Abstract

We spent four days in Singapore which felt like a sufficient amount time. We were able to do and see all that we had planned in these few days. Highlights were the Night Safari and Singapore Zoo, but we also spent one day on Sentosa Island. Accommodation was expensive compared to Malaysia and Thailand, but our hotel was very modern and worth the money. In fact, everything in Singapore was very modern and the city seemed to lack the charm of other Asian cities. There were lots of shopping malls (actually I think there were too many of them...) but prices were generally higher than in Malaysia and Thailand.

We got up early this morning to make sure we would have enough time for getting the heavy backpacks to the bus station. The bus left at 09.00, but we had to be there around 08.40 to get the bus number for the immigration card to Singapore.

We arrived about 08.30 and had lots of time to buy some food and drinks for the trip. However, the only things I could find to eat that looked a bit like normal breakfast were cakes from the bakery near the bus station. Maybe I could have chosen something more nutritious, but they looked really good.....so I bought them! :-)

The bus came early, at least 15 min. before departure. We were impressed! For once we were not the first to put our backpacks on the bus, and therefore it was a bit difficult to find available space, but with a lot of pushing we managed to get ours under the bus as well.

The bus was not the nicest bus we had been on, but it was still okay. Actually, this ride turned out to be the best one of the whole trip because the driver had a radio channel on which played the kind of music that I like. They even played Conga by Miami Sound Machine (Gloria Estefan), so I guess my brother liked it too! It was also interesting to hear how the radio hosts tried to make the show as American as possible, even speaking with American accents!

The trip went very fast. About halfway to Singapore they made the normal stop at a "restaurant" in the middle of nowhere, enabling us to strech our legs and go to the toilet.

The procedures on entering Singapore seemed quite effective. The only hassle was that we (of course) had to get off the bus and carry our backpacks through the immigration and customs ourselves.

The bus didn`t stop at the bus station where we had expected it stop, but Jan Arild had kept an eye on the map and had a rough idea of our whereabouts. As usual the driver didn't give any information, so it took some time before we realised that this was the last stop.

Our plan now was to get hold of some Singapore dollars and then minimise the amount of walking around with heavy backpacks by taking a taxi to a suitable hotel. Fortunately there was an ATM not far away, but unfortunately the stupid machine refused to accept my Visa card, which made me very annoyed (poor brother!). Instead we had to go into a bank to withdraw money, a process which took at least 15 minutes to do, and didn`t help my mood much. So much for efficient Singapore!

Lucily there was a taxi stand really close to the bank, and it didn`t take long for a taxi to arrive. After consulting with Lonely Planet we had decided to try the Tai Hoe Hotel, so we asked the driver to take us to 163 Kitchener Road. However, apparently we had insulted the taxi driver by giving the exact address instead of just the hotel name. At least he held a long speech about how all the taxi drivers in Singapore knew every little corner of the town and therefore didn`t need any more information than the name of the hotel or wherever it was you wanted to go. We later found out that this was certainly not true.

Fortunately, the hotel was not far away, so we only had to listen to the taxi driver rambling on about the fantastic abilities of Singapore taxi drivers for a few minutes.

Tai Hoe Hotel was located in Little India and looked very nice. I was afraid that they would be fully booked, but luckily they had an available room for us. The room on the 6th floor was small, but very modern and clean. This was the most typical Western looking hotel on the whole trip. It wasn't that expensive either, at 60$ per night, which was even a bit cheaper than the price quoted in Lonely Planet.

After a little relaxing we went out to look around the area and find somewhere to eat. Most people have an image of Singapore as being completely clean and tidy, but although Little India was cleaner than corresponding areas in Malaysia or Thailand, there still was some rubbish spread around on the street.

After some walking around, we decided to be brave and eat at an Indian food stall which looked pretty clean. They didn't have any menus with prices, so it was a little bit difficult to order, but we eventually ended up with some very spicy chicken. However, it was quite difficult to eat the chicken with only a spoon and a fork. Sometimes you just miss the knife a lot. The fruit juice turned out to very good, though, just like in Malaysia. In total, the meal wasn't that expensive either, only 12$ in total for the both of us.

