Singapore

The enormous bus to Singapore contained only me and the driver; how I craved this situation on much longer trips, so I might snooze on the back seats. The journey was swift with only a small jam on the bridge from Malaysia to Singapore. Customs, as expected, was extremely shiny and efficient, and before I knew it I was standing in a dusty car-park in the middle of Singapore, with military fighter planes screaming overhead, obviously celebrating my arrival. Google have just launched offline maps and I'd promptly downloaded Singapore before leaving Melaka. I switched on GPS and sweatily trudged in the general direction of my "starred" hostel with more planes zooming about above (they were actually practising for an Independence day celebrations). The maps work great, maximum credit to Google, this could change the world! The only issue being occasional GPS signal errors and the battery life of our power hungry devices, leaving you stranded - always have an old-fashioned back-up plan!

Goodbye Malaysia, hello Singapore

Just the two of us

You can go shopping... in a boat

All-seeing cows

The price jump, even from Malaysia, was dramatic. Singapore, as everyone knows, is expensive. I initially opted for one of the cheapest places I could pre-book on tripadvisor, a place called Empire hostel (17 Singapore dollars per night per dorm bed), tucked away in a back street in the northern suburbs. The hostel is clean and functional, and the other guests are friendly. Apart from a German girl in the next bunk all of the other occupants are from elsewhere in Asia, and working long-term in Singapore; this hostel being their cheapest living option. I wouldn't recommend this hostel unless you're on a particularly tight budget as it's time consuming getting to central, as well as costing a few extra dollars in transport that you could spend in a central hostel. 

I had three tasks to complete: pick up my replacement credit card, find $700 of unused, unmarked, sequential bank notes and catch a flight to Yangon. The first task I immediately crossed from my list. I don't know if It was the incompitence of English banks (most likely) or the postal system, but the card never arrived. I spent the first day gawking at giant buildings, freezing in air-conned mega-malls and dribbling at things I would never be able to afford. Priced out of the city-centre I headed for the Chinatown markets. In a cafe two friendly Japanese businessmen asked me to join them, one was the Asian director of Audi sales. They were very interested in what exactly I was doing loafing about in Chinatown. I explained the unexciting story of me loafing about in Asia generally. They kindly bought me a few beers and some food and gave me some pointers on "good" massage parlours. Later I bumped into the German girl from the hostel, who said that someone she knew told her how to get to the top of the Marina Sands hotel without paying the $20 non-resident fee. At the hotel we told the concierge that we wanted to go to the top-deck bar for a tipple, where we were able to slip past security amongst the hundreds of people milling about. The vista is breathtaking. Every night at 8pm and 9pm there's an opulent light and water show in the bay.

Japanese businessmen

The ri-donkulous Marina Sands hotel

View from the top of Marina Sands

The (rather expensive!) bar

Samah, who I'd met in Melaka, was now in Singapore. She told me she was staying in a nice central hostel. I checked out of the Empire and lugged my bags to the Treetop lodge (eco) hostel (SG$23 per night / dorm); a clean, chilled hostel with VERY helpful staff, and walking distance from everything. Samah very gracefully followed me while I scoured the money-changers and banks of Singapore, looking for those sparkling dollars that would get me through twenty-two days in Myanmar. Most banks weren't able to help; some banks contained sofas and gold toilets and wouldn't serve me; most money changers tried to give me old or marked cash, which I had to refuse. On a steamy night walking home from a long days sightseeing (and another glittering trip to the Marina Sands top-deck) I decided to have one final stab finding clean US dollars in the Raffles (mall) basement. On seeing a remarkably unassuming stall with a bored looking man wedged inside I'd pretty much given up hope, but he jolly well came up with the goods! Seven super-crisp, untouched, sequencial one-hundered dollar notes! I quickly tucked the envelope safely into my laptop, thanked the man profusely and we left.

Hookers, boats and planes here I come!! Well, maybe not

You can see all of my photos here