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It started off hot during the night but got cooler and I got up around 8 to get everything done as breakfast was at 9 and there was a walking tour starting at 9.30. The hotel guy was early so I could eat breakfast at 8.30 and tried to book a flight from Padang to Jakarta. I considered a few options before choosing an evening flight and then tried to pay but my card got rejected. I tried again and it failed again and meanwhile my bank sent me a text message as they thought there was a suspicious transaction so I needed to call them which I did. I tried my other banks card and that didn't work so I went and got my credit card as the website did say credit card. That also didn't work and I got another text message. I was getting frustrated but I found that the cvv number on my other banks card was different from what I'd entered to I tried that again and it worked.
I got a confirmation email and had a look and the date was wrong, the flight was in January. I'd checked it each time to make sure the date hadn't changed but I hadn't looked at the month or the year for that matter. It was getting late so I did a quick reply telling them to cancel the flight as it was wrong, I had a wrong flight booked once before and they were able to cancel immediately as they hadn't actually processed the ticket first but I wasn't in the mood to try and phone this company from Indonesia. I did manage to quickly book a flight for the correct date as well. So I got to the tourist office and was in time to join the tour which was led by an older Indian man who told us the city were closing this free tour at the end of the year. We went out as a group who were all a bit quiet and not very sociable and started nearby going to the walls of the fort and then to the clocktower and town hall. I did manage to talk to an English/Danish couple who had travelled Indonesia and were heading north, pretty much the opposite of me, but they had planned 2 years including Africa and South America. We went up some steps to an old Portuguese church which had been changed to a type of fort by the Dutch and there were loads of tourists around but then it was a Saturday. We looked at he graves and heard the story of saint Francis Xavier before carrying on the tour and seeing a few more places. I met another person on the tour who was called Andrea from Munich. At the end the guide told us we were lucky as there was a mock wedding today where we could see some Malay custom and have a free lunch. Andrea and 2 girls were heading there and I joined them as we walked along the river. The 2 girls were from Argentina and had come from Australia while Andrea was visiting her daughter in Singapore. We got to the place for the wedding and were invited to sit down for food and saw several of the other people from the tour group who had made their way there themselves. The supposed owner of the place sat with us and had food brought over and helped to serve us rice and we had a selection of dishes, one chicken with sauce and the others were more sweet but we ate the pineapple as a main with the rice. The man washed our right hand under a kettle and showed us how to eat with our hand especially Natalia (Argentinian girl) who he didn't think was doing it right. After eating we went to see the bride and groom get blessed and have lots of fake relatives go up and do something ceremomial. Natalia thought it was a real wedding so I asked the owner person and he said it was for TV, she wasn't so impressed as it meant there was no emotions like in a real wedding. She got asked if she wanted to go up and didn't but a French girl from our tour group did and soon after Andrea did go up. I didn't see Andrea after that do I think she left and after a bit so did we. The Argentinian girls were going to the Baba Noya museum and I had planned to climb a hill so we separated and I soon got lost which meant I was climbing over weeds to get back to the road before finding the hill which had lots of graves all over and only average views as it was too far from the main area, was not high enough and had trees blocking views.I went down to visit a Gurdwara where I had to wash my feet, hands and wear something on my head which I thought I did an ok job off. I don't remember having to do all of that when I went to a Sikh wedding in London. I carried on my plan of direction but the next places were not interesting, then there was a small fort on a hill which was ok but there was no through route so I had to go back the same way. Eventually I got to the island which looked like it might be reclaimed land, something the guide had mentioned this morning. The area was a large construction site but I walked round and almost mistook an unfinished hotel for an unfinished mosque but a duck boat tour went past so I followed it and saw the mosque which was quite special and not just because of the location on the straits of Melaka. I walked back to town and went to the ferry terminal but they were shut and I got told they open at 7am tomorrow. I wandered around town taking photos but all of the places were closed as it was after 5 and so I went back to the hostel and did a few things and used the internet before going out for dinner at the market again. Again the crowd was slow so I used the pavement where I could and first tried a chicken kebab which wasn't enough. I queued for a egg pancake I'd had yesterday and they served someone else before me and then another person who wanted more than they had left as well so I walked on. I couldn't see the burger place so I tried a type of hot dog which the guy didn't cook again but it did feel a bit warm. I found the burger place in a different location and went for a chicken and egg burger (ayam special ). There were quite a few people waiting, I'm not sure what for as their food didn't seem to come. The burger guy finished cooking a lembu (beef) Burger and mine together and then passed them to his colleague who wrapped and served a burger to me. I said Ayam special to be sure and then paid and walked away. I went round a corner and started to sweat and feel a little dodgy and I was worried I might have food poisoning from the hot dog which is not good if I have a ferry to catch. Anyway I ate the burger and it didn't taste quite how I expected. I had another bite and realised it