little tara

In November 2005 I set off on a tour I called ‘Around the World in 80-Something Days’; I would be doing exactly that, starting with a friend for the first couple of weeks, then heading off on my own to visit friends, family and unknown places along the way.

For the first leg, I ventured forth once more with my friend Emma (my Hawaii companion), this time heading West from Brisbane and stopping in Singapore for 8 hours before heading on to our next destination. We arrived at some ungodly hour of the morning and caught the very first MRT (underground train) into the city from the airport. Of course, nothing was open that early in the morning, but we managed to do a quick runaround before having to head back to catch our plane.

We snapped pictures of the immense high-rises near Raffles Place, admiring the old Chinese-style shopfronts along the river in the shadow of the skyscrapers, before heading to the Bugis MRT station. We walked to the moneybags Raffles Hotel and loitered outside, imagining what it would be like to just waltz right in and check in, and tootled around the CHIJMES complex for a little while. CHIJMES (pronounced “chimes”) was originally the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ), but the nuns left in the early 1980s and since then the place has been restored and turned into a bit of a yuppie hotspot, full of swanky bars, restaurants and boutiques. On previous visits to Singapore, I had always stopped by at night when the twinkling fairy lights lit the whole place with a kind of serene magic. Seeing it in the metallic light of a grey, oppressively humid day was not quite as enchanting, but you could still sense the history in the place.

We returned to Bugis Junction in the hope that the shops etc. had opened for the day, but sadly Bugis Street market was still closed. Once a bastion of all that was alternative and “naughty” in Singapore, Bugis Street has long since been renovated and cleaned up, but the markets are still great if you feel like fresh juice for a buck and being stuck in a pulsating throng of locals. Sadly, no pulsating throngs for us… just street sweepers and boarded shopfronts. We crossed the road and re-entered the Bugis Junction shopping centre. The shops were mostly closed (when does stuff actually OPEN in Singapore?!?), but some of the stalls were open and we poked about, looking at cheapie handbags and miniature perfume bottles. The girl at the perfume bottle stand was really friendly but her eyes were positively seeping white liquid… I remember clearly her wiping her eyes with her hands, covering her fingers in… whatever it was (pus? sleep? random goop?) and then trying to give Emma one of the bottles. Squirm.

A few punters had finally turned up at the shopping centre; by this point we were hungry and, if I remember correctly, we had pancakes at the nearby McDonald’s for breakfast because it was the only place open! I had SO been looking forward to a good murtabak (thin Indian bread stuffed with meaty goodness) at the Bugis food court, but alas, alack, it was not to be. We stepped outside and watched some kids play in the fountain in the early-morning heat – always one of my favourite things to do in Singapore. They squealed and ran around, trying to dodge the seemingly random pattern of watery pulses, always somehow managing to get soaked.

From Bugis we made our way to Little India, where we found a hawker centre open. Thank god! These places are ALWAYS the best places to get food in Singapore if you’re on a budget… for a couple of dollars you can get a really good feed! Emma tried a ‘Kickapoo Joy Juice’, and we wandered around for a little while. We had run into the tail end of Diwali, and the streets were decorated with banners, brightly-coloured trinkets and flower garlands. The ground was covered in coloured streamers, presumably from some event the night before.

By this time, we were a little bit hot and weary, and we took the coward’s way out; we headed to Raffles City shopping centre (definitely heavy on the Raffles references here!) and sat ourselves down at the Haagen Dazs cafe and ate super-indulgent ice cream. Delight! From there it was a simple MRT journey back to the airport, where we sauntered through the almost non-existent security procedures and settled in to take advantage of the free internet, use the clean toilets, watch the free movies, and generally take advantage of all the facilities that Singapore Changi airport had to offer. Sure, it had been a fun interlude, but it was the next stop we were really excited about: Vietnam.

For a few photos of our day in Singapore, click here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tara.

Tags: singapore, travel