We got to Singapore by sleeper train. (see picture above) The trip was about 7 hours long, and I thought I would get to sleep, but for some unknown reason, the workers thought it was
necessary to wake us up every hour or so to fill something or to check our passports again. It was pretty annoying, but we finally arrived in Singapore at like 7am in the morning...or so we thought. In broken English people were telling us to grab our stuff and get off the train. We were all excited, and so ready to be our of our tiny train beds. We went through customs and security and all that, and so we all decided to go into the bathrooms and wash up before we went out into the city. About 10 minutes after we were in the bathroom, security guards came up to us and said "Hurry up! Your train is leaving!" Thinking they didn't know what they were talking about, we ignored them. So then, we continued to wash our faces and brush our teeth, and we began talking about what we wanted to do first when we got into the city. The security guards came up to us again, and basically dragged us to the train and said we needed to get on. We were like "No! You don't understand...we are going to Singapore. We are here, and we don't need to go another stop!" Well we finally come to realize that we weren't actually in the city yet. We had just crossed the boarder into the area. We felt pretty stupid, but it was kind of funny because we held up the whole train thinking we knew what we were doing!
After getting finally getting to Singapore city area, we found a really crappy hotel to put our stuff in for the day, and we went out on the town. First, we went to the Harbor Front and saw a great view of some of the beautiful city buildings. We also saw the biggest mall in Singapore, which was pretty cool, but not that impressive. Also, all the stores were pretty expensive, so we didn't buy anything (on top of that, the US dollar is only about 1.5 to the Singapore dollar). Then we went to see the Flyer (the huge ferris wheel in the city), but most of us decided not to go on it because it was like US$30 to ride. After seeing the Hong Kong skyline at night, we didn't think we needed to see the Singapore skyline in the day...it wouldn't even come close to being as beautiful.
Instead of riding the Flyer, we went to the Raffles Hotel (founded in 1887, and named after Singapore's founder). It is absolutely beautiful and has a lot of places to walk around. We went to the Raffles Hotel Long Bar and tried the Singapore Slinger there (see picture above). The drink was first invented there in the early 1900's. The drink was good, but somehow it got spilled all over me! So, like in Malaysia, I was sticky for the rest of the day. (For some reason, I had the worst luck on this trip!)We walked around Clarke Quay, we took pictures at the Esplanade
(see completely posed picture to right), but then there was a serious torrential downpour, so we got stuck in some mall and had to stay in until the rain subsided. It was unfortunate, but that is the way it goes I guess.Anyway, Singapore was a great city. Most notably, it is ridiculously clean (which I loved!). It is probably because it is illegal to do just about everything. You aren't allowed to bring in gum into the country or chew it (we were rebels and decided to tempt fate...see picture). There is no smoking anywhere. You can't spit anywhere. All of these offenses will cost you a hefty fine. But the most interesting...if you are caught with 20g of drugs, you
automatically get the death penalty...a little harsh, you think? The people there, though, we some of the nicest I have met in Asia. If we even had a slight look of confusion on our faces, someone asked if we needed help with directions somewhere (we obviously looked like foreigners). It was a great 12 hours, and it is probably good that it was only 12 hours because Singapore is very expensive!
No comments:
Post a Comment