After a four hour wait at Jakarta airport, we finally got away around 6.30pm. It was only an hours flight with Thai International (prepaid price $54), with the cabin service excellent and a great meal of lobster and wine. We arrived in Singapore at 8pm (they were 30 minutes ahead), having crossed the equator 10 minutes earlier. The harbour was fantastic at night, with all the vessels awaiting berths well lit up, backed up by a beautiful sunset. Only blot on the Thai copybook was the of my suitcase at the end of the flight, although arguably it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me as it was later replaced with a much lighter backpack and about a quarter of the number of clothes.
Teamed up with Aussie girl Angela at the airport and took off to the city in a taxi, checking out around 10 hotels before finally settling on a room at the Tong Ah Hotel in Beach Road. At SGD14 (6 bucks) for 2 or SGD16 for 3, we took the latter with Angela, with some creative sharing of the facilities. It was expensive after Indonesia but great to be back in
Singapore was certainly like a breath of fresh air after Java - clean streets, pleasant people, new cars, no hello mister, hot showers etc. We got up early to stroll around, but the city didnt really open up until 10am. We got a bit lost wandering around without a map and had difficulty finding the big department stores – finally we settled for the Peoples Park Shopping Complex. A wander up Orchard Road gave us a view of the very flash Hotel Mandarin. (Editors Note – I ended up staying at the Hotel Mandarin for a fortnight some 4 years later on my first overseas business trip and while nice, it wasnt as flash as I had thought.) We had a dinner of fruit slices and chocolate thick shake at The Copper Kettle, and also bought bread, honey and cheese to turn it into a truly western meal. After dinner, we took a cruise around the harbour. It is interesting to note that the Chinese are generally the wealthy race here, with Indians doing a lot of the menial work.
day in Singapore. We first made it down to the central business district to check out Merlion, the official mascot of Singapore, but wasted most of the morning in the office of Thai Airlines, but the bag had still not been located. They offered to pay USD12 per night towards two nights due to our delay in not being able to move onwards, which we were happy to take up.
In the afternoon, we went on the Faber cable car (which had only been open a week) and walked down from Mt Faber. We then took the bus back to Orchard Road and strolled down checking out the major stores such as Robinsons on the way. That evening, the three of us went to a classical guitar concert by the Venezuelan, Aldiro Diaz. We got really good seats for $7.50 and the performance was great.
Our final full day in Singapore was pretty quiet. It was wet in the morning but fined up as the day progressed. We took off for Changi Beach for a couple of hours, and while the beach itself was nothing special, the swim was refreshing. An interesting evening started with dinner
at the Orchard Road car park, where we bought a great meal of pork noodles, banana fritters, and watermelon, all for the princely sum of less than a buck. Singapore at night is a great place to walk around. The snazzy guys and their gals all looked so sweet and innocent – as though on their way to Sunday School. Certainly, the sort of place you feel safe wandering at any hour.
The next morning, I caught up with an old friend from Sydney who was in Singapore on business and staying at the fabulous Raffles Hotel. He was kind enough to shout me breakfast there, a great feast of porridge, eggs and other goodies, so just for a brief time I felt like a king! I followed that with a trip down to Thai Airways, but there was still no sign of my bag. I received $40 to purchase additional clothes, toiletries etc, and spent precisely $12 of this on couple of new jocks and razors.
