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| At the Hindu temple |
On our second day in
Singapore, exhausted from all the walking the day before, we slept in
really late and then spent the morning planning Japan. Before we knew
it it was 3pm and we hadn't done anything so we went out to explore
the local neighbourhood. We visited the Arab quarter and wanted to go
up Baghdad street but it was closed. We stumbled upon a large mosque
and went inside where we were shown around by a Dutch woman who had
converted to Islam and had lived in Singapore for the last 20 years.
After the mosque, we
headed home through a monsoon to our hostel. We got there soaking and
immediately went on a walking tour with Jonathan, the entertainment
manager of the hostel. He took a group of us around the places of
worship in the area. We visited a Taoism temple where we lit some
sticks, made a prayer and then got our fortunes on a bit of paper.
Then we went to a Hindu temple which was just next door and had a
look around. After this, we went to a fruit stall where we all tried
Durian fruit (the stinkiest fruit in the world, that is actually
banned on the subway because it smells so bad). It didn't taste or
look how I expected. It tasted and looked more like chicken than
fruit. After we had eaten it we all had to rinse our hands in a
bucket of water to get the smell off.
The tour concluded in
the hawker centre at Bugis which is the nicest/cheapest food centre
we have seen yet. We all sat down and ate and then Jonathan left us
to our own devices. We went for a wander around the night markets and
had an ice cream.
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| Durian fruit |
The next day (our last
day in Singapore) we had a full day to kill (our flight wasn't until
6am the next morning but we had to check out of the hostel at 11). So
we spent a large part of the day hanging around the hostel, surfing
the internet and playing games. In the afternoon we went to the
biggest electronics mall I have ever seen (its a skyscraper full of
electronic stuff). We bought some USBs and headphones. In the evening
we went on a wild goose chase to find a hawker centre Jemma had seen
on the first day on Orchard road and were disappointed when we
finally found it because it was more expensive than the one near our
hostel. By the time we had eaten it was 10pm and we had just enough
time to nip back to the hostel and pick up our bags, ready to go to
the airport where we would spend the night before checking in for our
flight at 4am. I have slept in airports a few times and I have never
had a good experience. Usually they go out of their way to make the
bit before you check in as un-sleeper -friendly as possible. It is
always freezing and the seats usually have handles between the rows
so you cant lie down. However, I had googled Changi airport and found
out it was meant to be the best airport in the world for sleeping,
with free massage chairs and nap areas. It turned out this is the
case, but only once you've checked in. And as we weren't allowed to
check in until 2 hours before the flight (i.e. 4am) we ended up
spending a very uncomfortable 4 hours on a cold (freezing cold)
floor. I tried to make a little bed out of my dirty washing and
wrapped myself in my fleece and hat but I was still freezing. I ended
up having about 2 hours sleep and Jemma opted not to sleep at all and
just sat and read the Japan guide book we had bought. When we finally
got on our flight we were so tired. I slept for a bit but then they
woke us up with breakfast (noodles, ergh) and so I stayed awake for
the rest of the journey and watched the Help.
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