Singapore

June 15-17

Five hours of turbulence later, my flight landed at the massive Singapore airport at 2:50am. The airport was quiet and deserted as I walked through the halls with my new Argentinean travel buddy Diego. Dim lights flickered in gray halls with too many doors like a hospital from a horror movie. We walked in circles for at least an hour until we finally found the bus to Terminal three where we could eat and take a nap before the hostel bus arrived. A friendly bus driver with a huge smile checked my name off the list before driving away. Heavy clouds threatened rain as I watched the beautiful tropical scenery pass by, buildings wrapped in lush green vines, palm trees framing the road and flowers in tropical pinks and oranges polka-dotted the verdant landscapes. Sparkly new sports cars strutted along the highway interrupted occasionally by fourteen or fifteen men packed in a rusty old truck bed like sardines in a tin can. Rain began to spit down as the men unrolled a flimsy clear plastic tarp over all oftheir heads, holding it up with hands in the air.

As soon as I walked through the hostel doors rain splattered down pounding the rooftops and streets of Little India. The Chinese guy at the front desk of the Inn Crowd Hostel said hello and asked if I wanted to join the scooter tour of the city that night I, never miss an opportunity for a free tour especially in a big city so of course I said yes. I wandered through the city all afternoon with Diego, wrapped in a heavy blanket of humidity, struggling not to fall asleep at each crosswalk. I was starving and drained from the heat and lack of sleep so I was very excited to see a huge food court filled with Asian and Indian food stalls and round white tables scattered through the middle. After circling the room at least three times, I finally decided on some Asian bock choy with rice and deliciously tangy green kadong dong juice, almost like sweet lime juice. Singapore doesn't allow the little mobile hawker stalls anymore but has combined them all into food courts scattered throughout town to monitor sanitation more easily. It is definitely one of the cleanest large cities I have seen…no wonder since littering can cost you an intense fine, let alone other crimes punishable by public beating or hanging, yikes. That said, it is a very safe city as long as you don't break the rules.So the afternoon was nice and Diego and I arrived back at the hostel just in time to start the scooter tour.

Our tourguide Michael lead the parade of scooters rolling toward oncoming traffic in the busy streets. I had to figure out my balance quickly as I skated along the side walk, afraid of falling over or tripping right infront of a car. I got the hang of it easily and started building speed, jumping over bumps and racing down big hills by the end of the night, so much fun. We weaved through back alleys glancing at people smoking hooka or eating curry, laughed at the shocked expression on people's face as fifteen scooters rang their bells and zig zagged between the crowd. The sun began to fade as we passed through china town then the central business district and on along the water edge. Couples sat in posh restaurants with a view of the city, chatting and listening to Lady Gaga and other trashy American pop music blasting through the speakers. Streams of city lights drained into the water as tall buildings glared down at the streets below. I was fascinated by the architecture in the city, crazy angles and creative shapes transformed bland skyscrapers into works of art. My favorite was the garden swimming pool in the shape of a long boat stretching across the top of three tall buildings. I was ready for dinner and smiling with excitement when I walked into an even bigger food court filled with unending options for curries and rice, porridge, fruit, juices and desserts from Korea and Thailand to India and china. I walked the circumference around and around and around, looking at pictures and reading menus, amazed by the options and cheap prices. I finally decided to have the claypot braised fish with rice and some watermelon and papaya and after finishing almost every bite I felt recharged and ready for more scooter riding.The air was cooler and not as heavy, I felt so happy and free skating around town on a scooter, talking to new friends as I passed by and watching the crazy little Philippino dude almost kill himself about a dozen times showing off his tricks. I was exhausted but pumping with excitement when we rolled up to the hostel around 11:30 but sat in the bean bags for a few more hours talking to my new friends Julia, Mikael and Diego. Julia was a really friendly 19 year old girl from Munich who has been traveling around New Zealand, Australia and Asia for the past year making her last stop in Singapore before heading home, Mikael is a 29 year old red head who was also from Germany and had spent the last year in Australia as well. Coincidentally I had met Diego at a BBQ at my house in Fremantle two days before and discovered that we happened to be on the same flight and were both heading to Singapore and Malaysia. So spanning the hemisphere and a ten year age range our little group of two Germans an Argentinean and an American spent the next two days walking the city, eating food, sharing pictures and stories. We saw temples painted blues and greens with Hindu gods, red and gold with fat Buddhas in a cloud of incense and ringing bells, white, brown and empty except for the shoes left behind by Muslims kneeling on mats, cathedrals quiet and dimly lit by sunrays through stained glass. We visited the Asian Culture museum to discover how all the religions intertwine in a city so full of diversity.

