Singapore III (actually about Singapore)

After I posted my quickie blog to let Mom know I was still alive last night, er, really early this morning, I went downstairs and immediately had some dude offer me a taxi ride.  It felt fishy so I declined and said I wanted to wander the airport first, which was kind of true.  I wandered for like 2 minutes and then went outside and there were taxis lined up and this one guy yells right off at me.  I asked him if I needed Singapore money but he said he could swipe and he’d give me a receipt and everything would be peachy-keen so I jumped in and said I wanted to go to Chinatown, the place that the Singaporian man on the plane told me I should go.  I knew already that Singapore is a really safe place, because of harsh penalties like death to drug traffickers, and both of these men assured me I’d be totally fine wandering around in the middle of the night.  The ultra-friendly taxi driver talked my ear off and was quite animated but was really helpful in figuring out exactly where I should go.  I don’t think he ripped me off or anything either because the guy on the plane said it’d be about $25 and it was $25.03, which is Singapore dollars and the exchange rate is around 1 U.S. dollar to 1.65 Singapore dollar, so maybe around 15 dollars?  It would have been less too but there’s a required “late night” fee which makes it $1.50 for every $1.  And there’s also a tax for leaving from the airport.  Despite all the extra fees that would have been absent this morning coming back, I felt I could do better so I figured out that I could walk to an MRT, Mass Rapid Transit, station and ride it.  The only thing that runs from the airport at night are taxis so I was forced to take one.

The thing with the MRT though is that they only accept Singapore dollars or some local debit card thing called Nets.  I did have 40 cents because I’d bought a water sometime during the night (from 7-Eleven, the only 24 hour store I could find) with a U.S. dollar, but the ride to the airport from City Hall is $2.50 (but 1 dollar is a deposit so you get it back at the end of the ride).  I couldn’t find any 7-Elevens in the neighborhood of City Hall to buy more water and get change so I ended up asking some random chick if she’d take 2 U.S. dollars for 3 Singapore dollars.  She was happy to do it, maybe my generosity inspired her, like the 30 cents extra she got.

I skipped some stuff chronologically there but that’s because it was all the same subject.  First off, my first glimpse of Chinatown was AWESOME! I really don’t think words and barely pictures can do it justice.  Even though there were few people around and most everything was closed up, it was just sweet.  The taxi driver dropped me off on Eu Tong Sen/New Bridge and Smith, right by this late night eatery.  He told me I should eat there and then stroll.  I should have taken his advice to eat right then but I was still full from the 3 in-flight meals so I strolled first.  When I got back to that place, which I assumed was an all-nighter, it was closed, along with every eatery I had seen during my initial wandering.  So here I am, writing on my blog and I have still not eaten since my last meal on the plane!  Haha.  I refuse to eat at the likes of Burger King.  Hmm, I’m really hungry right now though and I think as soon as I’m done I’ma grab something small to tide me over until my flight to Bangkok.

Singapore is really really muggy, and that’s why my feet are blistering, because they’ve been wet ever since I stepped out of the airport.  My whole body has been wet in fact, and that was the middle of the night!  I’ve been inside the airport now since about 8:30 am so I don’t know if it’s becoming intolerable out there or not.  The sun comes up really late here, not until about 7 am.

Here are some notable observations:
In wandering through the Maxwell Road Hawker Centre, I noticed several signs advertising “fish ball noodles.”  Sounds tasty.

There are a couple of temples (Indian I think?) in Chinatown, Sri Mariamman and Thian Hock Keng.

The Sri one is only a couple blocks from my drop-off point but the the Thian one is a little further out.  I decided to walk over to the Thian at some point and I was hanging out in front of it trying to get a couple of pics.  After I got them I started walking away and this guy who had pulled up in car while I was photo-clicking, and was now out of his car, said something to me and came over asking me some questions.  He wasn’t scary or anything, just an average looking guy about my age, but I couldn’t understand him very well.  But when he said, “You know that this street is the gay & lesbian street?”  I heard him quite well. I said I had no idea and just wanted to see the temple; he seemed pretty disappointed when we parted ways.  I thought I was going to get hit on by hot women over here in Asia.

At 5 am this morning, there were guys all over Chinatown sleeping on benches and stuff.  One guy had his shirt up above his Buddha belly, pretty funny looking.  What I really wanted to say about 5 am this morning though is that people starting showing up to start preparing for the day’s ruckus, which unfortunately I’m missing out on because my feet “hurt real bad” and I couldn’t walk back down there, and I saw these two old ladies (wish I’d gotten a pic) totally hobbling down this ramp with their deformed bow-legged legs.  I mean really bow-legged.  I bet those two ladies walk down that ramp every morning on the brink of collapsing and then shuck corn, chop lettuce, skin potatos, and prepare a bunch of food.  Basically, work very hard with their limited bodies.  Um, glad I don’t have that job.

Around 5:30 am I decided I should probably give up on hanging at Chinatown for the markets to open since there was no sign of light and the people I asked said the sun rises at 7:30.  I wandered north towards an MRT station I located in Lonely Planet and walked into Raffles Landing, an area with ginormous skyscrapers and lighted bridges all surrounding (and going over) a big bulge in the Singapore river.  As far as man-made things go, it’s a really beautiful spot.  I was going to chill there and wait for sun-rise but I decided to walk around the area instead.  Apparently it’s a hot-spot for running in the morning because around 6 am I saw probably 10 or 15 different joggers doing their thing.  I was also about to climb some steps when I looked up and saw a pack of 15-20 roadies (like full on with the neon spandexy gear and everything, they appeared to be white people though, some of the very few I’ve actually seen here besides in the airport) go flying by.  That’s early to be riding, sweet time and place to do it though.

Well I’m finally back to the MRT.  First of all it was nice to get some aircon after 5 1/2 hours of walking in airy water.  The MRT is pretty quick and quite nice and modern.  In the short trip, I enjoyed spying on the people mostly.  They were mostly commuters with nothing to say to each other, just like I am back home.  The thing of interest though was how many had headphones, probably all connected to mp3 players.  That way they have an excuse not to talk!  While floating along, which is how it feels, I saw tons of apartment complexes, and they were littered with Singapore flags.  I asked this young hottie next to me if the flags were for normal or for an occasion and, I think she said they are for National Holiday on August 9th.  I’ll have to Google that sometime to confirm.  The last thing I noticed was the truly ginormous Singapore Expo center.  I don’t know what an Expo actually is but this one was gargantuan, I bet it spans at least 10 blocks.

I have to check in for my next flight now, BANGKOK, so I’ll holla again sometime later.  Ah yeah!  I’m so stoked to meet up with Danica.  I’m glad I got this little amount of time on my own too because that way I have some stories to tell her.  I was feeling pretty left out the other night when I looked at the photos her mom put on the Internet (go to D’s blog and find the SueMue7 link) and from reading D’s blogs.  It doesn’t matter now though, we’re off to see the wizard!