A small adventure to report. It really is small, so don’t get your hopes up. It’s just a short trip to Singapore. My tourist visa for Malaysia was expiring, and I had to leave the country. My original plan was to leave by bicycle, but I was too disorganized and that never happened. I was so disorganized that I didn’t even realize that my visa was expiring right in the middle of Chinese New Year, which is the worst time in Asia to travel. Everything is booked solid – hotels, buses, trains, planes, etc., and the roads are jammed. However, in a suprising twist, I got lucky.

I wasn’t lucky when it comes to trains. I went to the train station to buy a ticket, but all the trains were sold out. Then I asked the people at the counter about any buses going to Singapore. I knew there were buses, of course, but I wasn’t sure if any left from the train station. I didn’t want to go by an old, broken-down local bus, so I asked if there was a nice bus. By that, I meant a somewhat good bus line. I didn’t mind paying a bit extra if it meant I got a bus that didn’t break down every fifty kilometers. For some reason, I chose to use the word “nice.” “Is there a nice bus?”

After that, there was some confusion. They said some weird things, and I wasn’t sure what they were talking about. Then I realized what was going on. Not only was there a “nice” bus, the bus company itself was called “Nice Executive Coaches.” I asked for a nice bus, and the only bus company at the train station was actually called “Nice”. It took me a while to figure that out. I’ve tried to tell that story to a few people, but no one really gets it. Anyway, I thought it was funny.

I was surprised that no one was waiting at the Nice counter. I thought it would be jammed with people. I was equally surprised to learn that there were still seats available on a bus leaving on the second day of Chinese New Year. I guess that makes sense. Everyone wants to be home on the first day of the new year, so the worst traffic jams occur on the previous days. Then they enjoy Chinese New Year dinner with their family. And on the second day, they are just relaxing. So on that second day, not as many people are traveling, and I got a seat on the bus.

Getting ready for a bus trip was oddly stressful. My gear is set up for travel by bike, and so shifting to bus travel was kind of weird. And, in keeping with recent experiences, as soon as I got to the train station with my heavy pannier bag, the shoulder strap broke. I had put shoulder straps on my pannier bag myself so that I could use it as a pannier and as a backpack. It worked beautifully, but it chose that day to break. So now carrying the pannier bag was really awkward. I also found out that there was no bathroom on this “nice” bus. I hate being trapped on a bus when I have to go to the bathroom, so I’m careful to not drink any coffee or water or anything. I always end up severely dehydrated when I travel on a bus or airplane. On a bike, you can just treat the great outdoors as a bathroom, so it isn’t a problem.

I’d also recently changed a lot of my equipment – including this computer – and I had no idea how to pack anything. And the computer has turned out to be much heavier and more complicated than I expected. I’m not sure if it was a good idea to buy this computer. I love it, but it’s so heavy. Another heavy thing to carry around.

The Nice bus turned out to be quite nice. The seats were large and comfortable. There were two seats together on one side and single seat on the other. I was given a single seat, and I was very comfortable there. Each seat had its own screen with an Internet connection, music, and movies. My screen was a bit touchy, but I did get to watch some movies as we traveled. That was a good thing because there was nothing to see out the window. Almost literally nothing. Malaysia has a huge palm oil industry and the land is covered in endless palm tree plantations. We traveled for nearly six hours, and I didn’t see one town or village. The highway was a modern highway and it went through nothing but palm trees. The only items of interest were giant billboards and modern rest stops. To put it mildly, it wasn’t an adventurous trip. I missed the Philippines a lot. Malaysia is quite a boring place by comparison – at least for bus travel.

The palm tree plantations were so extensive that I lost all sense of physical place. I had no idea where I was in the country. We never went through any towns or villages, so looking at my maps was no help. It felt, in fact, like I was in an airplane. This feeling was helped by the on-board service. I wasn’t expecting it, but there was a hostess on board and she came by with a delicious croisssant type breakfast sandwich, water, cold green tea, and a selection of hot drinks. I accepted the water and green tea (in a box) and just put it inside my pannier bag for later. I didn’t want to drink and then have to go to the bathroom. It was too bad because I would have loved a cup of coffee.

We stopped at one large rest stop and we had twenty minutes to use the bathroom, grab a snack, and stretch our legs. Then it was back in the bus. Everything was very modern and very clean. The parking lots were full of large buses like mine and private cars and SUVs. Malaysia is surprisingly developed. It’s certainly not like the image of poor Asia that we grew up with. Malaysia isn’t even considered one of the “tiger” economies of Asia, but it appears to be doing quite well.

