Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
The Modern and Historical Side of Singapore!
We started our day on the 23rd of October around 1:00 pm, after of course taking advantage of the free breakfast our hostel provides. Just toast and spreads (and cereal for Henk) but that's fine for us! Henk suggested that we learn how to use the MRT system, and that we purchase frequent rider MRT cards in the process. You pay $5.00 for the card, but get a discount on every ride you take on the train. Really good idea! We did just that and jumped on the MRT for the first time.
Our first goal was to check out some of the interesting museums we heard were around the Colonial District. But before we could find one of them, directly outside of the MRT station, we caught sight of St. Andrew's Cathedral. Bright white and towering above us, it reminded me of something a 'Prince/Princess Charming' would live in. Looked almost magical! I kept staring at it and asking Henk to take some pictures, as he wondered aloud if we could go inside it. I had spotted a glass door that led to a little exhibition hall on the Cathedral, and led him towards it.
Once we got inside, we were approached by a woman who offered us a free tour of the Cathedral, which was one of the few examples of English Gothic Revival architecture in Singapore. Of course we weren't going to pass that up! Our guide first brought us down to the brand-new 'underground church' the Cathedral had just finished building. The underground cathedral was modern, with no stained glass or 'divinity' figures displayed, and they had drums and electric guitars set up for their mass to attract younger people.
A stark contrast to this modern area was the original 1862 building, with all the bells and whistles of a typical Cathedral -- divinity statues, stained glass, an organ. One interesting fact we learned about the 'old' part of the Cathedral was about the building itself, which was built by Indian convicts sent to Singapore from India by the British during their rule. The Cathedral's walls are made of 'Madras chaunam' plaster, which is a composite of egg whites, shell lime and sugar rubbed smooth with lumps of rock crystal. We were amazed the Cathedral was still standing!
Anyways, after our tour of the Cathedral, we asked our guide for some suggestions on museums. She told us to walk straight down towards the National Museum, and we ended up doing just that. The oldest museum in Singapore, the National Museum was really cool! Outside the museum was a group of statues which represented the 5 Chinese elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth and their corresponding mystical animal signs: the white tiger of the west, the green dragon of the east, the black tortoise of the north, and the red phoenix of the south, plus a qilin in the middle. Henk and I went straight to the top of the museum, starting with an exhibit on one of my favorite subjects: food!
I was amazed to see an entire exhibit on the local cuisine of Singapore, its history, and its flavors. Awesome! We learned about how the original Singapore food vendors -- called 'hawkers' -- provided the almost completely male population of Singapore with cooked meals. The men who came to Singapore to find work, or because they were criminals sent by the British were of many ethnic backgrounds. As a result, Singapore food is a mix of Chinese, Malay, Peranakan, Indian, Indonesian and even Western tastes. And the result is VERY different from the original dishes...
Here is a discription from a Singapore Food History website that explains it well:
The Hainanese chicken rice with its ubiquitous ginger-garlic chilli sauce, is as different as its Hainanese counterpart; black pepper crab and chilli crab in many Chinese seafood stalls are native inventions; while roti prata and curry is quite unlike its Indian cousin, and Indian rojak is really an alien dish to anyone from India.
Here are the details of some of the main Singapore dishes from the museum:
My Favorite Dish:
Char Kway Teow: ('Fried Flat Noodle' in Teochew) Prepared by stir-frying Chinese broad, flat noodles in very high heat with light and dark soya sauces, garlic, lard, fish cake and Chinese sausage... The dish was first sold by fishermen, farmers, and cockle gatherers who moonlighted as sellers in the evening to support their income... Very popular with laborers, the dish's high fat content was a cheap source of energy.
Sounds of Food:
Tok Tok Mee is so named because noodle hawkers would make a 'tik tok' sound to signal their presence by striking a bamboo stick against a piece of split bamboo. The 'tik tok' rhythm became the hawker's distinctive food call, alerting customers in the vicinity. Tok Tok Mee hawkers went around with three-wheeled wooden pushcarts, complete with ingredients, charcoal stove, pots, bowls, and utensils. The hawker's assistant, usually a young boy, would strike the 'tik tok' sound around the neighborhood to take orders and then deliver the bowls on wooden trays.
Hawkers used different sounds to distinguish the mee (noodles) they sold. Those selling wanton mee (egg noodles blanched, drained, and tossed in a savory sauce, served with pork dumplings, roast pork, and vegetables) used a smaller piece of bamboo to make high-pitched sounds with a quick beat. Those selling mee pok (flat yellow noodles blanched, drained, and tossed in a savory sauce served with fishballs) were identified by a low-pitched 'tik tok' sound.
After watching some short clips featuring elderly Singaporean people explaining their knowledge of the food hawking trade, we explored an attached exhibit detailing the spices used in Singapore foods. After that, Henk and I walked through a few other exhibits explaining the more modern history of Singapore. One displayed photographs of family life in early 1900's Singapore, and the other was on the evolution of fashion in Singapore through the 20th century. In between these exhibits was some crazy looking modern art! Terra Cotta Warriors with modern technology! :P So cute. OH! We also later passed an interactive 'video' exhibit, which displayed me as art! Cool...
Next we headed towards an exhibit on Singapore's previously flourishing movie industry. In the 1950's and 1960's, Singapore was a center of Chinese and Malay movie production. However, since independence in 1965, Singapore's movie industry has dramatically declined. Many of the post 1960's movies made in Singapore were not even released in Singapore, and it is thus sketchy how much of a 'Hollywood-esque' epicenter Singapore actually remains. There was also a short exhibit on the history of Chinese opera in Singapore, which was popular at one time.
Upon entering the second museum area, we were given a couple of headsets and sat through a couple of short videos. The coolest one was about the creation story of Singapore. The island was originally not named Singapura, but instead Temasek. Here is a summary of the story we were told:
The story begins with a young prince named Parameswara, who was one of the grandsons of Alexander the Great. Prince Parameswara had many famous treasures, but the most famous of them all was a jeweled crown that was said to be part of the treasures of Solomon.
The prince was returning home from a voyage at sea one day when he noticed a new, unfamiliar island in the distance. Upon his return, he decided to return to the island for colonization, and gained his father's approval to put together a sailing party to return to the new island. Unfortunately, the gods had other ideas.
