luckykaa

Am now at Changi airport waiting for plane to Melbourne.

Still having problems sleeping.  Really tired.  Shame to choose this day to be zonked.  Still, seemed to be able to enjoy myself.  Even though the day was spent killing time.  It was raining.  Slapped on several coats of sunblock anyway.

Had a look at Little India. Remarkably Indian.  While the CBD is clean, efficient, and smart, Little India seems to be crowded and chaotic and a lot more lively.  It's an interesting place.  This was essentially an exercise in comparative religion since the main sites of interest are the various temples.  Sampled the delights of Singapore Indian cuisine and it was very tasty and served on a banana leaf.  Maybe slightly hotter than at home although I deliberately chose a dish I was unfamiliar with so maybe it was just a spicy curry.

Having seen all of Little India I expected to see, I strolled down to Chinatown.  Got distracted by a fire station museum (just a handful of exhibits on a couple of floors but well worth the $0 entry fee), then more distracted by Fort Canning Park, where I learned a fair bit about history before finally making my way to Chinatown.  It's not as interesting as Little India.  No plaques and things explaining context and not many interesting buildings.  However, I was accosted by a tailor offering to make me a shirt or 3 and a suit.  I was actually tempted.  £60 for a tailored silk shirt isn't too bad a deal, and he offered to mail it to my home address.  Sadly he oversold, trying to convince me to buy 3, and I really wasn't in a state of mind to haggle. 

Weather improved drastically.  Sunblock continued to block sun.  Factor 30 means I'm never going to tan but it's hard for me to tan anyway. As long as I'm not burnt I'm happy being pale as a ghost. 

Took MRT (mass rapid transit) to the airport.  Cheaper than taxi an d almost as fast.  Security seemed remarkably simple to get through. 

Other thoughts about Singapore...  It is remarkably clean and efficient here.  Makes me wonder what Britain would have been like if the British colonised it.  I expect London would have been extremely successful as a city state.

Malay girls are extremely pretty.  Yes, I'm extremely shallow, and I know it and I like petite girls with dark hair and a caramel complexion. 

Sure is hot here. 

Wonder if I should have found out more about the place before I got here.  Things I wasn't aware of included where it is in relation to other parts of Asia, that they drove on the left, had British style 3 pin sockets, is extremely westernised (I was expecting it to be more like Korea than Japan). Also wasn't certain about the language, but I'm still a little vague.  While English is widely spoken, and I knew it was the official language, it doesn't seem to be a native language for most speakers.  Either that or "Singlish" just sounds a bit foreign to me.  Most overheard conversation was presumably Mandarin or Malay (I really can't tell), but almost all signs are only in English.

Today I was at the southernmost point of continental Asia, and therefore as further south than I'd ever been before (Except it's not.  This is the island. Damn tourist traps).  Singapore counts as part of the continent on account of having a causeway connecting it, Sentosa island is connected to Singapore by a bridge, and there's a bridge connecting the one of little horseshoe shaped islands which is allegedly the southernmost point. 

Alternatively you can swim across which is fun and really hard work.  Tropical water is fantastic!  Delightfully warm, and I'm fairly certain it's easier to float.  The sea has this nice feature that it's actually gets deeper than 1.6m.  I like floating without my feet touching the seabed.

Attempted to flirt with a nice German girl and failed miserably.  A nice Korean girl asked me to take her photo, so I did.

Had an ice cream and a crushed banana drink because I was on the beach so it seemed to make sense. 

I think my next ports of call will be Chinatown and little India.  But - and this is a deeply taxing and philosophical question - where shall I have lunch?

Chilled out in the rooftop pool. 

Found somewhere to eat.

Pub crawl.  Well, two bars, so not much of a crawl

I walked along the road to find a nice bar.  Found a nice microbrewery.  Chatted to a chap there who advised me on places I might like to visit.  Went a bit further.  Chatted to an American businessman.  He accidentally bought me a beer since the staff evidently assumed we knew each other.  The company he works for can afford it I'm sure. 

Someone tried to sell me some skin cleaning products. Sales technique was a little too obvious.  Either that or I'm just a hard sell. Sales tricks are less effective when the mark is analysing the technique:) 

Got slightly lost which is always a good thing.

Went to bed.  Ohhh glorious sleep, how I missed you!