Singapore IS one of the tiger economies and is far more developed and richer than Malaysia. As such, they are unusual neighbors. Singapore has many factories and a lot of Malaysians commute to Singapore every day to work. As such, the border crossing is huge and can handle a lot of people. Buses like mine go through all the time, and the system is highly organized. The bus pulls up outside a giant building, we all get out and go through Malaysian immigration. On the other side, a new bus is waiting for us, and we climb inside and drive across the long causeway across the water separating Singapore from Malaysia. Then we get out of the bus at Singapore customs and immigration, go through one of dozens of huge lines, get back in the bus and on we go. The hostess from my bus was present at every step and guided us along and told us where to go. As always, I felt guilty and like a criminal, even though I had done nothing wrong. I just always feel like I’m going to be arrested when I go through immigration anywhere. But nothing much happened. The Malaysian immigration official was curious why I had stayed in Malaysia for so long, but it was no big deal. I’ve heard of people being denied entry/exit and being forced to buy plane tickets home, but they tend to be people from South America, Africa, and poorer Asia countries. They suspect that they are working illegally. My Canadian passport and (I assume) polite and intelligent demeanor get me through okay. The real problem will be getting back into Malaysia. That could be a problem, but I hope not.

Singapore was something of a revelation. I knew it was a highly developed place (and I’ve been here before), but I was surprised at the number of very large and very fancy buildings. Of course, this is where the Marina Bay Sands is located, so that can give you some idea. The first things we passed were factories. It reminded me of the trip from the Toronto airport. We passed factories for many huge companies: Sony, Leica, Panasonic, etc. And there were luxury car dealerships, such as Ferrari and Porsche. And when we got close to downtown Singapore, the skyscrapers made an appearance. More than that, there was interesting architecture everywhere and nice parks and other interesting things. I got the sense that I was in an economic powerhouse.

The bus dropped me off at a fancy hotel on the waterfront. I had booked a “cube” at a cheapish hostel called B88, and it was within easy walking distance – another lucky chance on this trip. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get a room, so I had booked one in advance. Singapore is an expensive place, and I couldn’t really justify getting a real hotel room. They would cost in the hundreds of dollars. So I went for a hostel. I like hostel environments for the most part. Unfortunately, the affordable hostels don’t offer much in the way of space. In order to bring the price down, they tend to offer only dormitory rooms. You share the room with 6 or 8 or as many as 16 other people. Some have gone super-Japanese and designed their dorm rooms with cubes as sleeping areas, not beds. Each cube is much like a coffin. It’s not as bad as you would think. The problem with a regular hostel is that you can’t control the light or anything. Everyone is in the same room. But you have your own light inside the cube and it doesn’t affect the other cubes very much. And it feels much more private. It’s small and cramped, but it is a private space inside the room in general.

So far so good, but the problem with this place is that the room itself is super small. The cube is comfortable as a place to sleep, but there is only three feet of space between the cubes and the wall. So people can’t even bring in their backpacks. You get a small locker with a lock, but they are too small for full backpacks. It’s weird. So people end up leaving their backpacks out in the hallways and bringing items they need into the room. It’s a strange set-up. And it’s nice to have lockers with locks (one at the botttom of the cube and a small one inside the cube), but this means that people are constantly locking and unlocking these things and the rattling of keys and locks can be quite loud. It goes on all night long. I always use ear plugs and eyeshades anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal. In the end, however, it starts to feel a bit weird to live like this, especially when it isn’t really that cheap. It’s about $25 US a night and that doesn’t even include a towel. You have to pay another $2 to rent a towel.

I was exhausted when I arrived, but I still went out into Singapore for a little while. I had to get local currency from an ATM and get some food. Then I went for a longish walk around Little India. That is a fun neighborhood. It was jammed with people enjoying the holiday. I don’t have any big plans for my visit. I imagine I will spend it walking around and just checking out the various neighborhoods and buildings. I’ll also visit a couple of museums. I didn’t bring my Olympus camera. I just have my little point-and-shoot camera, but I hope to take pictures of the interesting buildings.

And that’s about it. I grabbed a book off the bookshelf here and read that for a while last night in the large and interesting common area. It’s fun to sit here and watch all the people coming and going. The other guests tend to be much younger than me and they are from all over the world and going all over the place. And the modern backpacker travels with a lot of technology, so the common area can look like an office – computers everywhere. But you still get that backpacker flavor, I suppose. Three people broke out guitars at one point and just started playing and singing.