As soon as the ship left it's home port, it encountered the most violent storm that any of the veteran sailors had ever encountered. All were sure of certain doom, but Prince Parameswara declared that he knew exactly what to do. According to the Merlion myth, the prince calmly walked to the front of the ship and hurled his famous crown into the see as a gift to the gods. The see was instantly calm, allowing the group smooth sailing to the island they were destined for.
When the men arrived at the island, they were greeted at the beach by a fierce lion. Again, all were sure of certain death, but the prince proclaimed that he knew exactly what to do. As Parameswara reached for his blade, he unintentionally locked eyes with the lion. Each instantly gained a mutual understanding of the other, and the lion disappeared into the jungle, never to be seen again.
This second part of the museum was a history walk-through, where you could pick to follow either the 'history-buff' path or the 'creative' path. (Basically, if you liked history class, you go right and if you didn't, you go left.)With your headset on, you would punch in different numbers on the PDA and be 'told' the story of Singapore in the style of your liking.
Henk and I wanted to see both, so we sort of zig-zagged between the two of them, crossing over a few times. The paths were pretty different, and it was good to see both. But WOW! That museum had a LOT of information and could get very confusing, very quickly... Henk and I slowed down for the parts we found more interesting, and tried to hurry through the rest.
A Few of the More Interesting Tidbits:
One of the artifacts we saw was a piece of the famous Singapore Stone. To explain, here is a little description from Wiki:
The Singapore Stone is a fragment of a large sandstone slab which originally stood at the mouth of the Singapore River. The slab, which is believed to date back to at least the 13th century and possibly as early as the 10th or 11th century, bore an undeciphered inscription. Recent theories suggest that the inscription is either in Old Javanese or Sanskrit. It is likely that the person who commissioned the inscription was Sumatran. The slab was blown up in 1843 to clear and widen the passageway at the river mouth to make space for a fort and the quarters of its commander.
The slab may be linked to the legendary story of the 14th-century strongman Badang, who is said to have thrown a massive stone to the mouth of the Singapore River. On Badang's death, the Rajah sent two stone pillars to be raised over his grave "at the point of the straits of Singhapura".
After the museum and a quick stop at an Armenian Church, (the oldest Christian church in Singapore, but simple and not that interesting) Henk and I were both getting a bit hungry for some dinner. We planned to go to the Hard Rock Cafe to kill two birds with one stone: fill our stomaches and get a pin for my Uncle Randy's HRC pin collection! However, before that, Henk suggested I get my nails done at one of the nail salons we had passed on our way to the museum. Since I really needed to get them fixed, and we saw a sign that advertised a really good price for a mani/pedi, we went in. I decided on Halloween colors and some light nail art.
However... it was only after I was already in the process of getting my nails done that the salon informed us the deal was only for 'special card members' and thus we weren't able to get it. 'Alright,' I thought, 'that's still not so bad.' The prices they then quoted us were much pricier than the other salons around had advertised. However, by that point my nails were already part-way done. We had no choice but to stay with the over-priced salon.
Furthermore, once the manicurist came to me with our bill, I almost had to laugh! It was insanely overpriced for a manicure/pedicure -- and in the most ridiculous of ways! Listed on the bill was charges for "$3.00/nail for a sparkle topcoat, (x 20 nails) $2.00/nail for 2 colors, (x 20 nails) $3.00/nail for nail art (x 20 nails)... etc." Only the last charge of nail art would make any sense. I looked at her practically rolling my eyes, telling her there was no way I would be charged such blatantly overpriced services. Thankfully, she didn't argue and crossed out some of the charges. I won't be ripped off!
Still a bit steamed from the obvious attempt to rip us off, Henk and I headed for the Hard Rock Cafe. We picked out an awesome pin for Uncle Randy!! Take a look at it...
After doing our bit of shopping, we sat down and ordered some very large, very American cheeseburgers for dinner! YUM! Gotta love that mushroom, onion, Swiss burger!! (upgraded to onion rings from French fries of course.) Since we were there pretty late, we got to enjoy the music of a live band playing downstairs while we ate. We even decided to splurge a little that night and order a chocolate brownie dessert with ice-cream. I know, not the smartest thing to do while backpacking. But we figured, with the prices for all our other meals here being so cheap, it would even out by the time we left.
We left the HRC around 11:00 pm, with a balloon! (Henk grabbed one for me!) We walked down the 'expensive' area of Singapore called Orchard Road, which is also the 'touristy' area. Streets filled with stores like 'Prada,' 'Louis Vuitton,' and 'Haagen Dazs' ice-cream. It looked awesome, but pretty typical for any big city. The rest of Singapore is so much more unique! I was glad we decided to stay closer to the locals. Oh! That balloon came with us on the subway too... and back into the room where it was tied to the doorknob for the night. Hehe! :P
Talk to everyone soon,
Francesca
Our first goal was to check out some of the interesting museums we heard were around the Colonial District. But before we could find one of them, directly outside of the MRT station, we caught sight of St. Andrew's Cathedral. Bright white and towering above us, it reminded me of something a 'Prince/Princess Charming' would live in. Looked almost magical! I kept staring at it and asking Henk to take some pictures, as he wondered aloud if we could go inside it. I had spotted a glass door that led to a little exhibition hall on the Cathedral, and led him towards it.
Once we got inside, we were approached by a woman who offered us a free tour of the Cathedral, which was one of the few examples of English Gothic Revival architecture in Singapore. Of course we weren't going to pass that up! Our guide first brought us down to the brand-new 'underground church' the Cathedral had just finished building. The underground cathedral was modern, with no stained glass or 'divinity' figures displayed, and they had drums and electric guitars set up for their mass to attract younger people.
A stark contrast to this modern area was the original 1862 building, with all the bells and whistles of a typical Cathedral -- divinity statues, stained glass, an organ. One interesting fact we learned about the 'old' part of the Cathedral was about the building itself, which was built by Indian convicts sent to Singapore from India by the British during their rule. The Cathedral's walls are made of 'Madras chaunam' plaster, which is a composite of egg whites, shell lime and sugar rubbed smooth with lumps of rock crystal. We were amazed the Cathedral was still standing!
Anyways, after our tour of the Cathedral, we asked our guide for some suggestions on museums. She told us to walk straight down towards the National Museum, and we ended up doing just that. The oldest museum in Singapore, the National Museum was really cool! Outside the museum was a group of statues which represented the 5 Chinese elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth and their corresponding mystical animal signs: the white tiger of the west, the green dragon of the east, the black tortoise of the north, and the red phoenix of the south, plus a qilin in the middle. Henk and I went straight to the top of the museum, starting with an exhibit on one of my favorite subjects: food!
