South East Asia Leg 1: Singapore

Neither of us particularly wanted to go to Singapore, but when we’d re-booked our flights back home Singapore Airlines ended up being the best choice. We had two weeks between flights; the plan was to spend a bit of time in Singapore but mostly to explore Malaysia a bit further than we had before. In particular, one of the criteria for this little hiatus was to spend Toby’s birthday on a beach somewhere hot. We were going to be arriving back to a Canberra winter and we really wanted to get some quality summer time in before we did. The criteria for hotels included wireless internet so Toby could survive, and gyms so that we could start getting back in shape. Toby had an oz tag game the week we got back and he didn’t want to humiliate himself. So before we left Oxford we booked hotels in Singapore and KL that met those criteria. We weren’t 100% sure what we would do after that, but reasoned we would figure it out as we went along.

The hotel in Singapore was disappointing at first glance; it was part of a big building that included a very ordinary shopping mall and the large lobby hadn’t been redecorated since brass fittings and smoked glass were all the rage. Luckily the rooms had been refurbished since then and it was much nicer than initial impressions would have had us believe. My main memory of Singapore is of resting. We enjoyed the hotel room, and the gym even though it wasn’t very good. We didn’t do any of the touristy things the guidebook told us to, although we did go for a nice (and sweaty) wander through Chinatown and some of the markets. We went to the train station to book tickets to go to KL and ate some really tasty food. We also had a good giggle at all the posters in the subway for the moral police, and the video in the trains that was basically an instruction video on how to bomb the subway system. Of course we had a walk down Orchard Road to ogle at all the amazing shops and wish we had more money. And I think that’s about it.

Our train was at 7.40 am, an early start for us but we didn’t want to arrive in KL at night time. Unfortunately we woke up at 7.20 am. There wasn’t much point worrying about it by then although we have never done anything like that before. I remember thinking my sister Ali would be proud of me. So we ended up on the 2.30pm train instead, which made for a more relaxing morning and anyway we were due to arrive in KL around 8pm I think so not too late. I was really tired when we got on the train in Singapore and I promptly fell asleep, only to be woken up half an hour or so later when we were crossing the border and had to get off the train for a passport check. Wow, I wish I’d read that website more closely so I knew that was going to happen. It was a little disconcerting to leave all our belongings on the train while we got off and went into the office to show them our passports; you could hear the guards taking the sniffer dogs through all the carriages and I must admit to being a little nervous that as two of the only westerners on the train we would become unsuspecting drug mules. (We didn’t.) I was also trying to watch what they did with our passports; I’d read stories of people not getting stamps on the border and then running into problems when they tried to leave again. It seemed ok and then we all had to wait some more while they finished with the train. I went to the loo while we waited and the reason I mention that is there was a poster in there that explained to people how to use the new-fangled Western toilets and keep them clean. In particular, don’t squat on them. I looked in amazement at the cartoon drawing of a lady squatting on the toilet but when I mentioned it to Toby he said, “Oh that explains why so many toilet seats are cracked here.” Can’t say I had noticed that myself but I suppose it makes sense. Most places we went to had both kinds, which we’d gotten used to in Japan and again in Turkey. I don’t mind squat toilets as they do feel quite hygienic; the only thing I don’t like is that the floor tends to get muddy and I have a hard time trying to stop the cuffs of my pants getting wet.

Anyway. We were back on the train after that and I slept some more. The train was pretty boring although we did go through some more interesting scenery a few times. There wasn’t really anything to eat either; lukewarm noodles already packed into takeaway containers, a few packets of Twisties and some chocolate bars. An Indian man struck up conversation with us for a while; he had a business running pilgrimages around a lake or mountain (I can’t remember) somewhere (maybe China?) and had obviously taken this trip a lot. At some point when it seemed like we were running behind schedule, he informed the whole carriage that we would be in KL around 11pm. Maybe.