I went to bed quite early (to my coffin) since I was so tired. Had trouble sleeping though, and I ended up not really getting to sleep until two in the morning. Then I slept until 10:30, which meant I had missed breakfast. This meal is included, but I’m sure it consisted of some bread and jam and that’s about it. So far, the best thing about this place is the people running it. They are extremely friendly and helpful. I like to be greeted with a smile when I arrive somewhere new. It’s still not really my style, though. Everything here (in Singapore and the hostel) is just too nice and too clean. I really might as well be in Toronto. I prefer places that are a bit rough around the edges – like the Philippines.

Today will be a relaxing day. I plan to buy a bus ticket for my return trip. I think I’ll go back on Tuesday of next week, giving me three days in Singapore. After I get my bus ticket, I’ll walk around – maybe to the Marina Bay Sands area. I love the look of that place. I’ve watched a few episodes of a reality show based on the how that massive resort operates, and it was fascinating. In another life, I think I could have been very happy working in hotels and resorts. They fascinate me.

 

Second Morning:

This hostel provides a breakfast, and I’m down in the kitchen area at the right time to have some. Unfortunately, it’s a bit crazy and busy. Hostels are a double-edged sword. They’re nice places because you get to hang out with a lot of interesting people. But you also have to hang out with a lot of people. And they come from all over the world with very different ways of interacting with each other. It would be difficult to pinpoint the one set of cultures that don’t really get along. It seems to me that they are all very different. I’ve said it before a million times, but I don’t agree that travel brings understanding between cultures. It really just points out how different people really are.

For me, the biggest hurdle is always noise. Candians tend to be quiet. Most other people in the world tend to be noisy. There is a Japanese family in the kitchen area right now making so much noise – screaming and yelling and all that sort of thing. There is a big TV near there, and they turned it on for their young son and tuned it to an animated movie at full volume. All very disturbing behavior for someone just looking for a cup of coffee and some peace and quiet in the morning.

The next biggest hurdle is how people view personal space. We Canadians need a lot of it and we tend to give a lot to other people. I find I’m aware of other people and I do things in such a way that I don’t get in anyone’s way. That’s an unusual trait as far as the world is concerned. It seems that most other people go out of their way to take up as much room as possible and then block other people. I escaped from the kitchen and went out onto a balcony area. It’s pretty noisy out here with trafffic, but there is room at the three tables for me to sit. In fact, I was the only person out here. I turned on this computer. Then a Japanese man came out to the balcony, and instead of sitting at one of the other two empty tables, he sat down right across from me at my table. A strange thing to do in my culture, but probably a polite thing to do for him.

Hot water dispensers are another example of this. There is one at the hostel in Kuala Lumpur and there is one here. It’s used most of the time for coffee and tea. Personally, I stand far away from the hot water dispenser as I prepare my coffee. I get my cup and spoon and coffee and put coffee and cream in my mug. Then I go to the dispenser, pour the hot water, and then walk away to stir it. That allows other people access to the water dispenser. Almost everyone else will stand right in front of the dispenser as they prepare their coffee and then they will continue to stand there as they stir it – blocking everyone else from getting hot water. I could go on and on with numerous examples.

Anyway, I spent most of yesterday walking around the downtown area of Singapore. It was great. Most of the time, I was at the Marina Bay Sands hotel, and I really enjoyed that. As I said before, I’ve always been interested in that hotel. I love the design, and it didn’t disappoint. It was even more impressive in real life and up close. As always, I felt like something of an impostor as I approached it. I was wearing sandals and a yellow tank top – hardly dressed for a luxury hotel. But it was actually a very open and friendly place. A lot of the guests were dressed as casually as I was and I didn’t draw any attention. It’s odd that these days the people that work at hotels are much better dressed than their guests. The employees are in suits and ties and the guests are in flip-flops and shorts.

I was most interested in the top of the hotel, of course – the part that looks like a giant wooden boat stretched across the three towers. Most of that boat is reserved for guests of the hotel. There is a famous infinity pool up there and bars and restaurants. But one end of the boat is open to the public. It cost $23 Singapore dollars to ride the elevator up there and take in the view. I think that is about $19 US, and it was worth it. The view was spectacular, and I stayed up there for a long time taking it all in. You can see hundreds of ships floating in the ocean as they wait to load or unload their cargo. You can see the docks with the tens of thousands of shipping containers and hundreds of cranes. You also get a beautiful view of the park area around the hotel, the coast, and downtown Singapore itself. You can basically see everything.

When I came down, I went for a walk along the downtown harbor and took in Singapore’s main theater and music venues – called the Esplanade. It would be nice to live in Singapore I think and take in the performances there. Overall, Singapore seems like a much more liveable place than Kuala Lumpur. There is open space and it is very well organized. (Of course, Singapore is famous for that.) You could ride a bike around the city easily, whereas that is impossible in Kuala Lumpur. There are even bike racks around the city where you can lock up your bike. You could have a good life here – assuming you had enough money. It’s an expensive place. I think it is one of the most expensive cities in the world.