I was amazed to see an entire exhibit on the local cuisine of Singapore, its history, and its flavors. Awesome! We learned about how the original Singapore food vendors -- called 'hawkers' -- provided the almost completely male population of Singapore with cooked meals. The men who came to Singapore to find work, or because they were criminals sent by the British were of many ethnic backgrounds. As a result, Singapore food is a mix of Chinese, Malay, Peranakan, Indian, Indonesian and even Western tastes. And the result is VERY different from the original dishes...
Here is a discription from a Singapore Food History website that explains it well:
The Hainanese chicken rice with its ubiquitous ginger-garlic chilli sauce, is as different as its Hainanese counterpart; black pepper crab and chilli crab in many Chinese seafood stalls are native inventions; while roti prata and curry is quite unlike its Indian cousin, and Indian rojak is really an alien dish to anyone from India.
Here are the details of some of the main Singapore dishes from the museum:
My Favorite Dish:
Char Kway Teow: ('Fried Flat Noodle' in Teochew) Prepared by stir-frying Chinese broad, flat noodles in very high heat with light and dark soya sauces, garlic, lard, fish cake and Chinese sausage... The dish was first sold by fishermen, farmers, and cockle gatherers who moonlighted as sellers in the evening to support their income... Very popular with laborers, the dish's high fat content was a cheap source of energy.
Sounds of Food:
Tok Tok Mee is so named because noodle hawkers would make a 'tik tok' sound to signal their presence by striking a bamboo stick against a piece of split bamboo. The 'tik tok' rhythm became the hawker's distinctive food call, alerting customers in the vicinity. Tok Tok Mee hawkers went around with three-wheeled wooden pushcarts, complete with ingredients, charcoal stove, pots, bowls, and utensils. The hawker's assistant, usually a young boy, would strike the 'tik tok' sound around the neighborhood to take orders and then deliver the bowls on wooden trays.
Hawkers used different sounds to distinguish the mee (noodles) they sold. Those selling wanton mee (egg noodles blanched, drained, and tossed in a savory sauce, served with pork dumplings, roast pork, and vegetables) used a smaller piece of bamboo to make high-pitched sounds with a quick beat. Those selling mee pok (flat yellow noodles blanched, drained, and tossed in a savory sauce served with fishballs) were identified by a low-pitched 'tik tok' sound.
After watching some short clips featuring elderly Singaporean people explaining their knowledge of the food hawking trade, we explored an attached exhibit detailing the spices used in Singapore foods. After that, Henk and I walked through a few other exhibits explaining the more modern history of Singapore. One displayed photographs of family life in early 1900's Singapore, and the other was on the evolution of fashion in Singapore through the 20th century. In between these exhibits was some crazy looking modern art! Terra Cotta Warriors with modern technology! :P So cute. OH! We also later passed an interactive 'video' exhibit, which displayed me as art! Cool...
Next we headed towards an exhibit on Singapore's previously flourishing movie industry. In the 1950's and 1960's, Singapore was a center of Chinese and Malay movie production. However, since independence in 1965, Singapore's movie industry has dramatically declined. Many of the post 1960's movies made in Singapore were not even released in Singapore, and it is thus sketchy how much of a 'Hollywood-esque' epicenter Singapore actually remains. There was also a short exhibit on the history of Chinese opera in Singapore, which was popular at one time.
Upon entering the second museum area, we were given a couple of headsets and sat through a couple of short videos. The coolest one was about the creation story of Singapore. The island was originally not named Singapura, but instead Temasek. Here is a summary of the story we were told:
The story begins with a young prince named Parameswara, who was one of the grandsons of Alexander the Great. Prince Parameswara had many famous treasures, but the most famous of them all was a jeweled crown that was said to be part of the treasures of Solomon.
The prince was returning home from a voyage at sea one day when he noticed a new, unfamiliar island in the distance. Upon his return, he decided to return to the island for colonization, and gained his father's approval to put together a sailing party to return to the new island. Unfortunately, the gods had other ideas.
As soon as the ship left it's home port, it encountered the most violent storm that any of the veteran sailors had ever encountered. All were sure of certain doom, but Prince Parameswara declared that he knew exactly what to do. According to the Merlion myth, the prince calmly walked to the front of the ship and hurled his famous crown into the see as a gift to the gods. The see was instantly calm, allowing the group smooth sailing to the island they were destined for.
When the men arrived at the island, they were greeted at the beach by a fierce lion. Again, all were sure of certain death, but the prince proclaimed that he knew exactly what to do. As Parameswara reached for his blade, he unintentionally locked eyes with the lion. Each instantly gained a mutual understanding of the other, and the lion disappeared into the jungle, never to be seen again.
This second part of the museum was a history walk-through, where you could pick to follow either the 'history-buff' path or the 'creative' path. (Basically, if you liked history class, you go right and if you didn't, you go left.)With your headset on, you would punch in different numbers on the PDA and be 'told' the story of Singapore in the style of your liking.
Henk and I wanted to see both, so we sort of zig-zagged between the two of them, crossing over a few times. The paths were pretty different, and it was good to see both. But WOW! That museum had a LOT of information and could get very confusing, very quickly... Henk and I slowed down for the parts we found more interesting, and tried to hurry through the rest.
A Few of the More Interesting Tidbits:
One of the artifacts we saw was a piece of the famous Singapore Stone. To explain, here is a little description from Wiki:
The Singapore Stone is a fragment of a large sandstone slab which originally stood at the mouth of the Singapore River. The slab, which is believed to date back to at least the 13th century and possibly as early as the 10th or 11th century, bore an undeciphered inscription. Recent theories suggest that the inscription is either in Old Javanese or Sanskrit. It is likely that the person who commissioned the inscription was Sumatran. The slab was blown up in 1843 to clear and widen the passageway at the river mouth to make space for a fort and the quarters of its commander.
The slab may be linked to the legendary story of the 14th-century strongman Badang, who is said to have thrown a massive stone to the mouth of the Singapore River. On Badang's death, the Rajah sent two stone pillars to be raised over his grave "at the point of the straits of Singhapura".
After the museum and a quick stop at an Armenian Church, (the oldest Christian church in Singapore, but simple and not that interesting) Henk and I were both getting a bit hungry for some dinner. We planned to go to the Hard Rock Cafe to kill two birds with one stone: fill our stomaches and get a pin for my Uncle Randy's HRC pin collection! However, before that, Henk suggested I get my nails done at one of the nail salons we had passed on our way to the museum. Since I really needed to get them fixed, and we saw a sign that advertised a really good price for a mani/pedi, we went in. I decided on Halloween colors and some light nail art.
