The K Experience

Singapore

Past - Other Places

Friday, 07 March 2008

We've all seen cartoons right, and we all know that effect where the cartoon character runs off, but part of it takes time to catch up. And there's the one where the character runs off and kinda changes shape when it's moving. Just like this picture. Well Imagine a whole place like that. A cartoon country, as perfect as the drawings in a cartoon...

Well, Singapore wasn't actually like that, but it was pretty close. It is by far the cleanest place I have ever been to, well the central area where I stayed was anyway. The picture of the truck deformed by its movement, is actually a true unedited picture. But it was in fact taken with a rubbish camera, which is why it came out like this.

I had the fortune of going to Singapore on a crazy Christmas/new years tour of Asia that I did. Well, it was not much of a tour to be honest. I went to three countries, one of which I was living in at the time, Japan. It was my most eventful traveling holiday I ever had, and Singapore was the first leg of the journey.

The pictures I took looked so much like a model city. Not model as in ideal (which it kinda was to look at), but model as in model trains. It looked a bit surreal, like a miniature version of itself, in life size (if that makes sense). It was uncanny.

I stayed in at the Robertson Quay Hotel, in Clarke Quay, which is a historic riveside quay in Singapore. It was a beautiful area, and obviously the tourist centre of Singapore, which overlooked the business center as you can see by the pictures, which were taken from my hotel window, (which was just below the "Robertson Quay" sign in the picture on the right).

It was a lovely place to stay, and a really relaxing time away from Japan. I chose Singapore as a holiday destination as a uni friend of mine, Victor, lived there. He showed me all the sights, and I spent Christmas Day, (the day after I arrived) with his family, which was really cool.

I decided to splash out here too, and ended spending a bit more than I expected. I bought a laptop (which Iasted 18 months), a video camera (which I still have but is on it's last legs), an mp3 player for my sis, a gameboy advanced for my little bro (was all the rage back in 2003), and a few pillow cases and stuff for my mum. For the electronics, Victor suggested I go to Sim Lim Tower, which was THE place to go for electronics, the Ikebukuro of Singapore (reference probably means nothing to those that don't know Japanese electonics shopping).

As expected with most places in South East Asia, if people know you are not from there, they want to draw as much cash out of you as possible, whether you want to spend it or not. I got this from most places I went, apart from when I met this strange guy at the market in the Quay, near where my hotel was. What made him so strange was he didn't try to sell me anything. I walked around his stall and he just sat there, minding his own business. Even when he started talking to me, he didn't even hint about me buying anything. It was bizarre. I think it was some kind of reverse psychology. It worked. I ended up buying a couple of pillow cases from him. He even looked a bit bothered that I bought something and beaconed me to hand the money over to his mum in the back. He seemed really cool though, down to earth. Don't remember his name.

Being there really reminded me of home. There were British shops, like Marks and Sparks and stuff, and everyone spoke English. They even had 240V plug sockets. What more could a British man ask for? I guess the fact that Singapore had been a British Colony in the 19th Century had something to do with it. After living in Japan for five months, this was the closest that I had been to home, and was going to be for the next 7 months. Which kinda made me feel more homesick when I actually went back to Japan and started teaching at the high school 2 weeks later. But all in all, it was a great start to my crazy Asia trip, which I will continue in another entry.

Check out the other Singapore Pictures in the Gallery, and you can check out info about Clarke Quay from wikipedia, and the Clarke Quay tourist website.

Comments

Add New

+/- Comment Form

Write comment

Name:

Email:

Website:

Title:

UBBCode:

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

xuehong

|03-11-2008 12:27:52

"I think it was some kind of reverse psychology. It worked. I ended up
buying a couple of pillow cases from him." haha... sometimes we kind of trap
by ourselves!

Reply | Quote