Thursday, May 05, 2005
Rainy Day in Singapore, Tired
It's about 11pm and I'm a bit tired. Today I woke up easily again at 8am and got down to breakfast, though I feel quite weary still. It's not a new pain but I have an ache in the left of my chest just below the left shoulder blade. A reminder maybe that I should stick to my planned strategy of “2 days on, 1 day off”. With this in mind I thought I'd go for a bus tour of the city which involves little walking.
I had a chat with the tour desk at the reception and have been warned that a trip to Sentosa island with a tour party would involve lots of walking and the need to keep up with the party would perhaps be too much.
In the end I walked across the road to the tourist information office and asked about how to do things without walking too far. Was advised to use my Singapore Airlines boarding pass to get a cheap circular hop on/hop off bus ride around the city. It is a slight fiddle as they throw you off at the SunTec City (huge shopping mall) so you spend some time in there. I spent a short while walking round and ordered some food there before getting a later bus back home.
When you walk into a pub back home from a cold street, those spectacle wearers amongst us will know that the glasses steam up as soon as we get in. During my sojourn in the SunTec centre the weather turned from overcast to an absolute downpour and local thunderstorm (so I was glad to be indoors enjoying sweet & sour chicken!), and upon my exit for the next bus my glasses steamed up as soon as I went outside!! Steamed up only momentarily, but I found this a very funny reversal of the usual procedure in winter in the UK.
The bus collected us from Orchard Road almost next to the hotel and takes a 15-20 stop circuit around the city, including routes through Little India, past Raffles hotel, around Chinatown and along Orchard Road after a stop at the Singapore Botanical Gardens. During the ride back I think I experienced my nearest bolt of lightning- all the sky around the bus went bright white and the accompanying thunder followed less than a split-second later. I expect the lightning hit one of the plethora of high rise blocks you pass in Singapore.
It's noticeable that the Indian and Chinese quarters of the city are a bit more worn down, probably due to the absence of multinational chain stores prepared to pay the larger rents required for the incessant malls in the more central districts & Orchard Road. Little India and Chinatown seem to have more smaller or family-run businesses occupying the commercial premises.
I didn't see much of Little India (a few roads) compared to the circuit of Chinatown we completed later. The pastel building fronts in Chinatown are of similar design but have great individuality thanks to varying splashes of colour on each set of bamboo shutters & lintels.
I need to get the diary out and decide what I can & can't achieve in the coming days before I have to leave for Indonesia. For such a small place (the size of the Isle of Wight, I'm told!) there's so much on offer here. I hope to do a night safari, which is a twilight ride past animals in their normal habitats, this time in subdues lighting so we can see them active at the time of day when most of them actually do something- no wonder our standard zoos often present us with sleeping animals!
I'd also like to visit Sentosa Island, a small island resort linked to the mainland by a bridge or (better still) cable car; this has some history (British fortifications) as well as a massive observation tower and the famous Merlion (symbol of Singapore, half-lion, half-fish) near a laser-lit twilight water fountain show.
Other hopes are to see Little India and Chinatown on foot. I've kindly been given another contact in Singapore though I'm wondering about my chances of fitting all these things in. If I can I may offer to share one of the experiences with Jeannette's brother & family, who are stopping over in Singapore from tonight.
My voice mail is now working again though to be honest I'm still likely to have the phone set to divert all calls- I don't fancy being accidentally woken up during the night!
Right, that's it. I'm going to post this and get the aircon switched off then go to bed – I'm learning how to ensure I'm not too hot or cold now at last!
I'm disappointed to have missed the postal voting deadline, especially since many people have given their lives to give me this right; I hope you get to use your vote today!
Good night, God bless.
Martin
I had a chat with the tour desk at the reception and have been warned that a trip to Sentosa island with a tour party would involve lots of walking and the need to keep up with the party would perhaps be too much.
In the end I walked across the road to the tourist information office and asked about how to do things without walking too far. Was advised to use my Singapore Airlines boarding pass to get a cheap circular hop on/hop off bus ride around the city. It is a slight fiddle as they throw you off at the SunTec City (huge shopping mall) so you spend some time in there. I spent a short while walking round and ordered some food there before getting a later bus back home.
When you walk into a pub back home from a cold street, those spectacle wearers amongst us will know that the glasses steam up as soon as we get in. During my sojourn in the SunTec centre the weather turned from overcast to an absolute downpour and local thunderstorm (so I was glad to be indoors enjoying sweet & sour chicken!), and upon my exit for the next bus my glasses steamed up as soon as I went outside!! Steamed up only momentarily, but I found this a very funny reversal of the usual procedure in winter in the UK.
The bus collected us from Orchard Road almost next to the hotel and takes a 15-20 stop circuit around the city, including routes through Little India, past Raffles hotel, around Chinatown and along Orchard Road after a stop at the Singapore Botanical Gardens. During the ride back I think I experienced my nearest bolt of lightning- all the sky around the bus went bright white and the accompanying thunder followed less than a split-second later. I expect the lightning hit one of the plethora of high rise blocks you pass in Singapore.
It's noticeable that the Indian and Chinese quarters of the city are a bit more worn down, probably due to the absence of multinational chain stores prepared to pay the larger rents required for the incessant malls in the more central districts & Orchard Road. Little India and Chinatown seem to have more smaller or family-run businesses occupying the commercial premises.
I didn't see much of Little India (a few roads) compared to the circuit of Chinatown we completed later. The pastel building fronts in Chinatown are of similar design but have great individuality thanks to varying splashes of colour on each set of bamboo shutters & lintels.
I need to get the diary out and decide what I can & can't achieve in the coming days before I have to leave for Indonesia. For such a small place (the size of the Isle of Wight, I'm told!) there's so much on offer here. I hope to do a night safari, which is a twilight ride past animals in their normal habitats, this time in subdues lighting so we can see them active at the time of day when most of them actually do something- no wonder our standard zoos often present us with sleeping animals!
I'd also like to visit Sentosa Island, a small island resort linked to the mainland by a bridge or (better still) cable car; this has some history (British fortifications) as well as a massive observation tower and the famous Merlion (symbol of Singapore, half-lion, half-fish) near a laser-lit twilight water fountain show.
Other hopes are to see Little India and Chinatown on foot. I've kindly been given another contact in Singapore though I'm wondering about my chances of fitting all these things in. If I can I may offer to share one of the experiences with Jeannette's brother & family, who are stopping over in Singapore from tonight.
My voice mail is now working again though to be honest I'm still likely to have the phone set to divert all calls- I don't fancy being accidentally woken up during the night!
Right, that's it. I'm going to post this and get the aircon switched off then go to bed – I'm learning how to ensure I'm not too hot or cold now at last!
I'm disappointed to have missed the postal voting deadline, especially since many people have given their lives to give me this right; I hope you get to use your vote today!
Good night, God bless.
Martin
