Singapore!

Well, we’ve arrived safely, and have reasonable internet access (although this computer is possibly the slowest I’ve ever encountered, and seems to like crashing at regular intervals).

I wrote up a huge screed about the rest of our day in Perth while sitting in the airport yesterday, so I’ll see if I can upload that shortly, but I thought first I’d just check in and say we’re here, we’re safe, and I do know about the problem with the photos in the previous entry (trying to race through uploading them while very tired, I somehow managed to mess up the file extensions, which Hamipiks got upset about, and now it won’t let me overwrite them. So at some point I’ll have to find the time to go through and rename all the files and try uploading them again, but it won’t be this morning – too many exciting things to see and do!)

So far, I’m loving Singapore. We’re staying in Little India, and when we went out last night to find dinner, it was like being transported back to Delhi. We were adventurous and ate at a little street-corner cafe that was buzzing with locals (my theory on eating when travelling is to avoid the tourist haunts and eat wherever seems popular with locals, because that’s usually the safest food). We had a wonderful (if hot!) meal of various curries and rice, and some savoury doughnut-type things I never did catch the name of, while watching a Bollywood movie on an overhead screen. And best of all, we only paid $6 each for so much food we couldn’t finish it all!

The heat here is amazing. Every time we step out from airconditioning into the open air it’s like opening an oven door (or maybe a steam oven, given the humidity). It’s taking a bit of getting used to, but at least our room has air conditioning, so we were able to sleep comfortably last night. I’ve been in the tropics before, but only when travelling by land, so I was able to gradually acclimatise to the increasing heat. This is the first time I’ve gone straight from a relatively temperate climate to the equator, and it’s a real shock to the system.

Our hostel is, um, interesting. The rooms are fine, but the bathroom leaves a lot to be desired. In our building there are two toilets and three showers, which is fine, except that one toilet opens off the other, so effectively only one can be used at a time, and only one of the showers has a door – the other are open to the corridor, where, thanks to a large picture window, they are overlooked by the building next door. I made sure I got up at 6.30 to have my shower this morning, so I could guarantee getting the stall with a door!

We’re going to go out shortly and find something for breakfast. The hostel does offer free breakfast, but it seems to consist only of fried stuff, which neither of us feel much like. Exploring the city is a more interesting way of getting food anyway.