After eating we went down to an MRT (subway) station called Bugis. It was not exactly located close to the hotel, so it took us at least twenty minutes to reach it. However, it was interesting to walk along and see how different Singapore was to Malaysia and Thailand. We always do a lot of walking on our holidays, which, in my opinion, is a good way of learning about the life of the average person living in that place. Many times have we stumbled over things or met people we would have missed otherwise. My brother remarked that Singapore was almost more Western than the West itself, and I would have to agree.

The subway system looked very similar to the one in KL, but there were more subway lines here in Singapore. It was very easy to buy tickets from a machine and use the subway map to figure out where to go. The subway station was very clean, which was not surprising given the fines for littering etc. Another nice thing was the fine of 1000$ for smoking! During our stay we never saw anybody smoke on the subway :-)

We got off at the City Hall station and walked down towards the Singapore River. Outside the City Hall they had created a whole stadium of temporary seats. Apparently there was going to be a big show on the Singapore National day, August the 9th. It would then be 35 years since they gained independence, so it was a shame we would miss it since they probably had planned something really special for this occasion. All over town were large posters saying things like "together we make the difference" and similar slogans to emphasize their unity despite being a nation of various different races. There was no doubt that the Chinese were the dominant force here, though.

From the City Hall it was a short walk down to the Singapore River. On the other side of the river was an interesting sight, as there were a row of small cafes and restaurants, right in front of some huge skyscrapers. On our side we had the statue of Sir Stamford Raffels, the founder of Singapore. The inscription on the statue said:

"On this historic site Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28th january 1819 and with genius and perception changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis."

Raffles seemed to be held in great esteem because as we stood there suddenly two men started bowing and saluting the statue! It was quite amusing to watch, but I refused when Jan Arild wanted me to do the same thing so he could film it.

After a lot of walking we decided it was time to find somewhere to eat again. We took the MRT from Raffles Place to Orchard Road, which is Singapore's main shopping street. It was really lined with shopping centers, which all looked kind of expensive and luxurious. I've never seen so many shopping centers in one place before!

We quickly located a food court inside a shopping center, but didn't really feel like eating Asian food right then, so we only had an orange juice each. We then checked out another mall to look at some music and books, and found a good map of Singapore there.

Across the road was a shopping center which also seemed to have a cinema, so we headed over to see which films were screening at the moment. However, more importantly, we also found they had a lot of fastfood restaurants in there, one of them being Taco Bell. I was very happy about this, because Taco Bell is the best fastfood chain, and unfortunately they are not yet established in Norway.

It was not so easy to get a table, but I eventually found one while Jan Arild bought the food. The food was very good, but unfortunately my stomach was beginning to feel a bit weird. We therefore decided to take a taxi back to the hotel and relax. There was not really much to do around here anyway, except browsing in the shops.

There was a taxi line outside the center and although it seemed to be very long it didn`t take too long until it was our turn. To get back to the hotel we paid about 5$.

Back at the hotel I found out that I had gotten diarrhoea again, but I hoped it would be over by tomorrow (what an optimist I sometimes am..) Unfortunately, later in the evening I started getting stomach cramps like I had on Penang hill. During the night I must have had fever because I was either too cold or too hot and I had such a weird dream. Not that there was much time to sleep since I had to go to the toilet every two hours or so. I felt really sorry for myself that night!

Day 40 - August 5

I had slept almost nothing at all, so when Jan Arild got up around 09.00 to have breakfast, I just stayed in bed trying to get some sleep. I remained sleepless but eventually I started to feel a little bit better.

Given the circumstances, we weren't quite sure how to spend the day. I was not feeling well, but not bad enough to stay in bed all day either. Eventually we decided to first have a look around the area, and in particular try to find the nearby MRT station that was marked on our new map, but not mentioned in Lonely Planet.

After having walked around for a while and gotten completely lost (not that it mattered much), we just couldn`t find the station. Finally we found a sign that said it was under construction and would be completed soon! The map we had bought was certainly up to date, maybe even too much so! It seemed we would have to settle for using the Bugis station which was a twenty minutes walk away from the hotel.