However... it was only after I was already in the process of getting my nails done that the salon informed us the deal was only for 'special card members' and thus we weren't able to get it. 'Alright,' I thought, 'that's still not so bad.' The prices they then quoted us were much pricier than the other salons around had advertised. However, by that point my nails were already part-way done. We had no choice but to stay with the over-priced salon.
Furthermore, once the manicurist came to me with our bill, I almost had to laugh! It was insanely overpriced for a manicure/pedicure -- and in the most ridiculous of ways! Listed on the bill was charges for "$3.00/nail for a sparkle topcoat, (x 20 nails) $2.00/nail for 2 colors, (x 20 nails) $3.00/nail for nail art (x 20 nails)... etc." Only the last charge of nail art would make any sense. I looked at her practically rolling my eyes, telling her there was no way I would be charged such blatantly overpriced services. Thankfully, she didn't argue and crossed out some of the charges. I won't be ripped off!
Still a bit steamed from the obvious attempt to rip us off, Henk and I headed for the Hard Rock Cafe. We picked out an awesome pin for Uncle Randy!! Take a look at it...
After doing our bit of shopping, we sat down and ordered some very large, very American cheeseburgers for dinner! YUM! Gotta love that mushroom, onion, Swiss burger!! (upgraded to onion rings from French fries of course.) Since we were there pretty late, we got to enjoy the music of a live band playing downstairs while we ate. We even decided to splurge a little that night and order a chocolate brownie dessert with ice-cream. I know, not the smartest thing to do while backpacking. But we figured, with the prices for all our other meals here being so cheap, it would even out by the time we left.
We left the HRC around 11:00 pm, with a balloon! (Henk grabbed one for me!) We walked down the 'expensive' area of Singapore called Orchard Road, which is also the 'touristy' area. Streets filled with stores like 'Prada,' 'Louis Vuitton,' and 'Haagen Dazs' ice-cream. It looked awesome, but pretty typical for any big city. The rest of Singapore is so much more unique! I was glad we decided to stay closer to the locals. Oh! That balloon came with us on the subway too... and back into the room where it was tied to the doorknob for the night. Hehe! :P
Talk to everyone soon,
Francesca
Friday, October 23, 2009
Coming to Singapore!!
Henk and I flew to Singapore on the 21st of October with a bit of hesitation – we weren’t too comfortable leaving Perth when there were still a few things (like the Pinnacles) to do there that we hadn’t really planned to do.
However, when we arrived in Singapore, the two of us were immediately excited! The flight was pretty long (about 4 hours) but they served us some chicken and handed us some extra packets of cheese and crackers, so we survived. Henk and I watched a couple movies on the plane (I watched ‘The Young Victoria’ along with some boxing movie with Channing Tatum… in my opinion, the first is much better than expected, and the second was pretty generic.) and the flight went smoothly. We checked our e-mail quickly in the airport before heading towards customs. Henk had been pretty worried that we were going to have a difficult time getting through since we did not possess a flight out of Singapore, but we weren’t asked any questions and grabbed a taxi out of there just fine!
The first thing I noticed about Singapore (besides the intense blast of humidity upon leaving the airport AC!) was how clean it was! As we drove through the city, I pointed out all the rows of colorful flowers to Henk. Having lived in New York, you become used to big cities having bags of smelly trash all over the place – but surprisingly it was near spotless on our drive into the city! Back in Wellington, New Zealand, I had picked up a brochure for a hostel in Singapore called ‘The Hive.’
The rooms looked pretty decent and the prices alright, so we had booked online before arriving in Singapore. However, when we arrived we learned there were no doubles available, only a deluxe twin room. I decided to take a look at the room before we booked in, and the room looked pretty good despite the annoyance of pushing the beds together. The room itself was hot and sticky – but with one click of the remote, cold air blasted in from the AC, and I determined it livable.
It was starting to get late by the time we got to the hostel – our flight hadn’t been until 11:00 am or so and between the long flight and customs it was almost evening. Although Henk and I were both eager to look around this new city, I wasn’t feeling too well and decided to lay down for a little bit. Henk walked the few blocks in front of the hostel to see what was nearby (like the 7-11 on the corner) and picked up some brochures from reception.
The next morning, we decided to start our exploration of Singapore by simply walking around Little India, the closest area to ‘The Hive.’ Immediately as we were walking, we saw Hindu temples and decorations for Deepavali all around. It seems like Little India had just gotten done with celebrating the Festival of Lights! Our first discovery about Singapore was the abundance of malls they had. It did make sense, in the sweltering heat, what better to do than go to the mall and walk around through stores with AC? There was a 24 hour mall called the ‘Mustafa Center’ we walked through, along with a bunch of others such as Mecca Mall. There were too many of them to try and keep track of names!
We did however spend longer in the City Square Mall, trying some of the local cuisine and marveling how cheap meals were in Singapore compared to Australia. I even had us go into the grocery store to check out the price comparison! Anyways, our first experience of Singapore food was two meals: the famously fattening ‘Char Kway Teow’ (noodles and chicken in a broth made mostly of animal fat) and ‘Laksa’ (chicken and coconut noodle soup with egg.) As Henk went to grab us a drink (even a fruit smoothie is only about 70 cents to 1 USD here) I used the chopsticks to stab at one of the dishes; the Char Kway Teow. It was actually really good to my surprise, but extremely heavy on the stomach. The other Laksa dish, I knew immediately I wasn’t going to like. It had a very strong smell about it, and I have a pretty weak stomach when it comes to new food. I still ended up trying a bit of it (at Henk’s request) but needless to say, I was right when I predicted I wasn’t going to enjoy the taste. I’ll stick with the Char Kway Teow.
Anyways, after exploring enough malls, we attempted to map out our next path, which at first was going to involve doing a free walking tour. However, I hadn’t looked at the brochure completely, and we later realized that tour was over the week before. Therefore, we decided to walk down to Kampong Glam (the Muslim area of the city,) the closest area to our hostel and Little India. We walked around outside of the Sultan Mosque, and then crossed over to explore the outside of the Malay Heritage Center. We knew it was already closed, but we had already planned to come back another day.
