Day 15 - Marina Bay, Marina Barrage and a Muslim called Samil

On Day 15 I woke up and decided to do some washing, so I washed my kilt, before leaving it to dry out on the line. I headed for the obligatory money change before deciding to go out to Marina Bay MRT to see what is there. The answer: not much. On exiting the MRT station, you are surrounded by construction sites, and you have to follow a series of laminated signs pointing to the 'Marina Barrage shuttle bus'. That sounded promising. The trip to Marina Barrage passed through more construction areas, and then we reached the barrage, which seemed to be a great feat of architecture, was based around a large, sweeping roof which you could walk up, since it was covered with grass and had a path. There were many people on the roof itself, flying kites. From the roof I saw a fountain area, which you could paddle in. I headed round the remaining sweep of the roof, and into the area, and soon I was paddling in the lovely, cool water of the fountain, and then I decided, what the heck! I took my shirt off, removed anything which could be water damaged from my pockets, and proceeded to get thoroughly soaked, which highly amused a small kid who had exactly the same intention. I then got talking to the boy's father, who was a native Singaporean Muslim called Samil, his son called Ahmed. We had a cvery interesting conversation, where I learned many facts about Singapore, especially about the educational system, which I strucured very similarly to that of England, and English is actually taught as afirst language to children, before Singaporean. We then got talking about Kembangan, and Sam told me that he lived in Bedok, nearby and that there was a large mall there with a hawker centre inside. He offered me a lift, and I gratefully accepted, and he took me to the mall, explaining that Singapore is smaller than you might think, and that the Merlion in Sentosa is not acutally the real Mrelion, the real one being much smaller and located in the CBD. He pointed out some of the sights on the way, and I thanked him when we arrived and he droppedm me off, having to head home. I headed into the mall and trawled the bookshop, looking for a 'bible' for Sydney and, after a lengthy search ended up with an alternative, so Sydney's adventures will be based on the bible of Frommer's, not on a Lonely Planet bible. Then I hit the food ourt, enjoying chicken rice (although the chicken was a bit dry) followed by (I couldn't help myself) Choclate Fondue, which had strawberries, banana, waffles, chcolate wafer bites and marshamallows, and rich choclate sauce. Bliss. I then headed for the aptly named 'Giant' hypermarket, where I found some books to read, Including one from the author of the book I had finished the previous evening (not included in the blog since reading is not exploration, and would seem quite boring and repetitive). I also found another book, and bought both for S$18, good value for books. I then headed back, to find that I had a new roommate, called Fahin from Sri Lanka. When I first reached the room, he apologised, but he was very tired, and so I took my book and headed to the downstairs cafe/bar to sit with a beer and read. After a beer I felt slightly peckish, and decided to brave some of the cuisine, only to find (to my delight), that they served sweet and sour pork. I ordered a small portion and it arrived, complete with fork. I sent the (bemused) waiter away to get chopsticks, and felt quite stisfied a while later when I finished the dish with a clan shirt. Well, as they say, when in Rome.. I then had another beer before retirting to the dorm, ti find Fahin was now awake and we sat and talked for a while about Sri Lanka and Scotland, and he told me that one day he wanted to move to the UK for work. After a while, pooped, I retired to my bed and slept.

Day 9 - And relax...

On day 9 I didn't wake up until about 1pm. I think it was the 8.5% proof cider that did it. Especially since I had two bottles of the stuff. Still, it was quite nice. I decided to do what I didn't get the chance to do yesterday, so after a long shower and some food, I decided first to catch up with George and say bye before he headed off to Shenzhen. I managed to catch him, and I bid him farewell. Then I headed up to the swimming pool (I had rinsed out my swimming stuff from day 8 to remove the sand), and spent several hours in the pool relaxing and working off the stresses of the week. I also headed down to an arcade that George had told me about, which turned out to contain a very loud (and addictive) car racing game, and a very addictive (and very loud) drumming game. What with that and grabbing some grub, that was the afternoon gone, and in the evening I decided to re-do the peak (day 3) to get some pictures. However, little did I know that instead, on the ferry I would meet Illie and Nick, from Rochester. we got chatting, and instead of the peak we headed up to a bar at the top off the IFC, which did provide quite a good view of the light display, but the lights proved too hard to photograph (the attempts are on facebook), so instead we decided to just watch the wonderful display of dancing light. I can tell you, it really was something. I then split with Illie and Nick (who had to go back to Happy Valley, where they were staying with Illie's parents), and the IFC palace cinema caught my eye, as did a certain film, whose title begins with the word Inglorious (I can't give you the full name because this blog may end up on Mr Hood's whiteboard). I tell you. the seats in the theatre were amazing, really comfy, like armchairs, and with proper armrests and none of that stupid fold-up nonsense. And, for this? Only HK$85, which is very reasonable. The film was also very good (no details so I don't ruin it for those who haven't seen it). After the film I realised how late it was, and decided to run down to the MTR, which I managed to catch (well, it was past midnight, and that trains don't run all night). Then it was off to bed, back at Chungking.

Day Four - Tiredness, Red Bull and Squash

Ok, so for a recap, when I left the last blog it was about 4am and we'd arrived at an internet cafe. We stayed there until well after 7 am, and then decided to go to our respective accommodation to freshen up before re-convining for breakfast (guess where). When we had had breakfast, we got some red bull and headed back to the internet cafe, and that is where we stayed for several hours, with me finally emerging about 4pm for some food, and to get some swimming clothes and more Red Bull (Ok, I know it's boring, but we were tired from being up all night and trying to beat jet lag, live with it!). When I went for food, I was considering McDonalds, but decided to refrain, so I went into pizza hut (just to look and see what there was). Bad idea when tired. When I reached the restaurant (it was downstairs, in the basement) I was quickly whisked to a table, and befor I could protest some free water appeared. Drat! I had just fallen into there trap, now I had to order something! I that vain, I examined the menu and decided to go for the less expensive but slightly interesting option. What was simply described as chocolate pizza. That was probably not the best decision, as the chocolate pizza contained not only chocolate, but also cheese. I'm not kidding, but since it cost me HK$30, I had to eat it. I ate as quickly as possible, and then got out as quick as I could. When I was finally free from their trap, and feeling a bit less well, I headed back to the safety of the cafe. There I satyed for a couple more hours, just while George got his week's work finished, and we headed out to the swimming pool. When we arrived, we discovered thet we would have to wait an hour and a half before the next session of swimming would begin, so we searched for something to do in the meantime, and we found that squash was available. Imagine this. Two very tired guys trying to play squash in bare feet. Jollity prevailed, as did much laughter. We then headed for the pool, and were told that only the outside pool was open. I'm glad, because the outside pools were brilliant, with some waterfalls, and heated water. It actually managed to keep us awake for the next couple of hours, and then we decided to call it a night (at 8pm, how boring!), so that's it for this blog, stay tuned!