Hello from Singapore... So i arrived yesterday in the one of the wealthiest and most highly developed countries in the world. What a difference from India, high rise buildings, overly clean, efficient, wealthy, shopping malls galore and EXPENSIVE!!! I have arrived 3 days before the Singapore grand prix and for those of you not familiar with the Singapore grand prix its run at night, it looks spectacular on TV i am sure its just as amazing watching in person, unfortunatley i was unaware the race was this weekend and having spent £200 changing flights previously to stay longer in India i opted not to change them again, its a real shame and in the back of my mind i am still thinking i should stay and watch, though after less than 24hrs here I have already spent over £600 dollars but will come to that shortly, so i think the less time here the better.
On arrival i still hadnt a hotel or hostel, my friend Steve who lives here suggested a hotel but when i rang they wanted $160 dollars a night (by the way its about £1 = $2.2 Singapore dollars). I contacted Steve, still sat in the airport, within 15mins he had booked me into the 'River City Inn' hostel based next to the Clarke Quay in central Singapore. He said he had put a deposit down and looked nice. I jumped in a taxi and within 20min was outside the hostel, it didnt look the greatest and the driver advice it was on the 3rd floor. I was soon to find the exterior was more than misleading, the hostel is probably one of the best i have stayed in, shoes off before entering, wooden floors, modern with free WIFI, clean hot showers and 4 man dorms, a very cool communal area which allows you to mingle nicely with other backpackers, 4* hostel i would say and its popular, not a single bed free, i was lucky to get in especially with the Grand Prix so close. So i dumped my stuff, showered and chilled on the sofa's, caught up on emails and my blog and then headed down to the quay. Here is where I realised how expensive Singapore is. My aim was a big fat beef steak after no beef for 6 weeks in India, that soon changed when i came across a seafood restaurant, only my favourite food. I ordered a whole fish and egg fried rice with of course a 'Tiger' beer. The fish was out of this world and so it should have been, at this point i ask you to take a seat, now don't get me wrong i didn't check the price, which was mistake one and the biggest mistake i'll probably ever make, i knew it wouldn't be cheap but thought i'd treat myself after 6 weeks of Curry's! so are you ready?!?!? $117 dollars, yes you read that right, $117 dollars, now i will also point out that this was no fancy establishment, it was on the quay which was nice, but it was outside, under a canopy with menu's and signs which clearly were 20 years old and faded in the sun and paper table cloths! So for 1 fish, 1 fried rice and a tiger beer (which was $8 dollars alone) i paid around £60 for one person! I sat there for a moment wanting to ask the guy whether i should bend over the table also then decided fcuk it, sucked it up, paid and left to walk around quay, putting the cost out of my mind, you only live once! The quay was surrounded by skyscrapers and beautifully lit hotels and walk bridges, there were more restaurants which i told myself surely were way more expensive that the one i had just been in but i doubted this thought, there were also lots of bars. The quay was horseshoe shaped on the other side i could here a pretty loud sound system, i wasn't really dressed for entering the bars but thought i'd take a peak. The bar/restaurant was packed to the rafters and guarded by many bouncers, as i walked by who did i see, yep the one and only 'Martin Brundle', i was soon to realise everyone was dressed in designer clothes, glittering jewellery and stank of money, it was an F1 party!! I tried to stare in for any further sighting's of celeb's but was starting to get a few stares myself from the bouncers, so i moved myself on. I wondered back to the hostel and by now it was gone midnight. Got into my bed and slept the best i had in many weeks.
I awoke today, refreshed, feeling clean and raring to explore Singapore, i had met a couple of people, Henry from just outside Sheffield and Irene a teacher from Amsterdam. I invited both to join me, Henry had stuff to do but Irene was up for exploring. So we set off in search of China town. As some of you know Singapore is famous for electronics, especially Camera's. Within the hour i had parted with another $300 dollars, i had bought a new lens for my Canon 1000D, the lens i had was only 18mm - 55mm, i wanted the wide angle of the 18mm still but wanted more zoom but didn't want to be changing lens every 2 mins, so i went for a 18mm-200mm, having used this afternoon, i am well happy with my purchase. We wondered round china town for a while and grabbed some lunch, this time spending less than $15 for 2 beers, huge prawn dish and beef fried rice, man i was seriously robbed on the quay! After lunch we headed for the infamous Raffles hotel. For those of you that don't know, Raffles is famous for the cocktail 'Singapore Sling' and originated from the hotel. We didn't actually go into the hotel, i really think i would have been asked to leave within seconds of stepping through the door but of course they still want to take advantage of silly tourists who are willing to pay $26 dollars for a Singapore Sling at the infamous Raffles Hotel, so they have a pretty smart outside circular bar, something you would see on a fancy beach in the Maldives or Bora Bora. Of course not to disappoint Mr Raffles, myself and Irene pulled up a stool and ordered a $26 dollar cocktail, i must admit this was another fcuk it moment but the cocktail was amazing! Sinking the first ones pretty quick, it would have been rude not to have another, so we did!! After we had finished the second ones and paid the $115 dollar bar bill for 4 cocktails we headed back to the hostel, en-route walking past part of the F1 circuit, even if we could only get within 50m of it.
So here I am, chilling back at the hostel writing to you good people, i think after a rather expensive 24hrs i may stay in tonight, though i did see a bar offering 3 big bottles of Tiger beer for $15, Mmmm.. decisions, decisions!! Hope everyone is well, despite having spent a small fortune since arriving in Singapore, I love the city and the people, there are many, many westerners here but you still get a feel for the Asian side too. Speak soon followers and keep well.
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