From K.L all the way to Singapore… Little India oh how we love it.

As ever the sumptuous VIP bus delivered us back to Kuala Lumpur in comfort and style. We arrived in KL around 8 o’clock, dropped neatly at the end of the road we needed in Chinatown it was a short walk down to the Grocers inn again.

As soon as we were checked in and our bags off we headed out to the bus station to book our tickets away (how very pro-active), next stop Singapore. 

Another 39 ringits later and we had our VIP bus from Kualar Lumpur to Singapore sorted, feeling triumphant and a little smelly we went for some top class Chinatown nosh.

As we sat eating our food we couldn’t help noticing how many Brits were walking past, it seemed like every other person was British, maybe it has something to do with the same cheap flights we got?

Our bus was booked the next day for 8:30 not a time we usually like to see but when we have places to go and people to see it gives us a little extra drive, that in mind we went back to our guest house to watch a hookie DVD we had picked up in Hat Yai and get an early one…. Not fucking likely, the film was Watchmen and it lasted about 3 hours…!

8:30 came around all to quickly but it was no problem for the adventurous two who despite having very little sleep soldiered on. Also the fact it was a VIP bus meant it would be all to easy to sleep along the way.

The Malaysia – Singapore border is like no other land border we have ever done, it’s more like a very flashy airport terminal, with big long escalators and shiny walls but all this means it took best part of an hour to get through all the formalities… Including having my cigarettes taken off me because I didn’t have the Singapore dollars to pay the duty on them… Oh well.

We crossed the bridge that connects the two countries and were in the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown in no time, our destination however was Little India, seeing as while in KL we stay in Chinatown it was only fair.

First impressions of Singapore have to be how clean and well kept it all is, no litter, no cigarette buts and no real chaos you would normally expect to find in a South-east Asian city. 

With little to no drama we got a taxi (no need to haggle as it’s the law here to use the meter) and found our way to little India.

Hostels are the order of the day here and although very clean and nice they’re a little on the pricey side and for your own room were talking a small fortune, we stopped our search at a pub and had a cool refreshing pint to regroup then I left Georgie with the bags while I found us a wicked place to stay… At a discount!

Footprints backpacker hostel is it’s name and for S$65 we got a lovely fresh, new room with air-con, free Wi-Fi and free breakfast. Because we’re only staying 1 day we thought our budget could stretch, we dropped our bags and slumped on the bed, smelly and tired from 2 long days of travel.

I fired up the computer and soon realised we had made a bit of an error, I had forgot to check ahead about border crossings from Singapore into Indonesia and it seems they are not as straight forward as we assumed. It is possible to take a ferry to some nearby islands  which are Indonesian and then get a connecting ferry to Sumatra but this would take an age and not be very cost effective… The only option we had left ourselves was a flight to Jakarta, which turned out to be only £24 each.

Crisis averted we could get back to relaxing, starting with a MUCH needed shower in probably the nicest shared bathrooms we have ever had.

Being in Little India what else could we have for dinner except a curry… Nothing is the answer and after a mighty fine one at that, we retired back in our room so Georgie could have a little cat nap and sleep it off.

Next on our list of things to do was see the famed shopping malls along Orchard Rd, now I know this isn’t conducive to our budget but we are only here for a day and despite being pretty knackered we can’t just sit in our room. Getting there meant we had to suss out Singapore’s MRT (tube) system… No worries, everything here is in plain English and so efficient and simple it’s child’s play. Again it surprised me how much nicer everyone else’s public transport network is than the UK’s, it’s of course spotlessly clean, cool and quite frankly a joy to use.

We stepped out of the MRT station and out on to Orchard Rd… Swanky is the best word. It’s a lot like London’s Oxford street with big glitzy flagship shops and huge malls, all naturally and a little eerily spotless.

As we walked into one mall a distant poster caught my eye, Oasis are playing in Singapore   on April 5th, a few days before my 21st birthday but sadly… No very Sadly! A few days after the flights I had booked a few hours earlier.

Felling a little gutted I followed Georgie around a few shops before I caved and bought some snazzy shorts to cheer me up. Now we had to leave this place of awesome shops and boutiques before we spent every penny we had, it seriously wouldn’t be hard as the shops here are stocked with amazing clothes and shoes and everything a traveller has had to leave behind to travel.

Singapore is what I imagine London could be like if people gave a shit, if they used bins and public transport didn’t smell of stale beer/piss, if people smiled back and had even a little pride in their city.

But they don’t and maybe thats why London is great!??

Anyway, we couldn’t come to Singapore for a day and not get a Singapore sling at Raffles Hotel could we… No! So back on the MRT and after some wrong directions from a local and a brisk sweaty walk through the stunning riverside/business district, we were soon propping the bar.

Unusually for such an up-market place there was crunching under foot, on closer inspection it was a 2ft wide carpet of peanut shells taken from the bar, shoveled into customers mouths and then the husk’s tossed to the floor, apparently the done thing!

Raffles was of course beautiful and elegant, with hand fans hanging from the roof mechanically swaying to fan all the punters necking their slings, we were no exception and despite it costing us nearly as much as flights to Jakarta we had ourselves a Singapore sling at the bar in the Raffle Hotel where they were born.

We couldn’t stay too long as the MRT closes around 11pm and we didn’t want to get stuck with a hench taxi bill so off we totted back to Little India to get some R&R before our flight the next day…