonesia

So Lombok was interesting.  

 Firstly picture this, its swelteringly hot, the sort of hot that hits you like walking into a wall when you get through the door, and then it’s all you can think about the entire time you’re out.

Then the moment I step off the tender boat and finally into Indonesia. The inevitable, about 20 guys on motorbikes all yelling ‘you need lift?’ ‘You want to go somewhere?’ ‘Come with me, very good price’ etc. And it doesn’t matter how many times you tell them no, that’s not good enough. To them all tourists are walking cash machines. Eventually they leave me alone and I’m free to walk around.

Now Lombok is a huge island and where we dock isn’t particularly happening, but it’s all I’ve got time to do so I just walk. Then I start hearing giggling and footsteps behind me, so I turn around and there must have been at least 30 Indonesian kids following me. Of course they all burst into laughter when I catch them and run away.  Lots of fun for me!

Then I bump into a colleague and we decided to get off the main road which basically had nothing but petrol stations and convenience stores. We ended up down some side path, a little winding dust path through the palm and papaya tree’s and come across a little residential area.

 There must have been a school because there was a multitude of children, who demanded money if we took a picture of them so I had to be sneaky.  There were these 3 little girls who were being walked home by who I assume is a parent, they were very keen to practice their English with me.

So then on the way back, I decided to get a drink. Then I made the mistake if keeping the change in my hand when I walked out of the shop. A bunch of kids saw the coins and pounced on me; one literally snatched the money out of my hand and ran off. Only a few coins, it just made me laugh. 

So that was my little adventure today, now back to the grind...