1st April - Singapore - Arab Street - Science Centre

Tuesday 1^st April

Singapore orchids

By the way…just in case anyone, other than ME, was fretting…all of my defrauded money has been paid back into my Westpac account. 

$5,483…I am very relieved and very grateful to the bank, but annoyed that the fraudsters just got away with it; none of the refund came out of their nasty sticky pockets!!

A lovely turaco to celebrate the refund (and no i had never heard of a turaco before...)

One thing we will miss in Little India is the restaurants. 

 Indian food at its very best!  I love the sexy statues, the superfriendly waiters, the glorious brinjal dishes.  (Brinjal = eggplant, my very favourite vegetable.)

 Khansama restaurant was brilliant.  Next time you are in Singapore – go there!!  On our way out from the Grand Chancellor* we passed a venue where they were having a toddler birthday party.  SO cute!

In the evening the Arab Street area is even more beautiful.

The dome gleams golden, and the tower changes colour, like the lovely candle Chantal (SV Micromegas) gave me….

On Sunday night we ate at Zam Zam, a very cheap & cheerful BUSY place down the street.  Pete thought a murtobak would be a nice entrée, to share between us…and it was MORE than enough; we didn’t move on to our other options of veg curry, nasi lemak etc etc…

Pete made some very nice new friends in a carpet shop:

How many carpet shops are there in the world, all selling these wonderful hand-made carpets from Iran, Afghanistan?  And how many people are labouring away, doing those tiny stitches??

On our river cruise I took another photo of the Hill Street Police Station.  (It is now a centre for Arts & Culture & Multiculturalism & This & That but…it once, not very long ago, was Hill Street Police Station!!) 

I love this bright and cheery building.  And the name brings many happy connections/connotations.**

Yesterday we ventured forth on another touristy adventure – the Science Center, at Jurong East.  On the way to the MRT station at Bugis we walked past a most ornate and fantastic modern skyscraper.

It has states, water features, decorations, gold, bronze all over!  Where angels fear to tread…we went in and immediately started taking photos…

So amazing!  Frescoes everywhere, gold leaf, complicated mouldings, marble… We had hardly begin clickety-clicking when a security guard came over very sternly to say, NO CAMERAS!  We immediately went into placatory mode… She calmed down and explained that the building contains offices and about four embassies.  Oh oops… Many apologies.  But there were tables, chairs, a bar, a stage?  She said we were welcome to come there for live music and drinks in the evening.  We could buy wine, but we would be dressed like fairies and then we could go upstairs for our carefully selected wine.  Ummm…I think there was a bit lost in translation here…

We spent many hours in the Science Centre.  Lots of the exhibits involved crouching or leaning…maybe the target group is children, or very short adults…

It was all very well done, and very interesting, but…exhausting…

LOTS OF MATHS...

Today we are going back to the Eye Hospital for Pete’s follow-up examination… Here’s hoping!

And lots of optical illusions which I hope wee not too bewildering for Pete's eyes...

* No we do not miss the Grand Chancellor – Hotel Clover is so much more wonderful in every single way.

**  Who remembers Hill Street Blues, in the 80s – Everybody be careful out there… I loved that show!  And in Hobart the name Hill Street has become synonymous with…FineFood…and we all love FineFood!!

31st March - Little India to Arab Street (Singapore) - Hotel Clover - river cruise

Monday 31^st March

 Oh the bliss of the Hotel Clover!  It is cool and serene and very comfortable indeed.  And this is such a very pretty part of Singapore, so charming (yes touristy but this is not always a bad thing!)

We decided not to walk, but to catch the underground trains… Usually this is very speedy and efficient but the route from Little India to Bugis is circuitous and it took us a few changes, a few long walks though the underground passages, and then a very long walk for the MRT station when we got off.  I actually think it would have been quicker and less distance had we walked from the Grand Chancellor…

Everywhere in South East Asia people take advantage of any opportunity to have a little rest.  Yesterday while Pete and I were being mad dogs and Englishmen, out in the midday sun (Pete very keenly examining a worksite) there was a fully grown man lying oblivious on the path, having a nice little kip.

And at breakfast – our last roti canai in Little India – a young chap was already exhausted at a café table…

Ah the shops in this precinct…Just look at these glorious lamps!  The shop owner was very keen for me to come in… I told him I couldn’t buy a lamp, but asked if I could take a photo.

Why of course I could!  And he would be very happy to bubblewrap any number of lamps for me, to be sent anywhere in the world…

Pigeon in a tree at Jurong Bird Park - I still have photos to come; so many birds...

On Friday we were lured into a shop in the main little car-free street in this area.  I didn’t need to be lured; camerashops are always full of treasures, and I wanted to buy a Canon product anyway, so I was an easy target.  They had what I wanted – a new Selphy photo printer; my original one has done a sterling job over the past year but it has totally given up the ghost.  I have done all sorts of treatment, including unscrewing it and screwing it back up again, turning it on and off, and even – extreme measure – putting it away in a dark cupboard for a good long rest.  To no avail… These little printers are very cheap; it would cost more, alas to get it fixed.

