Singapore

July 3 - 8, 1997

I flew from Hong Kong to Singapore, with a three hour layover in Manila.

Arrived, took the bus downtown to where the cheap backpacker places are, and got grabbed by a tout for Lee's Guesthouse at the same time as he grabbed another Canadian and an American. We checked in, and I tried calling Mary, who works at Newstar's (actually Quarum's) Singapore office, but just got her machine. We did dinner at a cheap Indian place, and then I wandered around town. I called Mary again, and got a hold of her. She said I could crash at her place, which was great.

Walking back past the Indian restaurant, there were Rene and Kristine (from Nepal/Tibet/Hong Kong). They were staying at the same guest house.

The next day I did what everyone does in Singapore: I went shopping. Things are even more expensive in Singapore than they are in Hong Kong.

I called Mary at work, and after work she picked me up and took me back to her place, pointing out all the Minicom buildings along the way.

That night we went for dinner at Boat Quay, a trendy place by the harbour, with two of her Australian friends. We ate at the Bourbon St. Cafe, which had only been open a couple of weeks. There was no alcohol, because they didn't have their liquor license yet. And there was no music, because they didn't have their entertainment license yet.

The next day a consultant for Newstar came to town to help with the first Erikson install in Singapore. We went for lunch at Raffles. It's a big, fancy Victorian hotel. It's where Michael Jackson stays when he's in town. And it's where the Singapore Sling was invented. We went for the buffet lunch. It was amazing. I stuffed myself. And the best part was, Newstar picked up the tab.

That night I went to the Night Safari. It's a section of the zoo that's open at night. It's good, because a lot of the animals are much more active at night. It was better than the night zoo in San Diego, because it was better lit, so you could actually see the animals.

The next day I took a bum boat out to a little island. There you can rent a bike to ride around. There's just a little, traditional village on the island. You can ride to a beach and stuff. A nice change of pace from the city.

The next day I ran around, getting information on Malaysia and bus tickets and stuff.

I bought a ticket for the 9:00 am bus. Mary dropped me off the next morning. I discovered that the 9:00am bus was cancelled, but I could go on the 10:00am bus. All the buses were luxury coaches. Except my bus, which was pretty shabby. But still by far the nicest bus I'd been on since Winterlude.


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Last updated: November 6, 2019