Then it was time for our 40-minute walk back to the hostel… doesn’t sound too bad, right? Even though it was almost 8:00 pm at that point, it was still gross, sticky, and humid! Henk and I had to stop and run into a couple of malls while walking back to escape the heat for a moment, but we made it. Since we had eaten pretty late that day, we went into the 7-11 on the corner to grab some hot chicken and pork buns.
Our first overall impression of Singapore: humid, sticky, but awesome! Just like the buns! :P
Francesca
However, when we arrived in Singapore, the two of us were immediately excited! The flight was pretty long (about 4 hours) but they served us some chicken and handed us some extra packets of cheese and crackers, so we survived. Henk and I watched a couple movies on the plane (I watched ‘The Young Victoria’ along with some boxing movie with Channing Tatum… in my opinion, the first is much better than expected, and the second was pretty generic.) and the flight went smoothly. We checked our e-mail quickly in the airport before heading towards customs. Henk had been pretty worried that we were going to have a difficult time getting through since we did not possess a flight out of Singapore, but we weren’t asked any questions and grabbed a taxi out of there just fine!
The first thing I noticed about Singapore (besides the intense blast of humidity upon leaving the airport AC!) was how clean it was! As we drove through the city, I pointed out all the rows of colorful flowers to Henk. Having lived in New York, you become used to big cities having bags of smelly trash all over the place – but surprisingly it was near spotless on our drive into the city! Back in Wellington, New Zealand, I had picked up a brochure for a hostel in Singapore called ‘The Hive.’
The rooms looked pretty decent and the prices alright, so we had booked online before arriving in Singapore. However, when we arrived we learned there were no doubles available, only a deluxe twin room. I decided to take a look at the room before we booked in, and the room looked pretty good despite the annoyance of pushing the beds together. The room itself was hot and sticky – but with one click of the remote, cold air blasted in from the AC, and I determined it livable.
It was starting to get late by the time we got to the hostel – our flight hadn’t been until 11:00 am or so and between the long flight and customs it was almost evening. Although Henk and I were both eager to look around this new city, I wasn’t feeling too well and decided to lay down for a little bit. Henk walked the few blocks in front of the hostel to see what was nearby (like the 7-11 on the corner) and picked up some brochures from reception.
The next morning, we decided to start our exploration of Singapore by simply walking around Little India, the closest area to ‘The Hive.’ Immediately as we were walking, we saw Hindu temples and decorations for Deepavali all around. It seems like Little India had just gotten done with celebrating the Festival of Lights! Our first discovery about Singapore was the abundance of malls they had. It did make sense, in the sweltering heat, what better to do than go to the mall and walk around through stores with AC? There was a 24 hour mall called the ‘Mustafa Center’ we walked through, along with a bunch of others such as Mecca Mall. There were too many of them to try and keep track of names!
We did however spend longer in the City Square Mall, trying some of the local cuisine and marveling how cheap meals were in Singapore compared to Australia. I even had us go into the grocery store to check out the price comparison! Anyways, our first experience of Singapore food was two meals: the famously fattening ‘Char Kway Teow’ (noodles and chicken in a broth made mostly of animal fat) and ‘Laksa’ (chicken and coconut noodle soup with egg.) As Henk went to grab us a drink (even a fruit smoothie is only about 70 cents to 1 USD here) I used the chopsticks to stab at one of the dishes; the Char Kway Teow. It was actually really good to my surprise, but extremely heavy on the stomach. The other Laksa dish, I knew immediately I wasn’t going to like. It had a very strong smell about it, and I have a pretty weak stomach when it comes to new food. I still ended up trying a bit of it (at Henk’s request) but needless to say, I was right when I predicted I wasn’t going to enjoy the taste. I’ll stick with the Char Kway Teow.
Anyways, after exploring enough malls, we attempted to map out our next path, which at first was going to involve doing a free walking tour. However, I hadn’t looked at the brochure completely, and we later realized that tour was over the week before. Therefore, we decided to walk down to Kampong Glam (the Muslim area of the city,) the closest area to our hostel and Little India. We walked around outside of the Sultan Mosque, and then crossed over to explore the outside of the Malay Heritage Center. We knew it was already closed, but we had already planned to come back another day.
Then it was time for our 40-minute walk back to the hostel… doesn’t sound too bad, right? Even though it was almost 8:00 pm at that point, it was still gross, sticky, and humid! Henk and I had to stop and run into a couple of malls while walking back to escape the heat for a moment, but we made it. Since we had eaten pretty late that day, we went into the 7-11 on the corner to grab some hot chicken and pork buns.
Our first overall impression of Singapore: humid, sticky, but awesome! Just like the buns! :P
Francesca
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Goodbye Australia
And welcome South-East Asia! You’ve all read about our adventures in the middle of Australia, but how did things go on the West coast of Australia? Let me tell you all about it! Francesca and I had heard about a phenomenon called “couch-surfing” before we embarked on our trip. In New Zealand we never even thought about it, because the hostels were all pretty awesome and nicely priced. We found the prices less to our liking here in Australia, and have tried to find someone to “couch-surf” with since Sydney.
Francesca knew about this website called http://www.couchsurfing.org and we sent out a few e-mails to people in Perth to see if we could try surfing someone’s couch here. We got a few NOs, but also a few Yeses! Still not quite knowing what to expect we asked for directions and got some very helpful replies. One of the people that said yes was a girl named Prue Anderson. Her profile looked cool and she had been traveling herself for quite a bit. We chose to ask her if we could stay with her for a few days and got a positive response. We exchanged contact-details and Prue asked us to call once we got into Perth.
After our flight Francesca gave Prue a ring and we got directions to her place. With our backpacks on our backs we jumped on the train and headed for the suburb she lived. When we got to the station called Claremont we got off and looked for the right way. We were not entirely sure where to go, but asked some cops and in the end found out where to go.
Walking over to her house we already noticed we were in a nice neighborhood. Prue’s house was part of a group of houses with little pathways and back gardens dividing them. We found Prue’s spare key and went inside. Prue was still at work, so we made ourselves comfortable in our new room. The room had 2 mattresses linked together, a desk and a giant inflatable work-out ball. I dragged the bags upstairs and Francesca and I decided to explore Claremont a little. Making our way back to the train station we found the main street and walked down it. Francesca soon remarked there was not much to see and do, and she was getting pretty hungry, so we asked for directions to the nearest supermarket.