Pigeons on the ground

The shop owner was very knowledgeable…and very clever.  He looked at my camera and pronounced it to be very excellent, as good as I could get, implying that I was a very discerning photographer.  (Preen…)  But golly and gosh; why didn’t I have a lens protector??  The sales person where I bought it didn’t do a very good job; my very excellent camera would suffer from heat, dust, moisture, without a lens protector. He swiftly screwed one onto my camera and said it is now virtually bomb-proof.  And only $67!!

There was a cat nearby - how could I resist??

Pete said there must be a professional school for camera shop people, to train them to sell at least one previously unwanted item to every single customer who walks in…

But I am happy with my printer – a new, improved version – and with my lens protection.  I left it in the shop – too hot to lug it back to Little India – and went to pick it up yesterday.  Aha!  My man* swept aside a group of eager Chinese customers to greet me.  I thought of you last night!  (No not for one moment did I suspect a romantic inclination on his part… fortunately; I would have been crushed.)  What you need for your beautiful camera is – a night lens!  (No I didn’t buy one…but I am tempted!)

Marina Bay Sands

Yesterday was reasonably restful.  Apart from moving our belongings and our persons from one part of Singapore to the other, and settling into our very salubrious surroundings, we only had one excursion.  The very regular buses stop right outside the hotel; within minutes we were on a Number #32, whizzing off into the city to Clarke Quay to get on a small river cruise.  $22 for 40 minutes – everything in Singapore is at least as expensive as in Australia; quite a shock after the rest of South East Asia.

It was fun, interesting, HOT!

This theatre centre is not very affectionately known as The Durian

Pete and I took photos of each other in the beautiful little hotel courtyard, before or after our excursion...not sure... 

This photo is a bit deceptive...he doesn't actually look quite as radiant as this; he is still slightly sniffly...

I don’t think Pete takes very good photos of me…probably because I am always looking rather anxiously at the way he is using my camera…This one is very funny…

From Misty in Rebak marina (SV Tamoure) – re Pete and me forgetting a whole drawerful of clothes each at the Tanglin Club.  She and Peter saw us leaving Rebak Island with our light luggage…

Lazy day today - one of us slept in till 7am and then made such a meal of getting up etc that the other one [the kind and gentle one] suggested a day off.   Which reminds me: clothes!  How COULD you not have missed stuff when you travel so lightly in the first place??  I can see if you had a full suitcase you might not notice you were missing a few knickers, but you guys had a teeny bag each!  Didn't you notice how empty it was??  I did laugh, though - Mr Clever, not so clever after all...........  [Is wonderful when that happens, is it not??]

It is the most horrid sensation, I do know.  Once in Sydney I put stuff in a wee bedside drawer overnight - something I never normally do for exactly reason of forgetfulness.  The sudden panic, the trail back - and the body language of the One Who Has Not Forgotten.............  - is a huge pain! 

Just how splendid can a starling be!!

* I did like this man... Yet another person who knew about Tasmania - Ah yes, I have a friend, in Glenorchy!  He used to work as doorman at the Casino... 

30th March - Singapore - Arab Street - meanwhile back in Rebak on The Track...

Sunday 30^th March

Time to leave the Grand Chancellor in Little India and to move on to a different location.  This hotel is OK…all except for the mattress, and the meanness re WiFi.

Singapore skyscrapers are SPECCY!!

We are going to stay in the Arab Street area today.  So beautiful!

And so different from anywhere else we have been in Singapore.  A small slice of maybe Morocco (sanitised Singapore-style…)

Fabulous Masjid Sultan - designed by an Irishman!

The streets are quaint and colourful and lined with shops selling fabulous material.

Colourful!

 Elaborate:

 So delicate and pretty!

And different shops selling…curios!

We walked a long way around the central parts of Singapore.  Every now and then we would come upon Marina Bay Sands, and the huge ferris wheel, much closer than we could imagine them being.

Along the way we passed worksites, with these signs proudly displayed:

And the odd horrible warning:

Singapore is a very regulated place full of law-abiding citizens. Or else!

We are moving to a most beautiful hotel called the Clover.  I took a photo in the foyer

We looked at a lot of other options.  Most of them had ghastly hard mattresses; some of them were more expensive than, and not as nice as, the Tanglin Club.  This one is in the middle.  VERY comfy, and not too bad if we go halves…

Did I include this gorgeous fluff-headed bird yesterday??  If not...why not?

Next episode from Misty and Peter (SV Tamoure) – The Slashers on the Jungle Trail and the Rope Track on Rebak Island

Singapore orchids again - aaahhh...

Another lesson learnt on the slope today: keep mouth shut when slashing stubborn bamboo..........  Not as painful as a faceful of ants but a mouthful of tough bamboo hurts.  Bit of a whiplash effect........  Sympathy received this time:  Lucky it wasn't your eye!  Ah well - we are winning on the Rope Slope but the forest is certainly fighting back.  Oh - today we actually had a look at those ants.  Peter noticed they were swarming - wasp-like - over a leaf.  Looked quite pretty actually - a bit like some of your Islamic art.......... - but we were glad they were otherwise occupied.