was the lembu burger which was spicy as well. It seemed a bit late to go back as I'd eaten some so I went to the hostel to finish it and they had the football on. Watford beating Everton in quite a game, so I watched that and stayed up to watch the Arsenal game there rather than go to a pub then after I felt tired and went to bed. I woke up a bit earlier around 7.30 and got all my stuff together and had breakfast. Some English guy who was late 40's had left some papaya so I had half and then headed out to the island in the south called Sentosa. It was a choice of that or Chinatown but I'd been to Chinatown before and I wanted to see something different. I got out at harbour station which wasn't on the island as I thought so I had to walk there over a boardwalk which was ok and entry was free to the island and they also had a recommended walk with regular maps so I started on that. There were lots of shops, a universal studios theme park and a hard rock cafe. Apparently Singapore has more Hard Rock cafes than any other city. The walk took me past fountains to a Merlion that was much bigger than yesterdays. I carried on but some areas looked blocked and I couldn't find the path and ended at the beach which looked pretty good, not surprisingly considering how they like to keep things clean. It was still morning so I decided to walk more and then hit the beach later to cool off so I carried on towards the west and came to a fort called silosa. There was a treetop walkway and then I came to the fort which was mostly well done and mainly covered WW2 when it was in action. The myth that all Singapores guns faced the wrong way which is why they lost turned out to be false and the island had fought for over 2 months before surrendering, what Churchill described as the greatest defeat for Britain. I liked the fort although parts of it were not properly open, it was mostly free and like everywhere else had air con.
When I left it was getting close to midday so my possible plan of going to Chinatown wasn't looking possible, so I headed across the island to get to the southernmost point in Asia as marked by them although I think it's somewhere else in the island. It was a nice beach area with lookout towers and I went for a 10 minute swim before heading out. As I didn't think it was properly the southern most point I headed south on a free shuttle bus car and while he was driving I got changed out of my swimwear. The car didn't go that far and turned around and went past where I was and I walked back to harbour front station arriving later than I planned at 1.15 with my bus leaving at 2pm. I stopped briefly at a shop and bought some pot noodles as they were big, cheap and on 2 for 1 offer. I got back to the hostel around 1.40, filled up my pot noodle, left the other one at reception, checked out and walked to the bus stop which thankfully was only 5 minutes away. I got the bus which had an Indian driver and was full up and we left. Soon after it started raining and the road was waterlogged in no time, then we got to the border and went through with no problems although the bus took a bit longer. At the next control the bus driver took me aside and told me to go downstairs after the money change place, I guess everyone else looked like they did this trip a lot. So I went to the money change place and exchanged out my dollars for ringitts and saw the bus driver who pointed me in a different direction than I would have gone with his instructions. The rest of the bus journey was fine but the bus station was quite far from thr city centre so I looked around for a local bus and asked some people and got told to take the 17 bus. I waited at the stop and opened my suitcase and managed to break the zip which was really annoying so I closed it broken and the bus took ages to come but at least it went close to the lavender hostel where I was staying. The check in was a bit slow like the guy wasn't expecting me but I got a bed, found out the toilet was rubbish and didn't flush and went out to see if I could buy a ferry ticket. First I wanted to eat and there was a market so I walked through with the locals moving really slowly and I found myself a burger (lemak) and also I tried the local rice dish which turned out to be not much more than rice. I left and walked past the tall tower where people can go in and get a view if the area for 35 RM. There were lots of people on bike cars which had been decorated and played music to carry tourists around. Mostly families were using them. I went to the ferry place which was empty with the lights out but I could still walk inside although there was nothing to see so I walked around and saw people queuing for a river cruise for 7.50 RM and I carried on and saw a wall of a fort and the plaque told me that they weren't too happy with the English here as they had apparently knocked down the fort to get people to move to Penang. I continued and there were more of the trishaw bikes and there was another crossing of the river so I went across and found myself at Jonker street which is a place listed as worth visiting at night so I walked along and there was a market and again everyone was walking slowly, there were lots of children and it was not enjoyable. The market stalls sold a variety of things which I didn't really want but I decided to walk the whole way and then I wouldn't need to come back the next day. There was a stage and someone went up and started singing and I saw a tv screen showing the lyrics so it looked like karaoke, outdoors, in a market and with lots of people sitting and watching. I sat for a bit to see and after one song another person got up to sing so it was karaoke. I moved on and got to the end of the street and turned left twice and went back along another road which had some museums on. I walked back to the hostel and went to bed as it was quite late. I didn't sleep very well as my left big toe was throbbing in pain and kept me awake so when it came to 7am I stayed in bed until 8am before getting up. At breakfast I noticed how quiet it was so I turned to my neighbour and said it's so quiet here and he put his finger to his lip and said shhhhh, not really but it is endemic of Singapore for people to be quiet, keep to themselves more and use laptops which a lot of people at the hostel had which is why the wifi was weak from so many people using it.