After hours of walking, I was happy to sit down and eat roti prata which is like a crepe with lots of layers, filled with cheese, egg and mushrooms that you dip in a thin curry sauce. It was delicious. We walked through the markets looking at cheap clothing and a few carts of food. I tried Sour Sop juice over ice chunks, a white chewy sort of fruit with a very refreshing tangy sweet flavor. I spotted a sign for bamboo cakes and had to try one, the lady handed me a small styrofoam bowl with three white sticky rolls filled with dark red sweet bamboo paste and sprinkled with coconut and some kind of orange sugar…it was delicious. That night we had dinner at a friendly Indian café where my Nasi Gorang (fried rice) cost three Singapore dollars. I tried a bite of Mikael's dessert, an avocado colored green jello-like layer ontop of sticky rice, slightly sweet and pretty good. We smoked grape hooka in an ally bar while sipping Singapore's favorite, Tiger Beer.We talked about places we had been, music, movies, the Simpson's, family and favorite food, enjoying the company of new friends. We decided to explore the bars near our hostel in Little India and after quickly walking out of a few empty lame ones we walked out of a loud disco ball lit room only to be invited back in by an Indian man for a pitcher of beer on him. He seemed nice and said he was Australian but comes to Singapore often, he wanted us to experience the Indian style of music and dance at the bar. I knew it would be an experience the second I heard the Indian singing reverberating off the walls of the small square room and as I watched five or six Indian men with modified mullets and fro's twisting their wrists and shaking their hips to the rhythm. I just watched and laughed, tried to lean across the table and scream into ears to comment on the happening scene. Fog filled the room and the micophone's metallic tone pierced the air with the wavy Indian tones of a man and woman's harmonizing duet. Mustached men who clearly swaying from alcohol reached out their hands for a dance over and over until we finished our beer and decided to groove on the dance floor for one song before leaving…surprisingly and thankfully we had the floor to ourselves.It was fun and the kind of crazy random experience that makes you feel like you beat other tourists and found a little taste of the real culture. I collapsed in bed that night and even slept through about three people's alarm clocks annoyingly beeping at ridiculous hours. The next day we crawled through the humidity to the botanical gardens and I took endless photos of palm trees and orchids. It took every ounce of energy my body had to step foot in front of foot back to the metro station to head back to Little India for food after a long day of walking and a long burned off breakfast. I devoured spicy dall and eggplant scooping up bites with my roti, it was delicious although I was pretty upset that they were out of naan. I was glad to see my bill was only 4.50 since I just had five dollars left besides the money for my bus ticket in the morning. We walked around the Bugis Street market and found the ice cream cart, spending my last dollar on a block of chocolate ice cream wrapped in pink and green swirled bread, a Singapore specialty. For our last night we walked across the city to the rooftop bar 70 stories up and watched the city lights sparkle below. It was an amazing view, sky scrappers evenly spaced all across the city instead of in one big clump like most cities I've seen, colorful lights flashed on a few towers, the ferris wheel spun and the bridge sparkled like a string of blue Christmas lights. It was a beautiful view and a perfect ending to a great few days in Singapore.