kiwibird: First stop

Singapore. Always good to be here. It does not have the charm of other south east asian countries, and quite expensive, but it is very clean and well organised.

The journey started well, with a pleasant couple of hours in a lounge at Heathrow, Terminal 2. Courtesy of our bank. Very pleasant.

The plane trip also went well, thank goodness, as I was very nervous about flying long haul again after being so ill on the last flight. As a precaution I carried with me a bag full of tablets, and ate vegetarian food. But Singapore Airlines was a fast improvement on the Malaysian Airlines flight. Spotlessly clean, very hygenic and choices of food. They gave lots of goodies out, socks, eye masks, toothbrushes, ear plugs and earbud phones, plus there were touch screens and a huge array of movies. And not to forget the hot towels. Interestingly, as it was a smaller plane over half of the plane was filled with first class, business class and economy plus. Those of us in bog standard economy were in two sections at the back. But we were comfortable, all the same.

Cheap black fluffy socks from Primark, very warm and comfortable, but not the most sensible to wear on a plane. Black fluff everywhere!

Singapore Airport, quiet, hushed, highly organised and very clean.

As we were being driven to the hotel in our taxi, I could not help but reflect on the changes in Singapore. A city where 42 years ago we drove our zippy MG Magnet around, whilst avoiding using the dodgy second gear. We knew most of the high rise buildings, as there were not many. But now we recognise only the street names, still so very familiar, but the city has completely changed, and changes every time we come here. A very modern city, cosmopolitan, efficient and highly technical.

Our first coffee at the hotel.

We are staying at the Village Hotel Albert Court, a very pleasant hotel built around old Singapore shops. Great atmosphere as it has retained some of the old Singapore, but greatly modernised.

The road in front of the hotel has been pedestrianised, so much more relaxing. The old shops are now restaurants, with outside seating areas.

I think Walter had thoughts of taking me for a ride on a trishaw.

The only vehicles that used the short road, dropped off passengers at the hotel.

A view of the hotel, with the old shops incorporated into the building above.

The area around the hotel, if our memories were correct, was once a second hand goods market. We called it 'thieves' market', as many items were probably stolen. The rumour was that you could buy back any goods that were stolen from you. It was a great place to fossic for antiques.

As we walked along the wide pedestrianised road towards Bugis Street, we stopped at a food hall, for lunch. A very interesting lunch. A chapatti with a vegetarian filling and rolled up in paper. We were not sure how to eat it as it came apart as soon as you took the paper off, so we put it on our plate and spooned some curry juice on top. Delicious.

I look very jet lagged in this photograph.

Ah, Bugis Street, now the home of markets, with a great shopping centre at the end, after Victoria Street. There were always markets here during the day, but at night Bugis Street took on another persona, a little more colourful, lets say. At night Bugis Street was the place of bars, drunk sailors and soldiers, and interesting men/women. The toilets were known as the venue for a certain dance, called the dance of the flaming a..... Drunk sailors would stand on the toilet roof, put rolled up newspapers in their bottoms and light them.