So there I was again...

At the intersection of Kelang and Victoria... but don't all the best stories start that way? Well, no...

This is attempt 4 to get something down about the last two days. Needless to say the internet facilities in this smokey little room are not the greatest... Copy and paste doesn't work... autosave doesn't work... ugh... Anyway... onwards..

So the flights were okay, although I did have visions of ending up on Discovery Channel at one stage in Brunei when we taxied across a runway in front of another plane lining up to take off... but no major dramas. Royal Brunei as an airline gets the job done... if you can afford better I wouldn't say I would recommend it, but if you are travelling on a budget, it could be worse. My seven hours in Brunei was interesting, I managed to get extremely bored, wander around the grounds outside the airport a bit, and get a general impression of the place. Certainly noticably Muslim, have to remember lots of things... don't look directly at the women... don't look directly at the women...

Singapore so far is everything I expected and has not disappointed. I arrived and wandered into the Red Lane at Customs clutching a large bag of prescription drugs courtesy of my Doctor, expecting to have a fair amount of 'splaining to do... but I was waved through before I could say a word. An efficient yet typically somewhat suicidal taxi driver got me to my hotel in record time, and as we rolled down what can really only be described as a dark wet alley, I noticed dozens and dozens of young ladies were obviously on their way to a party somewhere and were waiting all up and down the road for a taxi... Ok so I knew my hotel was in Geylang, not the flashest part of town, and I had read I could expect to see the occasional "lady of the night" on a street corner... I didn't quite expect the LEAST flash part of town, and I didn't quite expect HUNDREDS of hookers... But what can you do, Singapore is EXPENSIVE... I don't mean a little bit... even their cheap crap is expensive. But the girls are pretty harmless (as long as you don't got within about 3 feet of them I am guessing) and don't bother you much unless you want to be... um.. bothered...

So I went for a bit of a wander to get the lay of the land after checking in and then had an average sleep watching fuzzy tv.

Yesterday was a big day... got up early-ish, walked to downtown (not a short walk)... had tasty deep fried dumpling pastry things and kopi (local iced coffee) for breakfast and then set about wandering... I - saw the Singapore Flyer giant ferris wheel (elected not to have a ride just yet... $30 a trip)... lots of fancy hotels, designer shops etc... went to about 10 malls (Singas is something else for malls... you walk out of a huge mall and next to it is a huge mall... I kid you not)... went to the Raffles (nice)... saw the Merlion and the marina... toured the Fort complex and WWII bunker headquarters... saw a bunch of nice old churches... went to Funan Digital Mall (impressive... and also expensive)... ate an awesome Mee Goreng... then later in the day caught the train out to the Changi Prison museum... Now that was sobering. It is a modest, you might even say understated little place, but just to be on that spot where those things happened was something else. I watched an old Aussie digger - not old enough to have been there, probably Korean War vintage I would guess - as the staff helped him find the names of two guys he knew in the inmate record books. Afterwards we both went and sat in the replica of the little outdoor chapel in silence for a while. He said a little prayer to himself and the staff had to help him out to the exit. I sat by myself for a bit and then it was closing time and I wandered out to find a bus.

The bus ride back was s-l-o-w and took ages, while we meandered the "suburbs" the rains came down hard and turned the streets to little rivers, but at least cooled the place a little... it has been HOT... I know I am a sweater in the tropics... no matter how long I live there I still sweat.. but I guess it has been a while cause I have been sweating BUCKETS. My pores hurt, I have sweat so much... It is kind of embarrassing, but what can you do. Hopefully I will acclimatise shortly, that is partly the idea of wandering the streets in Singas. So anyway we got back to town and the rain had stopped and I decided since it was nearly dusk I would go find Chinatown... so I set off from my hotel again, planning to catch a cab, but since it was still light I decided to wander a bit more (ok I don't know why...), and ended up walking all the way back to town (I walked a LOT yesterday... like I am guessing 25-30km, I kid you not) . I stopped for dinner... wait for it... McDonalds!! Ok at this point I know you are all abusing me for selling out and eating western food, but I HAD to have it... cause they have (drumroll)... Wasabi Fillet of Fish!! And Wasabi shaker fries!! And chilli sauce as well as ketchup!! It rocks!!

So I found Chinatown and it was several more huge malls as well as the markets, not nearly as dodgy as I had expected... and I relaxed with a big bottle of Tiger before heading homeward via taxi... and my adventures trying to get this frikkin blog to work... Today should hopefully more restful as I head over to check out Sentosa and hopefully get a bit of time on the beach... then find chilli crab!! Everything is pretty good, I am slowly getting over jetlag and getting into things. Gear is all working well, carrying two packs is a pain, not sure what to do about that. The weight is fine, about 30kg, but they are cumbersome as I feared. Hard to know what to do. My boots are great, very hot but comfy as.

I wrote a whole bunch more stuff last night but time is ticking along and this is eating into my day so I am going to call it here and maybe get back to you sometime soonish... hope all is well, it is a bit odd at first cutting the cellular umbilicle and not being able to text whoever I want, but it's also good in some ways. I haven't left you all behind completely, I still get to ignore your sarky comments to my blogging... HA!

Anyway, gotta cruise, hi to all, yes I am alive, yes I have seen the news... interesting times. It's all under control!! "He who flees discomfort leads a hollow life"...

Oh yeah, obscure musical reference... Cat Power was on the Royal Brunei flight radio!! She's so great!! And so hot!!