We walked around some more and eventually Francesca got very excited about a whole roasted chicken, which we duly purchased. Adding some fresh vegetables, some buns and orange juice our simple meal for the evening was done. Prue only came back after we had finished dinner, as she had just gone to a goodbye-party for her sister, who was about to move to the States. Obviously, she was quite sad, but we talked for a good while regardless and had fun doing so. Tired, but very happy with our first couch-surfing experience we went to bed early.
I’m very happy to tell you we did nothing the next few days. Prue invited us to come to the nearby ‘Claremont Hotel’ for a drink. We talked to her some more and she shared stories of her travels in South-East Asia, which was very helpful for us, since we were still quite clueless about things to do, how to get around and where to go exactly. We exchanged some of our adventures in Australia, New Zealand and Costa Rica whilst enjoying a local beer. Not too bad! The next few days we slept in and watched movies like Castaway, Sukiyaki Western Django, series like Summer Heights High and America’s Next Top Model and finally some stand-up comedy by Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey. Francesca had also wanted to play Vampire Masquerade: Redemption, a very old game that we had downloaded and she thought she had beaten in 2 hours or so. We found out she only played the introduction, and in fact it would take closer to 24 hours to finish it. Prue was kind enough to cook for us once (some delicious creamy veggie pasta), and we returned the favor the following day with one of our famous fruit/veggie/cashew pastas. Otherwise, we really could not be bothered to move too much, since we really needed a break from our crazy antics in Cairns and Uluru.
In fact, we hibernated until Friday the 16th when we finally found ourselves re-energized enough to explore Perth. We took the train back to the city center and went to the waterfront, where we found the famous Bell Tower, a rather oddly shaped structure with some information on the making of bells and how to play them. We decided not to pay money for a walk up the tower, instead opting for a read of the free brochures lying around.
Here is what the brochures said and wiki summarizes:
"The Swan Bells are a set of eighteen bells hanging in a specially built 82.5 metres (271 ft)-high copper and glass campanile in Perth, Western Australia. Taking their name from the Swan River, which their tower overlooks, and forming a sixteen-bell peal with two extra chromatic notes, they are one of the largest sets of change ringing bells in the world."
Next, Francesca and I exited the Tower, and found a pond with some cool mosaic on the floor. I tried to push Francesca into the water, whilst holding on to her arms, seeing how far she would be able to hang over the water. Unfortunately, she did not enjoy this as much as me, so we stopped after some whine from my companion. Instead, we walked around the waterfront, finally heading for the Supreme Court Gardens, and the grand Supreme Court itself.
The weather was quite nice and we decided to sit around in the adjacent park for a while, talking about our future plans. Originally, we had found 4 hosts in Perth, each hosting us for 2 days in a row. Prue had kindly offered us to stay until Sunday, so we decided to inform our other hosts that we weren’t going to make it. Perth’s center really didn’t have that much else to offer, so my partner-in-crime and I just hobbled around. We also made plans for our Saturday, since we hadn’t gone out for dinner in celebration of our 1-year-anniversary.
Saturday proved to be quite an active day: we wanted to research the possibility of going to The Pinnacles, the only cool thing that we had found to do around Perth. Francesca had scored us two free internet cards at Peter Pan, a nationwide travel agency with a branch in Perth. The agent gave us several brochures, none of which really excited us. Unfortunately, most of them included another wildlife park, more sandboarding and only a short stop at The Pinnacles themselves. Instead, we decided to look for cheaper alternatives ourselves.
A tip from Prue and her housemate Sarah led us to Subiacco, one of the older suburbs of Perth. We got there a little early (well before opening time) so we walked around and found some majestic architecture. Still, it was too hot to be outside comfortably, so we ducked into the cinema and waited there for a while. It seemed strange to us we couldn’t really handle the heat here in Perth, whereas it was hotter and more humid and Cairns and just plain hotter in Uluru. We couldn’t quite put our finger on it, but we found ourselves getting exhausted much faster here.
Anyway, around 18:00PM we headed for Chutney Mary’s, as we had heard ‘the best Indian restaurant in town.’ In fact, there were two best restaurants in town, as Chutney Mary's sister-restaurant 'Little Mary's' was right next door. We opted for the big sister since we liked her menu better. The restaurant certainly looked very nice! Francesca opted for a butter chicken (who would’ve guessed!), whereas I went for one of the chef’s specials: a lamb dish. We also ordered a side of Naans with 3 unique dipping sauces. The food was great, and we slowly devoured our meals whilst talking about the past year and the time still to come. Very, very satisfied with our food, and very happy to have celebrated our anniversary we headed back to Claremont for sleep.
On Sunday we were supposed to say goodbye to Prue, and meet Thomas, our new host. Somewhere in the afternoon I finished packing our bags. We gave Prue a big hug, thanked her kindly for her great hospitality and planned on meeting up in Thailand. Francesca had texted Thomas and he would pick us up from Victoria Park Station. It took us about an hour to make it to Victoria Park, and we were soon after greeted by another happy face.
Thomas took us back to his place (well, his parents’ place) and showed us our room. Wow, an awesome king-size bed for us! We sat down with Thomas and talked to him for a while about his life, and we told him about ours. Thomas shared he is currently getting ready to join the air force, with just a surgery on his knee preventing him from starting right now. He told us about his travels in Europe, most interestingly the Balkan.
Francesca and I had to head for the city again that night, because we had just found out our flight to Singapore wasn’t on the 22nd of October, as we had thought, but on the 3rd of November. Earlier that week we had found out the McDonald’s offered free wireless internet, so we went there and called AA to change our flight to the 21st of October, and also called my mother and grandmother (Hi Oma!). Francesca felt like a burger and fries, so we sinned a little and shared one of the burger-meals whilst making our calls. After dinner we headed back to Victoria Park and sat down on Thomas’ couch, watching a movie and talking some more.
On Monday we had our appointment with the Travel Doctor, where we would get our shots for S-E Asia. We found out we needed 5 shots (Polio, Hep A and Hep B, Typhoid Fever and a free Swine Flu shot) each, and got some Malaria pills as well. Francesca was not too happy with 5 shots, (especially Polio seemed to hurt as she squealed during the shot) but we made it through. With a sore arm and 5 Band-Aids we finally went to the one place in Perth everyone had told us to go: King’s Park.