I went out to join the tour which started at the raffles hotel so I walked there which was not nice at first but the last bit was good and went past some historical looking buildings. I was on time and we had some of the same people from yesterday's tour but surprisingly less people overall, Wei showed us some art galleries and other museums we could visit as we went and also filled us in on the history, but the most interesting thing for me was that they still have 2 years military service although they don't have to join the military they could just work for the police for example. I found out where the tour was ending and managed to message my friend Claudia so she could meet me there at 1pm. There were a lot of nice and some expensive buildings built, some of them on reclaimed land and they had created a habour reservoir out of their river by blocking it in. At 1pm I made the mall and Claudia was looking good and it was nice catching up over lunch. Afterwards we went to the nearby artifical park and walked through around the edge buy\t you could see the big fake tree sculptures and the domes one with a waterfall inside and also with air con. It was still a nice place to walk although there were some people about taking photos of each other like tourists here often do. Claudia headed home and I decided to walk to the casino, which wouldn't let me in as I didn't have my passport and then to the art gallery we had gone past which turned out to be pretty small before I made my way to the hill which Stamford Raffles had founded his house on and there had been the first fort built. It was getting a bit late but I managed to see the places there and read up about them including the fort and the archaelogical dig before I headed back to my hostel. I got some glue and fixed my left trainer as best as I could, got my passport and dressed up a bit before heading out once I was a bit rested. I got some food and walked to see the super trees display in the park, but I arrived too late for that so I hung around for the fountains display which was a bit different to other ones. They have 3 fountains and then project pictures on to them and have sounds as well. It was good for a one off but I'm not a fan of all of this type of thing like they had at the Rio Olympics, anyone can watch TV so why go out to a live event which is just a version of a TV. I went to the casino afterwards and some of the tables were $150 minimum bet but I did find some $2.50 min roulette tables and some 2 and 5 cent slots. I didn't want to gamble so I took a few photos and then went to take the tube as my foot was hurting. There was a big queue at the ticket machines so I tried to use another one but it only worked if you had a ticket to top up and because I'd changed my trousers I didn't have my ticket so I had to queue up which took a while and then one of the machines ran out of tickets and another crashed so the queue moved slower still. Thankfully the rebooted machine came back and 4 people were in a group so I got my ticket, headed back to the hostel and went to bed. The bus arrived at a stop not too far but not that near to my hostel but since it was so early I walked it and got there around 5.30am after stopping to take pictures of a mosque. Bunc hostel was actually quite busy with people off to catch an early flight and they actually checked me in and said I could gave breakfast - win, win. So I got a couple of hours sleep and woke up around 8.
The guy below me was occasionally coughing really loudly and he also had his stuff laid out like he was living there, even photos stuck on his wall. Anyway breakfast was ok as they had some peanut butter as well as jam for the bread and a choice of cornflakes or coco pops with actual milk, all a bit of a change from the rest of Asia so far, bunc hostel also had 6 computers to use and looked good overall. I looked online for free walking tours and found there was only 2 still running and one was on Saturdays only so I emailed the other one and then had a shower. I got an email back and there was a tour today starting not that far from me and doing the village of Kampong glam. I also had a Mensa meeting to go to which was at lunchtime but I hadn't been given a time. I found the tour group and the guide (Wei) was really well spoken and energetic as we walked around he described the planning process and history that led to the area being the way it was. We saw a golden roofed mosque and some touristy arabic steets amongst other things and when we stopped at 11.30 I got some wifi at McDonald's but still didn't have a message from the Mensa sight organiser but I reread the message he'd sent before and decided it was probably at 12 so I headed off by tube to where I thought the meeting was. I found the cafe and there was only a few people there, none looking like a Mensa group and the cafe had no bookings so I went back outside. I thought maybe the meeting did start later so I went to see a local church which was a modern building with a nursery and other things and only one small chapel, nothing like what a normal church looks like although churches do have things like that as my Mums playgroup was in a church for years. So I went back to the cafe and there were a few more people but still no Mensa but I did grab their wifi code. Close to 1pm I looked at the message I had again as I had no response from the mensa person but the message said plaza singaporia so I looked that up and it turned out to be close to where my hostel and the walk was so I'd come all this way by mistake. I went back on the tube and decided that the interchange could be slow so I got out somewhere else to walk one stop from little india. It turned out to be a big mistake, not just because it was hot, but because the road I'd seen which made the walk possible was restricted and there were no other roads directly through the area. I ended up climbing up a hill, back down a hill and then the most circuitous road route I've ever seen. It was like a maze and I turned up at the meeting almost 2 hours late close to 2pm. There were amazingly still 4 people there although one had to go soon after I got to know the other people and since 2 of them did not have to go back to work they