Singapore
In the Train (Saturday 11:50am)
So far the journey to Singapore is smooth. I got onto the train in time, and also we bought are tickets on different days the girls and I are sitting in the same coach. The train is well aircon'd (almost a little overdone), and I'm sitting next to an elderly chinese man. Going through the country on train by day you get the chance to gain a look onto several tropical farms. Although I can't (yet?) distinguish the different plants the diversity is impressive.
Lounging (Sunday 9:51pm)
Yesterday night we were just too tired to do anything else, than to fall into our beds, when we arrived back at the hotel. So I was not up to write a little report then. After arriving in Singapore at around 3:30pm we headed for the next MRT-Station and checked for our hotel first. The Problem was that I joined in spontaneously and Jule had only reserved a double room with an extra bed. When we asked for another bed we were told that the room would be too small, but we could give it a try. After having a look of the room it was clear, that it was really small, but we managed it to get another bed into it. So the accommodation costs sunk to SGD39/person for 2 nights. Afterwards we went out to see something of the city our first target was little India. Impressive how much Indian people are there. We got some Indian food - and it was quit some fun eating with the bare right hand. We decided to go a for a beer at some nice bar. Because somewhere at the river could be a good spot - we headed straight through half of the city to get there. We found some nice bar, too - but it wasn't at the water. It was nice, though. Later we made it to the water and I could get some impressive pictures there. Going back to the hotel was quite nice, too until we were nailed by rain, and due to the lack of umbrellas couldn't move any farther without getting absolutely soaked. So we waited for about an hour under a roof of a building site... (that happened less then 400m away from our hotel..).
Now only Sanni and I are left at the comfortable lounge. Jule and Voj are already headed for their bed, since they want to get up at 7am tomorrow to reach the high council early tomorrow, and get their visa-status changed.
This morning we got up at 9am. Since the aircon doesn't work very well at our room we needed a shower first. Afterwards we got breakfast at coffee bean. Our main goal for this day was to head down Orchard road, and experience the different shopping possibilities Singapore offers. Jule’s main goal was to get some special Birkenstock shoes. This turned out to be a little complicated, since her reservation at the first outlet was lost, and we had to visit the second outlet where the shoes were still in stock. In the end Jule bought some other shoes, because the intended pair didn’t match her expectations, when she saw them in real. But she is happy with her new shoes now, and so are we.
On the way there I gathered some expectations in bargaining. You really get the best prices, if you don't want to buy anything. At a photo shop the first offer for a Canon EF 75-300mm lens was SGD600, I got the price down to 420SGD by arguing, that this was a price I'd seen in Germany. When I went to leave without anything bought, I finally got the lens offered for 320 SGD!! That was about 50% of the original price... I already was about to buy it, when I noticed, that it was the model without USM, so I left without buying, and the tender was deeply insulted.
It's done (Sunday 9:10pm)
We made it! We are finally sitting in a comfortable bus to KL. It’s only the two bus driver, a Singaporean businessman, Voj and me. Don’t think Transnasional will earn much money with only three passengers. But that’s not our concern. We are on the best way to reach KL in time. Customs only took as a few minutes, and traffic looks smooth. Again some ugly circumstances got us to leave a travel destination late:
- we didn’t buy ticket back in KL (we couldn’t have since they only sell tickets from Singapore to KL there if you buy them as return tickets, and we didn’t take the bus to Singapore.)
- we also didn't manage to go for tickets for the 5pm bus on Sunday, since we were quite distracted, with Sannis mobile phone stolen
- it takes the High Council 8 working hours to fulfill some easy administrative tasks
- the bus company could not provide us Infos about their buses running from JB to KL.
But being home late today was worth the great day we had in Singapore. Who thought that we would drink a Singapore-Sling at the most expensive hotel in town! We surely wouldn't have made it if we had taken the train at 1pm.
After buying a bus tickt in Lavender street we headed down to Sim Lim Square. For anyone interested in electronic stuff, this is the place to go. But you'll have to bargain for each and every small thing. If you really want to buy something it might take you a while to find a shop, that has the product you want, for a reasonable price. (I think if you ask for a price they give you twice their buying-in price first..). I think going for computer hardware you might be better off buying straight at Low Yat plaza in KL. But I'll have to compare prices later..
Since we had not made it to see the symbol of Singapore the day before we headed for the water and had some fun shooting photos there with the lion, which is a giant gargoyle. We enjoyed an ice cold coke in the sun and then went to collect Voj's visa. The park behind the high council was a nice stop to see some nature and have a rest.
On our way back to lavender street we stopped at Raffles Hotel, and asked for a friend Voj had met over a year ago in KL, and who worked at the hotel. We were lucky, and Dass was on duty. He was surprised and happy to meet Voj again. Since he had to work he had not much time for us, but he got us two cocktails!! Now we where sitting at the terrace of Singapores most expensive hotel (SGD650+/night) having a cocktail - really impressive 