Day 78-79 - In transit, Singapore

Wednesday 6 October 2004, 23:40 Singapore time (GMT+8; same as Perth time)

Well, I've made it to Singapore! Firstly, let's follow on from the previous post.

After posting the last post, I had dinner at Orban, a quick nap, and then went back to Orban Restaurant. It was quite amusing - I went there with the intention to buy food, but for whatever reason I never got asked to order, ended up watching MTV and bantering with Nigel for about two hours, and got two free teas. (I love free tea in Turkey, especially when the person offering is not trying to sell me a carpet.)

Then it was off on the shuttle to Atatürk International Airport, a surprisingly large and modern facility. On the way, we saw the modern, green beachside suburbs to the west of Istanbul and part of the remains of the old city walls. I didn't get to go to Kariye Museum or the city walls - that will have to wait for another trip. While Istanbul was a crazy place which I didn't handle too well, I think I'd be more ready for it if I went a second time in a few years.

Free entertainment at the airport was provided by the Singaporeans and Hong Kong citizens on my flight, every single one of whom failed the security check. After going through so many of them I have no problems passing them at all, it's one of those things that if you follow the routine, you can't go wrong. Mine is - dump mobile, camera, coins and keys in the bucket, dump anything I'm carrying, plus the backpack and my jacket into the conveyor belt, then walk through, and collect my stuff at the other side starting with the jacket. I always wear my jacket through airports as it provides another few places to store small items such as the phone, and is too heavy and large to pack.

The flight to Singapore, as it turned out, went via Dubai, where we had to get off for security reasons and go through a security check. Dubai's got a very nice airport and it's a city I wouldn't mind visiting at some future point. I bought a couple of postcards, walked away with uncertain change from a US dollar (not being able to read Arabic would be an issue in the UAE) and got on the plane again. *edit* Turns out I got 2.50 dirham change, which is almost 1 Australian dollar. The Web is a good thing :)

For the curious, the route taken by the plane was:
- Southeast through Turkey to around Alanya
- South, crossing the easternmost tip of Cyprus
- East, crossing Lebanon to eastern Syria
- Southeast into Jordan and from there, drawing a neat parallel line with the Iraqi border through the Saudi desert - so no insurgent pictures, which may disappoint some readers
- Over Al-Khobar, then north of Bahrain and then into Dubai from the Gulf
- From Dubai, almost a perfect straight line to Singapore across southern India.

Airport food and the service was in a class of its own with Singapore Airlines - more like meals than the usual sort of prepackaged food you get on planes. By the end of the flight, though, my knees were sore and I was underslept, so most of yesterday (Wed) was spent sleeping off the last of the Sultan's Revenge and recovering from the flight. It's bizarre how after 3 weeks in Turkey the so-foreign thank you, "tesekkür ederim", and hello, "merhaba", has become habit and I feel almost strange saying "thank you very much" in my own language in this city. I'll get used to it, I'm sure, just like the left-hand drive, which took me about 15 minutes to get used to. It seems funny not talking about millions of the local currency any more, as well. A bottle of water here costs S$1.20, not one million.

In the meantime, I have discovered the joys of the Shaw Tower's food centre. Food in Singapore is clean, healthy and ridiculously cheap for the most part if you know where to go, and I had the benefit of a few good tips. Roti and vegetarian buffet with ginger tea and grass jelly for brunch, big bowl of green vegies and meat for dinner, and hopefully murtabak for breakfast tomorrow. People speak good English here and are generally friendly, and the traffic is orderly. Despite the heat and humidity, you can walk quite easily between most places, and airconditioning is almost an institution here. My hotel, for which I am paying less than half the price, is awesome, and I have vouchers for almost all the major attractions. I also like the fact that this city accommodates both cheap tourists like myself and the big end of town - meaning I get the place to myself whenever I want it and don't have to compete with masses of tourists with loud shirts.

Loud shirts are, as in Hawaii, a big thing here. People watching can be quite an amusing activity :) A note about sellers - I've noticed how many people call to you from the street trying to sell you stuff (most notably trishaw rides, camera accessories and food). I'm amazed how hardened I've become to it all after Istanbul - I even say "hi" to some of them and keep on moving at the same speed. A guy over the road from my hotel this morning was trying to sell me a wide-angle lens for my camera for S$199 (A$180) and seemed offended and dismissive of me when I said I didn't know the market and wanted to find out more about lenses before buying. At least I got to try it out - but it seemed to distort the image a bit?

Anyway, off to enjoy the town. I've been to the Arab Street and Sultan Mosque, and right now am in a pleasant net cafe in Little India. More to report later.