stayed longer and we talked some more. After that I still had lots of things to see so I headed to the parliament park which not surprisingly would not let me in although they do on special occasions. I continued to a building marked on the map for having a view which turned out to be closed as there was a function there but I did go round the art galleries where you could buy a a Warhol and a Dali amongst others. I left and continued in the same direction to the botanical gardens which had construction work nearby for a train line they were building. The park though was fine and was one of the better ones I've been to so it was good walking around and I tried to see as much as I could which is why it was past 7.30 when I left and getting dark. I took the train back to the hostel for a brief rest before heading out to the Kampong glam area to see what it looked like in the evening as many of the trendy shops had been closed in the morning when I did the tour. The trendy street didn't have so much activity but there were quite a few restaurants and some bars in the area, none so cheap until I went further and found a locals cafe called Kampong Glam cafe and had some food there. I went back to the hostel and used the internet as there was no real life to the place before going to bed. I woke up about 7.30 and packed my things away in the semi darkness before checking out and getting 50 ringitts deposit back, so now I easily had enough for the day. I left the hostel, grabbed a sandwich and slowly went to where the tour starts and got there about 15 minutes early so I did a plank to test my core muscles and I could only manage 2 minutes. Again we all had to fill in forms to register for the walk and our guide today was called Fui who had a bit of the ladyboy about him. He also had white make up on which he sweated off fairly early into the tour, but he did start by introducing us all having remembered our names from the forms. The tour started nearby and went into Chinatown where he explained some of the things about a temple which was interesting and later we went into the telecom museum which normally costs 11 RM to get in, before we finished about an hour later than we should at the entrance to park in the city. We had to fill in feedback forms on the tour and I saw him checking mine when I handed it in which I didn't think was very professional.
After the tour an Austrian called Helmut was going to the Petronas towers as well so we both walked together through the park and over some rope bridges they had, past an expensive upside down house and to an exit onto the road which was gated and locked so we climbed over the fence rather than walk back. We got to the Petronas towers and Helmut had been told the skybridge was free so we went down and there was one ticket price only and you had to pay 65 RM to get in. We gave it a miss and went to the park to get a good view of the towers. There was some drinking water fountains which Helmut was happy to drink from and he said the water was fine here so I could have saved money, but I was so used to buying the water I didn't think. We walked more around the park and there was s swimming area for kids which made me wish I'd brought my trunks. We looked for viewing areas for the towers and maps.me showed a sky bar so we went into the traders hotel and took the lift to the top floor but one (the top floor being a spa). There we had great views of the towers and the staff didn't seem to mind us wandering. Helmut wanted to stay for a bit and offered me a drink so we sat and enjoyed the view. After we went back down and he left to take a train to his hotel, while I walked to a park which was more difficult to get to than it looked due to construction work and a lack of crossing areas for the main roads. The lake when I reached it was quite nice, there wasn't much happening on the water but there was good paths around and lots of people rented bikes. There was also a place to rent horse drawn carriages and when I got round to the other side of the lake there was a good view of the city with the lake in the foreground. I left the lake having been round and saw that there was drinking water at the national library nearby. There was also a museum and a building which looked nice so I went to see if I could get in. The museum where it was marked turned out not to be a museum although the people working there didn't speak much English and I think they said it was a sports centre. So I walked back towards the road and came to the nice looking building. The security person there did speak good English and also must have noticed my Union Jack flag as he wanted to talk to me about Iron Maiden who he seemed to be a fan off. The building was not open to people so I carried on and came to an actual art museum so I went around and some of the current art was good but the old Malaysian art from the 20th century was really not. I left and went to the national library which had nothing for me and I couldn't find the water fountain either so I headed back to the petronas towers, saw a mosque and got diverted by more construction work. I decided to go to Bukit Bintang as they were rated highly on tripadvisor but I couldn't find the raised walkway and I think it was just a shopping area anyway. There are quite a lot of shopping malls which connect up so that you don't have to leave an air conditioned environment and god forbid have to walk outside. So I headed back to the hostel and walked as I couldn't see the free bus which I never got to take. I grabbed some food at the hostel and charged up some power for the bus ride then headed out to Times square mall where the bus leaves from. I got there early so hung around inside, used the free wifi and did another plank but again only managed 2 minutes then went out to wait for the bus which turned up a bit late. It was a pretty good bus except the power didn't work and most annoyingly the air vents had holes in so I couldn't the cold air which stopped me sleeping much. We arrived at border control around 3am and I thought I was slow through customs but some people took longer and we moved on at 3.30 and arrived in Singapore at 4.30am. |
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