Sunday, 18 March 2012

Singapore to Japan

At the Hindu temple
Konichiwa from Japan! We are now in Japan and it is without a doubt the most culturally unique place I have ever been in my life. Before I discuss this any further, let me first finish off what we got up to on our last days in Singapore.
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.

Durian fruit
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.
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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