Having returned to the hotel and relaxed for a while, I was feeling good enough for a slightly longer trip. Yesterday we had seen "the sights" of Singapore, but hadn`t brought our cameras, so today we decided to go down and take pictures of the founder of Singapore etc. To get to the city center we followed basically the same route as yesterday.

Down at the Raffles landing site we took some pictures and sat down for a rest. A "river cruise" was leaving from here, and we decided to come along, mainly just to rest our feet for a while. The boat took us up and down the river, and we got to see the statue of the Singapore symbol (a combined lion and fish) and various other more or less interesting sights.

It was okay to sit in the boat the 40 minutes the tour lasted, but in retrospect I think it wasn`t really worth the 10$. However, it was an opportunity for a little nap. I don`t know what it is, but I always get very tired and often fall asleep when I`m on some sort of sightseeing...

After this we were both tired and hungry, so we took the MRT from Raffles Place and up to Orchard Road, for a meal at my favourite fastfood restaurant Taco Bell. Thereafter we just took the bus home to rest before tonight's big adventure, the Night Safari.

Feeling very tired, I fell asleep for a while. Jan Arild stayed awake relaxing with the local Singapore newspaper. According to him there was an article voicing concern about the crime rate. Last year they had a total of about 500 burglaries in Singapore, which most people would say is amazingly low for a city of this size, though they still thought things had to improve! While on the subject of improvement, I was feeling much better now, which I hoped would last for the rest of the evening.

We were both excited about going on the Night Safari since several other people had told us that it was very good! We took the bus from outside the hotel and changed once at a suburb called Ang Mo Kio. It was a cheap and easy option of getting to the park, but unfortunately the ride took one hour and fourty minutes, which is a bit long when the same distance by taxi was later seen to take about fifteen minutes! However, we saw a lot of interesting things on the way, and were in no hurry, so we enjoyed it.

The Night Safari opened at 19.30 and we got there about 20.00. There were already many people there, but it was not really crowded. We got at 25% discount by using a voucher from a discount booklet we had gotten at 7-11 yesterday. We paid about 25$ for both of us, and I actually think the woman deducted too much of the ticket price, but we didn`t complain of course!

In the Night Safari park there are two main attractions: There is a guided tram ride which takes about 35-40 minutes and there are several walking trails. We started with the tram ride. There was a long line to get on, but it went quite fast and soon we were on the tram.

It was dark everywhere around us, except some places where big spotlights lit up the ground, enabling us to see the animals. I could see no fence between us and the animals, and many places there were animals in the road or by the side of it. But, of course, the big and dangerous animals like lions, tigers and rhinos were not wandering around freely like this.

The tour was great and we saw lots of animals, including a Tapir which I made my new favorite animal. It shares first place with the giraffes and dogs!! The guide was very good and pleasant to listen to. I didn`t get the feeling that she was bored or just repeating "the same old story", which often seems to be the case. On the contrary, she seemed very dedicated and I envied her job a little bit at the time.

Obviously, the tram ride in the Safari park was not like a real game drive in the African wilderness, which is an experience on a quite different level. However, I would say that the park was about as good as a Zoo gets. Because of the darkness it was not immediately obvious that the animals were inside enclosures, which made it much more interesting.

After the ride we went to do the walking trails. It was nice walking in the dark, watching the animals and listening to their sounds. However, sometimes we felt there were too many people around, but it wasn`t a big problem really.

A more serious problem was that the stomach cramps were starting to return, not making the last part of the walk as pleasant as it could have been. Because of this, we decided to take a taxi home. Time was already 2315 and I didn't feel like spending one hour and fourty minutes on the bus again.

The taxi cost us about 13$, which was a reasonable price, at least if you compare it with Norway and not with Malaysia or Thailand. On arriving at the hotel, we went to bed immediately.

Day 41 - August 6

After having slept well throughout the night, we woke up around 09.00. Breakfast was included at this hotel, so we got breakfast vouchers in the reception and went across to the eating place across the street. However, the breakfast was really pathetic, as all we got was one boiled egg and some small slices of toast. After eating, we set out to conquer the island of Sentosa.

