Singapore - the true urban wasteland

Wow...

Arrived in Singapore at 3:30 this morning (singapore time) and sat in the airport waiting until the rapid transit started up (6:00 am). Then it was a surprisingly stress free trip on the train to the new 7th story hotel, the nearest, cheapest hotel around. I slept for a couple hours after meeting my new roommate Casper (like the friendly? ghost) who coincedentally is from B.C as well, and apparently worked selling things on wreck beach for a while...

I woke up, and my quick trip to get something to eat and find an internet cafe turned into an 8 hour odyssey of endless tall buildings and malls... You can literally walk the streets of singapore without ever having to take more than two steps from one airconditioned building to the next. Food was an interesting question, as I was kind of determined to find something with local flavour, meaning I had to bypass, while extremely hungry, pretty much every outpost of western fast food you can dream of... I eventually found some fresh papaya juice and pork cutlet noodles in a mall foodcourt, which were fairly satisfying - the juice more than the noodles. By the end of the day I was tired enough that I just ended up getting a Mos Burger for a snack, which I rationalized cause it's at least a japanese fast food chain...

Now, what the preceding paragraph should prove to you is that things can get pretty dull when you're travelling alone, and also that one of the ways to make people think you're not crazy is to write in small notebooks or sit on the internet in a basement for hours -

I had culture shock when I arrived in Singapore, not because it's some exotic asian culture and i'm out of my depth, but because I was suddenly cast adrift in a giant shopping mall that spans a city, with everyone going their own way and doing their own things. Everything is pretty much in english here, right down to the Milo and English breakfast tea they sell at the coffee shops. Kind of takes me back to grade 8, the things you do to look busy while everyone around ignores you...

Conclusion: i've got to get the hell out of singapore as soon as possible, cause I don't have enough money to have fun shopping for luxury goods for four days.

I think my antidote will be going to little india for a good meal tonight, seeing Changi Prison Camp tomorrow, then taking the next train or bus to Kuala Lumpur. No guarantees that that large impersonal city will be any better, but the closer I get to Thailand, the closer I am to all those Irish, British, and German backpackers I spurned in Australia... Ah for familiar surroundings...

I have a few photos of random things, mostly tall buildings and pollution, and i'll try and put them up when I can...

Until then,

Chris.