wrapping up last year

Okay, only a little bit slack on the posts about Singapore... well maybe a little bit more than a little. I knew I was in trouble when I wrote "More on that soon" in the last post. Alarm bells went off in my head. Memories of "coming soon" websites with their little under-construction animated .gif came flooding forth. I forcefully ignored the warnings and wrote "More on that soon" anyway. Foolish!

Oh well. Now I have some time to write about Singapore. Why now? Well I've just arrived in Sweden! haha... I've got spare time on my hands. No tennis, no basketball, and thanks to Easter, no work either! :-)

So before I start writing about Sweden I'll wrap up last year, by putting a few words to paper (err... keyboard?) about my weekend in Singapore. Looking through the photos, I took some good ones (modest aren't I?), and I have some good memories of the place.

Singapore is a melting pot of races: Chinese, Indian, Arabic and Malay are the most prominent. Thank goodness for this too because after 3 weeks in Cambodia I can remember I was ready for a good curry! I spent most of the days visiting different cafés and restaurants in search of variety. On Friday night I had a cheap dumplings and noodles (and beer) at a hawker stall in the Malaysian red-light district. Saturday I went for a wander around town taking in sights like the incredible concert hall:

I had a western meal in town - cappuccinos etc. Singapore is known for its' shopping, and I could see why. I wasn't in the mood for shopping and just went to Borders for a couple of new books (I'd run out in Phnom Penh). Singapore has an awesome public transport system, and somewhat amusingly if you are less than 90cm tall, you can ride for free!

During World War 2, Singapore was invaded by the Japanese. I visited Changi prison which is where many Australian P.O.W.'s were held. It was great as it also included information about what it was like for the local Chinese and Malay population too. What interested me was that the Japanese spread propaganda that they would treat the Asian population well ("Asia is for Asians") - only to invade and treat them worse than the foreigners! Civilian deaths were quite high, and there is a memorial near the centre of town:

This simple and stark monument stands 70-metres tall. Other photos of it are in my Picasa album.

Saturday night I had some excellent Arabic kebabs, I liked them so much I went back the following lunch time for more. I had to visit Sim Lim on my last day in Singapore. It is a 6-story shopping centre with only computer stores in it! It's like a permanent swap-meet gone mad. It's also near Little India, so I could get a decent curry :-)

In no specific order because my memory has faded a bit, I also visited the Australian pub, the "Prince of Wales", to make sure it lives up to the reputation of the St. Kilda name-sake. It's not as large of course, but they do host quite a bit of live music. Singapore has a very sensible way of running its' zoo: at night. Most animals are nocturnal right? Right. So why not run the zoo at night? Very good idea. The night safari zoo was good thing to do, I'd recommend visiting it. Watch out for the "free" bus scam however: free on the way there, not so free on the way back. Finally I also visited the Swissôtel hotel in town:

It's big, very big. I had a meal up on the observation deck. Unfortunately Singapore's weather for the weekend had a pattern to it: sunny in the morning, tropical down pours in the afternoon; and so the view wasn't great. It didn't matter though, I could still survey the middle of town and see where I had been over the weekend. And it had been a good relaxing weekend at that. Now, I can say with certainty, there will be posts on Sweden very, very, soon.

to the northern hemisphere

The first 24 years of my life have taken me to all parts of main land Australia, both main islands of New Zealand, and to Bali in Indonesia. So before this trip I'd been as far west as Perth, as far South as Wilsons Prom, as far north as Bali, and as far east as Auckland.

Now I'm off to service the needs of the world's telco's! First trek, Hanoi, Vietnam. First stop over... Singapore. I suspect Singapore airport might get frequented by me a fair bit over the next few years. Here's what I might get used to:

That's the view from the smokers balcony / flower garden. To keep a tired traveller happy there is plenty of free grog samples in the duty free store downstairs too.

Hanoi was a 3 hour flight from what I can recall - I don't actually remember taking off - I fell asleep while the aeroplane was taxiing!! The Daewoo hotel in Hanoi is "Hanoi's best" according to the Lonely Planet - here's the view from my first room:

The traffic, as you can see, is pretty damn insane, though I have been enjoying the taxi rides; they are very entertaining. The guy standing under the unbrella is a traffic policeman - his job is to fine anyone who ignores the traffic lights - a manual red light camera system : )

The protocol for driving around this town goes something like this:

1. honk horn
2. merge into the traffic if possible
   
3. if not honk horn
4. drive
5. if impeded honk horn
6. if anyone looks like merging into you, honk horn
7. arrive at destination
8. stop
9. have horns honked at you
   

My favourite traffic sights so far have been a toddler riding between Mum and Dad on a motorbike - ASLEEP!!, and a guy transporting two dead pigs, tied to either side of his motorbike. These are closely followed by people transporting 19" LCD's on the back of their bikes.

Due to the original room only had single beds, I've been moved down two floors to a room with a king sized double. It has a view over Thu Le Park:

The park has a zoo, and an ancient temple, and... the Australian embassy!.. Tomorrow morning I don't have to be at work until 10:30ish, so I plan on going for a walk around the park.