Francesca and I had postponed it, because we were tired of the never-ending stream of botanical gardens that Australia seems to have. However, we could not find anything else to do, so we walked all the way to the park, and then slowly made our way through it. The park indeed was huge and we spent many hours there. We did see quite a few nice flowers and plants, as Perth is famous for its wildflowers, and it happened to be the season for it, but our main goal was the DNA-tower. We had heard it was really cool, but for some reason did not manage to find it (there was some roadwork going on!) and in the end just decided to give up and went to the supermarket to pick up some groceries for dinner. We made Thomas one of our haute cuisine dishes and he promised to cook for us the next day. Good deal!
Francesca and I had also decided to send back another box of goods we did no longer need (all of our winter clothing, which was taking up loads of space and weighed a ton!), so we had brought back the biggest box they had at the post office and filled it to the rim with clothes and other stuff. In fact, when we went to send it out on Tuesday it was too full and we had to tape it shut. We ended up taping it completely and we’re pretty sure it’s water-resistant now (and would probably survive nuclear attacks too) as we used up an entire roll of tape.
Just outside the Post Office Francesca and I noticed the ‘Western Power Solar Model Car Challenge ’09’ (quite the mouth full). Basically, high school kids had been given a basic set with a solar panel and a motor, which they had to fit in a model car, and race around a track. The fastest times would go on to a knock-out system the following day. We saw some really cool and fast creations, and some misfits that barely made it past the starting point.
There was supposed to be a free walking tour of the artsy places in Perth right after the event on the square ended. We had gone over to the kiosk and asked for some information. Francesca and I decided we would start it and just sneak off if it turned out to be boring. However, as the starting time came closer and closer we were still the only 2 people standing there. We went to the bathroom and discussed our plans, deciding we’d go get food instead. Francesca had a craving for a hotdog, and I had wanted a smoothie, so sharing both made a good meal for the both of us. Even though it was our last day, we still wanted to find out whether we could go to The Pinnacles with Greyhound or another bus company, so we asked around finding out there were no other options other than the brochures we already possessed. We weighed our options and in the end decided to stick with our flight the next day. Sorry Pinnacles, we’ll come visit you in due time!
Finally, we headed back to Thomas’ place for dinner. He made us a very spicy and tasty Thai curry, which we loved after our long day in town. I started packing our backpacks for our flight the next day and Francesca talked to Thomas. We exchanged music with him, since he shared our taste for Indie Rock & Roll. We now possess a lot of Ozzie Rock! Our last night in our comfortable bed was a good one, and became even better as Thomas offered to drop us off at the airport. Great!
We said our goodbyes to Thomas, couch-surfing, and Australia, and sat around at the airport, waiting for our flight to Singapore! Francesca will tell you what our first S-E Asian country brought us!
Francesca knew about this website called http://www.couchsurfing.org and we sent out a few e-mails to people in Perth to see if we could try surfing someone’s couch here. We got a few NOs, but also a few Yeses! Still not quite knowing what to expect we asked for directions and got some very helpful replies. One of the people that said yes was a girl named Prue Anderson. Her profile looked cool and she had been traveling herself for quite a bit. We chose to ask her if we could stay with her for a few days and got a positive response. We exchanged contact-details and Prue asked us to call once we got into Perth.
After our flight Francesca gave Prue a ring and we got directions to her place. With our backpacks on our backs we jumped on the train and headed for the suburb she lived. When we got to the station called Claremont we got off and looked for the right way. We were not entirely sure where to go, but asked some cops and in the end found out where to go.
Walking over to her house we already noticed we were in a nice neighborhood. Prue’s house was part of a group of houses with little pathways and back gardens dividing them. We found Prue’s spare key and went inside. Prue was still at work, so we made ourselves comfortable in our new room. The room had 2 mattresses linked together, a desk and a giant inflatable work-out ball. I dragged the bags upstairs and Francesca and I decided to explore Claremont a little. Making our way back to the train station we found the main street and walked down it. Francesca soon remarked there was not much to see and do, and she was getting pretty hungry, so we asked for directions to the nearest supermarket.
We walked around some more and eventually Francesca got very excited about a whole roasted chicken, which we duly purchased. Adding some fresh vegetables, some buns and orange juice our simple meal for the evening was done. Prue only came back after we had finished dinner, as she had just gone to a goodbye-party for her sister, who was about to move to the States. Obviously, she was quite sad, but we talked for a good while regardless and had fun doing so. Tired, but very happy with our first couch-surfing experience we went to bed early.
I’m very happy to tell you we did nothing the next few days. Prue invited us to come to the nearby ‘Claremont Hotel’ for a drink. We talked to her some more and she shared stories of her travels in South-East Asia, which was very helpful for us, since we were still quite clueless about things to do, how to get around and where to go exactly. We exchanged some of our adventures in Australia, New Zealand and Costa Rica whilst enjoying a local beer. Not too bad! The next few days we slept in and watched movies like Castaway, Sukiyaki Western Django, series like Summer Heights High and America’s Next Top Model and finally some stand-up comedy by Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey. Francesca had also wanted to play Vampire Masquerade: Redemption, a very old game that we had downloaded and she thought she had beaten in 2 hours or so. We found out she only played the introduction, and in fact it would take closer to 24 hours to finish it. Prue was kind enough to cook for us once (some delicious creamy veggie pasta), and we returned the favor the following day with one of our famous fruit/veggie/cashew pastas. Otherwise, we really could not be bothered to move too much, since we really needed a break from our crazy antics in Cairns and Uluru.
In fact, we hibernated until Friday the 16th when we finally found ourselves re-energized enough to explore Perth. We took the train back to the city center and went to the waterfront, where we found the famous Bell Tower, a rather oddly shaped structure with some information on the making of bells and how to play them. We decided not to pay money for a walk up the tower, instead opting for a read of the free brochures lying around.
Here is what the brochures said and wiki summarizes:
"The Swan Bells are a set of eighteen bells hanging in a specially built 82.5 metres (271 ft)-high copper and glass campanile in Perth, Western Australia. Taking their name from the Swan River, which their tower overlooks, and forming a sixteen-bell peal with two extra chromatic notes, they are one of the largest sets of change ringing bells in the world."
Next, Francesca and I exited the Tower, and found a pond with some cool mosaic on the floor. I tried to push Francesca into the water, whilst holding on to her arms, seeing how far she would be able to hang over the water. Unfortunately, she did not enjoy this as much as me, so we stopped after some whine from my companion. Instead, we walked around the waterfront, finally heading for the Supreme Court Gardens, and the grand Supreme Court itself.