This is a little island which is connected to Singapore with a short bridge and a cable car. Apparently Sentosa is the place where Singaporeans go to relax and enjoy themselves, supposedly containing both theme parks, restaurants and beaches. This turned out to a bit exaggerrated, at least if you have been to Disney World.....

Getting to Sentosa was no problem now that we were familiar with the buses in Singapore. We got off at the World Trade Centre, from which it was possible to ride a cable car across to Sentosa. The cable car ride was nice, with a great view of both Singapore and Sentosa, and it didn`t fall down either so I was happy :-)

On buying tickets to the cable car, we also got entrance to Sentosa and free rides on the monorail circling the island. The first thing we did was to take monorail to the Asian Village. This was supposed to be an amusement park with exciting rides and stuff like that. I wanted to get there before it got too crowded and the queues got long.

However, it turned out that we needn`t have hurried at all. The Asian Village was a big disappointment! It had only five "rides", and only one of them, a short rollarcoaster, looked remotely like it was worth doing. We tried it and found that it was probably very exciting if you were less than ten years old...

We also tried a quickly rotating "carousel thing". No people were waiting in line for this ride after we had gotten on it, so the control guy (maybe thinking he was being nice) let it spin for a very long time...much too long we thought! We couldn`t help laughing because it was so ridiculous. "I think he has gone to lunch or maybe he has just forgotten about us" Jan Arild said when suddenly the guy was gone and we were still left spinning and spinning. He eventually came back to stop the machine, and we left it as fast as we could, which was not very fast (feeling a little dizzy) at all!

After having regained our composure, we decided to leave the Asian Village for good. Instead we got back on the monorail and continued around the island to see what else it had to offer. Sentosa was an okay place to spend a day if you don`t expect too much! It has beautiful surroundings, nice walking paths and it is very clean. We walked around, visited some free shows with animals and tried some attractions like Cinemania, an extremely overpriced virtual rollarcoaster.

We had a meal at Burger King because I wanted something salty like french fries. It actually tasted very well, probably because I hadn`t eaten a real meal for a while. It didn`t give me any further stomach problems either.

The southernmost point of Asia is located on Sentosa. We wanted to have our picture taken there, but had to wait a really long time before someone we could ask came along. There are never any people around when you need them!

After having seen most of the attractions on Sentosa, we took the cable car back to World trade Centre and went to find a bus back to the hotel. After a long wait, the bus finally arrived, but unfortunately it turned out that almost everyone else had been waiting for the same bus. The bus got really crowded and we all stood like "herring in a barrel", as we would say in Norwegian. Fortunately some people sitting next to us got off after a while, enabling us to sit down.

Although we were staying in Little India, we hadn't really seen that many Indians so far. However, this was about to change, as the streets were full of Indians when we came back. There must have been something happening that was of interest to the Indian community, but I'm not sure what. The guys at the hotel said that it was like this every Sunday.

We relaxed and had a shower before taking the bus to Orchard Road. We didn't really do anything interesting, except for browsing in some shops and having dinner at Taco Bell. Eventually we tried, unsuccessfully to find a bus going back towards our hotel. I was tired of walking around, so we decided to take a taxi instead. However, today no taxis arrived at the taxi stop and after having waited for 20 minutes, we decided to take the MRT instead. This time we got off at Lavender instead of Bugis, which turned out to be slightly closer to the hotel.

Back at the hotel we had to pack because the next day we were going home! Although I had really enjoyed the holiday, I was very much looking forward to this! After packing we went to bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

Day 42 - August 7

We woke up early on our last day in Asia. Although we were going home today, the plane didn't leave until the evening, so we still had most of the day available.

Having already packed our bags, we went down to have breakfast, which was just as bad as yesterday. We asked in the reception if they could store our luggage for the day, which was no problem. They even chained our bags together so that it looked very safe. Before checking out we were asked to fill out a questionnaire on how we had enjoyed our stay at the hotel. We were mostly positive, except about the breakfast, of course!

Today we were going to spend most of our time in the Singapore Zoo. It is located next to the Night Safari park, so having plenty of time, we took the same bus as we had the other night. The trip took 1 hour and 40 minutes today as well. Not many people were on the bus, so we didn`t expect the Zoo to be crowded, and it wasn`t either.

