Singapore
By far the most efficient airport I’ve ever experienced. We were off the plane, through customs and in a cab to the hotel before I knew what had happened. My favourite part was at the baggage claim. There was a driver waiting for someone holding a sign up for a “Mr Yap”. I immediately imagined one of those small celebrity dogs coming through the airport to be picked up in his own limo. Of course, the classic Seinfeld steal the limo caper came to mind:
“He doesn’t know O’Brien, if he knew O’Brien he wouldn’t have a sign”
But I don’t think I’d pass for a Mr Yap… nor a small celebrity dog.
Singapore is a beautiful, clean, polite city… almost too much so. Sometimes you feel like Big Brother is watching and if you miss the bin with your rubbish they’ll pull a van up and take you away screaming and everyone will just watch on, not helping out of fear that they too might get taken… Or something like that. Or maybe they all just respect their city and act civil to one another (looks at Sydney).
For a city with a population in the millions I never saw the streets bustling with people or the roads congested, they all move around like ninjas. I don’t mean to imply that just because they’re Asian that they’re ninjas, I meant in the sneaky way… not that Asians are sneaky.
We did all the sites and touristy stuff. The Flyer (think London eye), the night Safari (which was pretty awesome), the cruise on the river thingy (*yawn*). This was all made all that more interesting by the fact I was now deaf in one ear.
In the days before we left I spent 2 days confined to my bed with the trifecta: Shakes, sweats and sniffles. While I was feeling much better when it came time to fly out I was still stuck with a head full of mucus. The flight was excruciating enough as it were but when my ears didn’t pop properly on landing I knew something was wrong. I had got an ear infection from flying that left me deaf in my left ear and every time I spoke I lost my hearing entirely. This added a whole new dimension (or rather, removed one) to being in a foreign place.
The hotel we were in had an infinity pool that was 5 stories up. The whole external side of the pool was clear glass so if I were able to put my head under water (damn ear infection) I could’ve looked through to the street below. This was cool except that every time I went for a swim I was expecting it to crack sending me to the street in a waterfall… but it never did
Another good thing about Singapore is that they still have a Starbucks on every corner, which is great for me as I’m addicted to White Mocha Frapachino’s (No joke here, just the facts). Generally, I’m like a small child when you take me shopping. I moan and drag my feel and complain the whole time. I love a good whinge. But put a White Mocha Frapachino in my hands and I’m golden. I just walk around sucking on it quiet as a mouse for hours. My girlfriend would make a point of our first stop when going on a shopping expedition to be to pop into a Starbucks and load me up with the frozen coffee goodness. She’d then get a couple of hours of polite, co-operating Mitchell to take shopping before my eventual regression into being a moany prick.
And just like that our whirlwind couple of days in Singapore were over. It was back through the spotless streets (is that someone being dragged into a van for littering?) to the super-swift airport to begin the second stage of the holiday. Penang, Malaysia.