And that’s about it. I was exhausted by the end of the day. I had a good meal at a streetside restaurant serving a variety of Indian and Arabic dishes. Then I spent the evening back at the hostel reading before I turned in for an early night. I had trouble sleeping in my capsule, but feel somewhat rested this morning. My plan for today is to visit a couple of museums – the Singapore National Museum and perhaps an art museum.

 

Third Morning:

Man, a whee bit noisy in the hostel common area again this morning. As I said the other day, it’s interesting how different people can be – what people think of as normal and acceptable. This morning, people turned on one of the very loud and crazy “Fast and Furious” movies at high volume. They sit over breakfast and watch this. I couldn’t take it for very long and I’m now sitting outside again. The traffic noise is almost overwhelming, but it’s better than the movie at this time of the morning. It’s also so cold inside that I can’t sit there for very long. They have air conditioning and like most places in Asia, they turn it up to the highest level. It gets so cold that you can’t even breathe. The capsule in my dorm room is just as cold. If I mentioned any of this to anyone, they would think I was crazy. Who wouldn’t want to watch a loud movie on a big flat screen TV over breakfast? Who wouldn’t want the temperature to be freezing cold? Well, I guess I wouldn’t.

On the positive side, the bathrooms have been relatively free. When I first got here, I was worried that the bathrooms would be really crowded. There are lots of rooms and capsules and not many bathrooms. But for some reason there is never really a problem. Plus, my 8-capsule dorm room has remained largely empty. There appear to be only two other people in it. Maybe 3. They are all young Japanese guys and they are extremely quiet. They appear to stay in their capsules 24-hours-a-day. I never see them move. And they never do or say anything. If all 8 capsules were occupied, it would not be so comfortable.

I’m also enjoying the included breakfast. It’s a western-style breakfast, so they provide bread and jam and peanut butter, bananas, coffee and tea, and cereal with milk. For most of the world, such food for breakfast is pretty nasty. It’s not really considered breakfast at all. And I take their point. The cereal is more sugar than anything else. And a couple of slices of toast and jam is not very filling. But it’s a nice change for me. I particularly like the milk. I almost never had milk in the Philippines or in Malaysia mainly because it is far too expensive. It’s just not a common drink. But they provide unlimited milk here with the cereal, and I’ve been drinking a lot of it with cereal.

Yesterday was a relaxing day. Lately, I’ve become fond of museums, and I spent much of the day at the Singapore National Museum. Unfortunately, many of their permanent galleries were closed for renovations (to be opened in September), but there was a good exhibit on the full history of Singapore. I enjoyed that a lot. There was also an exhibit on the Japanese occupation during World War II. There were many Japanese tourists at the museum, and, as always, I wondered what they thought of this WWII exhibit. It was largely an account of Japanese atrocities and cruelty. They were quite brutal conquerers all over Asia and killed and tortured almost routinely. But as far as I know, this fact isn’t really dealt with in Japan. That part of their history is ignored. I’ve read that it isn’t part of their school history books. So when they see how other countries view them, I wonder how they feel.

I didn’t do much else. I walked around the riverside area and through the historic Fort Canning area. I found a large neighborhood of narrow alleys filled with people selling junk out of suitcases. It was essentially a large fleamarket for the migrant Indian laborers in Singapore. It was my kind of place. I enjoyed that fleamarket much more than I did the riverside area (which is meant for tourists). I even found a replacement wrist band for my watch. It had broken, and I had been unable to get it fixed. But an older man had a table covered in watch bands, and he had one that fit my cheap Casio watch.

Today is my last day in Singapore. I plan to visit another museum – the Asian Civilizations Museum. And I’ll round out the day with a walk through Little India and dinner there. My bus back to Kuala Lumpur leaves at 10:30 in the morning. It will be nice to be back there. The hostel in KL is much more comfortable for me. It doesn’t have any of the luxuries – no air conditioning and no TV, but I prefer it that way. It also costs far, far less and that is for my own room. It’s very hot inside the rooms, but I don’t seem to mind that much. I hear other people complaining all the time about how hot it is in Malaysia, but I don’t notice it much. I guess I’ve adapted to an extent.

And that’s about it for this morning, I guess. It still feels strange to be typing on this fancy computer. I feel somewhat intimidated by it. It feels far too fancy for just rambling. I feel like I should be doing “important work” on it. Before this, I always used just a pen and paper or my primitive Alphasmart NEO for writing.

Tags: Malaysia