We had a discount coupon from 7-11 for the Zoo as well, which saved us another 25%. After a visit to the bathroom (I was still not in top form), we took a tram ride around the park. This enabled us to get an idea on the size of the park, and find out if there was something special we wanted to see. Then we just walked around, taking some pictures and enjoying ourselves.

The weather was nice and we decided to see the feeding of the Komodo Dragons at 14.00. I had once seen a documentary on the Discovery Channel about the Komodo Dragons, and thought it would be interesting to see one being fed for real. Unfortunately, it started to rain so heavily that we became stuck under a roof next to the leopards. We could watch the leopards through a plexglas window and they were clearly not very excited about the rain, either, poor cats! There was a small spot right next to the window that was dry and the three leopards kept fighting for this place.

The rain lasted over 30 minutes, making us miss the feeding of the Komodo Dragons this time. We didn`t see them at all actually, maybe they hide when there is no food around?

There were lots of animals in the zoo and most of them seemed to have "enough" space. We spent many hours in the park, but around 16.00 we had seen most of it, and decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. During the ride, the taxi made an annoying "ding-dong-ding-dong" sound all of the time, whose origin we were unable to figure out. This was so irritating that we didn't ask the taxi to wait for us outside the hotel, but instead found another taxi to the airport after having collected our backpacks.

Unfortunately, the new taxi also made exactly the same horrifying "ding-dong-ding-dong" sound and now we discovered what it was. It was an alarm that started when the taxi went faster than 100 km/h, which unfortunately it did for most of the ride! How on earth the taxi driver can ride around listening to "ding-dong-ding-dong" all day without turning completely crazy, I guess we'll never know!

We arrived so early at the airport that Aeroflot hadn`t started checking in passengers yet. However, this was our intention because we wanted to be absolutely sure of securing seats far away from the smoking section, while at the same time having easy access to the toilets. The plan worked because when Aeroflot eventually started check-in we were the first in line and obtained seats we were both happy with. To our complete surprise, we also learned that the plane would land in Delhi, India to pick up passengers. Interesting...then we could claim to have visited India as well :-)

It was still a while until departure so we went to a Swenson's restaurant to eat. Our last meal in Asia consisted of the Asian delights of hamburgers, french fries and ice cream for dessert :-) At a table next to us, there was an Asian(!) family eating so much that I was fascinated. They had without a doubt the biggest meal I have ever seen. I don`t know how they could eat that much because they were small people...but I guess they must have been very hungry.

After dinner we just walked around in the departure hall, waiting for boarding of the plane to start. Changi Airport is really nice, but unfortunately I could already feel that it would be an awful flight home. My diarrhoea was getting worse and I had some nausea as well.

Day 43 - August 8

My feelings were correct, as it was, in fact, a horrible flight. Landing in India and spending two hours at Delhi Airport did not feel like a bonus at all. Fortunately I managed to sleep a lot during the flight, and when we landed in Moscow I was feeling slightly better. Knowing that now it was only a short flight home to Norway probably helped.

At Sheremetyevo-2 we had to wait for a few hours in the transit zone, but time passed pretty quickly. However, it took a lot of time to get into the transit hall because the line was very long and the passport checking guys were not particularly efficient. The people around us were not very good in standing in line, either. I can`t think of anything more annoying than adults who try to cut a line. It makes me angry! Nobody managed to sneak in before us, though, but it took a lot of pushing to prevent that!

We had planned already six weeks ago to buy a "wooden doll" of Putin on our return to Moscow. You could open Putin up and inside were all the earlier presidents of Russia and the Soviet Union! They were quite expensive, but very cool!

Finally, it was time to board the plane to Oslo, so Jan Arild, me and the two Putins did as we were told. The flight was fine and we were happy to land in Oslo again! We called home to tell our parents that we were alive and back, which our mother was relived to hear.

On the bus into Oslo we declared our Asian adventure for officially over. Although we were happy to be home, both of us were really pleased with our holiday. It would be good to finally get some time to digest all the impressions from the last 6 weeks, though!