It Starts With Singapore...

In September of 2012, three companions set forth from Mother England on a mini adventure 18,000 miles around the globe to the far and distant land of New Zealand. "Why?" you may ask, and "Who were these intrepid explorers, so brave that they would venture to a popular anglophone tourist destination?". I'll tell you, a) Boredom b) Myself and two friends Dave and Phil. What does a holiday to New Zealand have to do with Singapore? Well sadly all good things must come to an end, and after 4 months of living on New Zealand's winding, single track roads, the heroes parted ways citing financial reasons. An inauspicious end to an otherwise epic holiday.

The First Restaurant I Saw...

Enter Singapore. Unfortunately for my bank balance, my taste for travel has been well and truly whetted, and on the 10th of January I boarded a plane from Auckland to the little island Republic, two days in and I have felt the need to document my activities in fear of forgetting what I've done/seen/experienced. So if you have the misfortune of reading this drivel, you know what to expect and can't come complaining that I've stolen part of your life by filling it with vacuous holiday tales. Oh, but I might throw some pretty photos in occasionally, that should liven it up for the visually stimulated amongst you.

Let's begin on Day 1 shall we? I arrived in the evening, just before sunset, not that you could tell, the stifling heat and thick grey cloud gave no hint of time, but no matter, I boarded the rather excitingly named MRT or "Mass Rapid Transport" (that would be a train to the rest of the English speaking world) bound for Chinatown, the area in which my Hostel "Wink" is situated. An elderly gentleman of an oriental persuasion sat beside me and started trying to guess the weight of my rucksack, I'm not sure why, but it seemed to amuse him, so hey, let him guess away! Although I felt slightly bad when he tried to lift it and nearly killed himself as he discovered that it was in fact over 30kgs.

The subterranean station at Chinatown gave no hint of what it skulked beneath. As I ascended the steps from the quiet and sterile subway, I was increasingly aware that it seemed a lot brighter outside than when I boarded the train an hour before... The Chinese Night Market thrives above the station, with thousands of lanterns criss crossing across the street between stalls, boutiques, restaurants and no end of obscure purveyors of colourful niknaks. I'd taken less than 10 steps before I'd been asked if I'd like to buy a silk suit. Hurrying along through the endless waves of meandering and aimless tourists, trying to remain as inconspicuous as a white guy with a 30kg backpack over his shoulder and a camera dangling from his neck can be in Chinatown, I forged onwards to find my Hostel.

After being shown to my pod, a bed in a dormitory laid out in the fashion of catacombs, quite frankly a brilliant arrangement, I had a quick shower and hungrily dashed off into the night market in a frantic search for food. The array of stalls and restaurants in Chinatown alone is staggering, each with waitresses haranguing passers-by with promises of the best food and cheapest beer. I settled on one which had a dish advertised that I liked the look of and settled down on my street table. As I watched the various food stalls and eateries, I noticed that the grimy street food look that people so flock to, is very much a facade for very normal looking restaurants set behind them. The atmosphere is electric though, tables strewn along a road, people milling around like ants at a picnic and an audio-visual cacophony of flashing lights and lanterns illuminating frenetic street vendors.

I'm not sure I could have had a better start to my solo travelling here, the night market was everything you could have imagine it to be and having to very rapidly learn how to use chopsticks on a busy street before I drew the attention of the more culturally adept amongst the hordes around me reminded me that any semblance of a comfort zone has been well and truly scattered to the winds.