The weather was quite nice and we decided to sit around in the adjacent park for a while, talking about our future plans. Originally, we had found 4 hosts in Perth, each hosting us for 2 days in a row. Prue had kindly offered us to stay until Sunday, so we decided to inform our other hosts that we weren’t going to make it. Perth’s center really didn’t have that much else to offer, so my partner-in-crime and I just hobbled around. We also made plans for our Saturday, since we hadn’t gone out for dinner in celebration of our 1-year-anniversary.
Saturday proved to be quite an active day: we wanted to research the possibility of going to The Pinnacles, the only cool thing that we had found to do around Perth. Francesca had scored us two free internet cards at Peter Pan, a nationwide travel agency with a branch in Perth. The agent gave us several brochures, none of which really excited us. Unfortunately, most of them included another wildlife park, more sandboarding and only a short stop at The Pinnacles themselves. Instead, we decided to look for cheaper alternatives ourselves.
A tip from Prue and her housemate Sarah led us to Subiacco, one of the older suburbs of Perth. We got there a little early (well before opening time) so we walked around and found some majestic architecture. Still, it was too hot to be outside comfortably, so we ducked into the cinema and waited there for a while. It seemed strange to us we couldn’t really handle the heat here in Perth, whereas it was hotter and more humid and Cairns and just plain hotter in Uluru. We couldn’t quite put our finger on it, but we found ourselves getting exhausted much faster here.
Anyway, around 18:00PM we headed for Chutney Mary’s, as we had heard ‘the best Indian restaurant in town.’ In fact, there were two best restaurants in town, as Chutney Mary's sister-restaurant 'Little Mary's' was right next door. We opted for the big sister since we liked her menu better. The restaurant certainly looked very nice! Francesca opted for a butter chicken (who would’ve guessed!), whereas I went for one of the chef’s specials: a lamb dish. We also ordered a side of Naans with 3 unique dipping sauces. The food was great, and we slowly devoured our meals whilst talking about the past year and the time still to come. Very, very satisfied with our food, and very happy to have celebrated our anniversary we headed back to Claremont for sleep.
On Sunday we were supposed to say goodbye to Prue, and meet Thomas, our new host. Somewhere in the afternoon I finished packing our bags. We gave Prue a big hug, thanked her kindly for her great hospitality and planned on meeting up in Thailand. Francesca had texted Thomas and he would pick us up from Victoria Park Station. It took us about an hour to make it to Victoria Park, and we were soon after greeted by another happy face.
Thomas took us back to his place (well, his parents’ place) and showed us our room. Wow, an awesome king-size bed for us! We sat down with Thomas and talked to him for a while about his life, and we told him about ours. Thomas shared he is currently getting ready to join the air force, with just a surgery on his knee preventing him from starting right now. He told us about his travels in Europe, most interestingly the Balkan.
Francesca and I had to head for the city again that night, because we had just found out our flight to Singapore wasn’t on the 22nd of October, as we had thought, but on the 3rd of November. Earlier that week we had found out the McDonald’s offered free wireless internet, so we went there and called AA to change our flight to the 21st of October, and also called my mother and grandmother (Hi Oma!). Francesca felt like a burger and fries, so we sinned a little and shared one of the burger-meals whilst making our calls. After dinner we headed back to Victoria Park and sat down on Thomas’ couch, watching a movie and talking some more.
On Monday we had our appointment with the Travel Doctor, where we would get our shots for S-E Asia. We found out we needed 5 shots (Polio, Hep A and Hep B, Typhoid Fever and a free Swine Flu shot) each, and got some Malaria pills as well. Francesca was not too happy with 5 shots, (especially Polio seemed to hurt as she squealed during the shot) but we made it through. With a sore arm and 5 Band-Aids we finally went to the one place in Perth everyone had told us to go: King’s Park.
Francesca and I had postponed it, because we were tired of the never-ending stream of botanical gardens that Australia seems to have. However, we could not find anything else to do, so we walked all the way to the park, and then slowly made our way through it. The park indeed was huge and we spent many hours there. We did see quite a few nice flowers and plants, as Perth is famous for its wildflowers, and it happened to be the season for it, but our main goal was the DNA-tower. We had heard it was really cool, but for some reason did not manage to find it (there was some roadwork going on!) and in the end just decided to give up and went to the supermarket to pick up some groceries for dinner. We made Thomas one of our haute cuisine dishes and he promised to cook for us the next day. Good deal!
Francesca and I had also decided to send back another box of goods we did no longer need (all of our winter clothing, which was taking up loads of space and weighed a ton!), so we had brought back the biggest box they had at the post office and filled it to the rim with clothes and other stuff. In fact, when we went to send it out on Tuesday it was too full and we had to tape it shut. We ended up taping it completely and we’re pretty sure it’s water-resistant now (and would probably survive nuclear attacks too) as we used up an entire roll of tape.
Just outside the Post Office Francesca and I noticed the ‘Western Power Solar Model Car Challenge ’09’ (quite the mouth full). Basically, high school kids had been given a basic set with a solar panel and a motor, which they had to fit in a model car, and race around a track. The fastest times would go on to a knock-out system the following day. We saw some really cool and fast creations, and some misfits that barely made it past the starting point.
There was supposed to be a free walking tour of the artsy places in Perth right after the event on the square ended. We had gone over to the kiosk and asked for some information. Francesca and I decided we would start it and just sneak off if it turned out to be boring. However, as the starting time came closer and closer we were still the only 2 people standing there. We went to the bathroom and discussed our plans, deciding we’d go get food instead. Francesca had a craving for a hotdog, and I had wanted a smoothie, so sharing both made a good meal for the both of us. Even though it was our last day, we still wanted to find out whether we could go to The Pinnacles with Greyhound or another bus company, so we asked around finding out there were no other options other than the brochures we already possessed. We weighed our options and in the end decided to stick with our flight the next day. Sorry Pinnacles, we’ll come visit you in due time!
Finally, we headed back to Thomas’ place for dinner. He made us a very spicy and tasty Thai curry, which we loved after our long day in town. I started packing our backpacks for our flight the next day and Francesca talked to Thomas. We exchanged music with him, since he shared our taste for Indie Rock & Roll. We now possess a lot of Ozzie Rock! Our last night in our comfortable bed was a good one, and became even better as Thomas offered to drop us off at the airport. Great!
We said our goodbyes to Thomas, couch-surfing, and Australia, and sat around at the airport, waiting for our flight to Singapore! Francesca will tell you what our first S-E Asian country brought us!
