14 april 2008

our last day in singapore. (i know, finally, right?!)

we get up, have a delish breakfast (cheese and pepper omelette, made to order, and a huge pile of noodles - the perfect blend of east and west!), finish packing and check out, leaving our cases to collect later.

then we set off to look at the merlion, the symbol of singapore: basically a big lion/mermaid hybrid.

we take lots of pictures of the new, larger version and look at the smaller original.

there are loads of tourists, and a man from thailand sits down next to my dad and snaps a picture of the pair of them together. we have no idea why.

then we walk along to boat quay — or was it clark quay? one of the two quays, anyway –and look around. as we walk along the quay, we are hassled at every turn by restaurateurs trying to lure us in. “you want food madam?” no thank you. “drink? we have tea, coffee?” no. i am hungry but i’m more concerned that somewhere in the last few years i have become a “madam”… this hard sell approach is everywhere in singapore, part of the bartering culture and a little odd considering how polite everyone is here. there is just no taboo against aggressively trying to sell something, but for a reserved brit it’s hard to take in. in my culture, polite = leave me alone. here, polite = be nice at all times… but still try to SELL.

perhaps weirdly, we decide to eat lunch in o’brien’s, an irish sandwich bar we have in the UK. i have a fishfinger and cheese sandwich with ketchup, one of the oddest things i’ve ever ordered. (made a few, but never had one made for me). nice though!

we only have a couple of hours left now, so we decide to do the one thing that’s been missing from the trip (at least from my perspective): a visit to sim lim square, home of everything electronic, electrical and technological. we go by underground, and are overwhelmed by the size and scope of the place.

this one huge mall has to have the biggest selection of technology available in one place, ever. somehow i restrain myself from getting a mini-PC (they have a lot of asus eePCs, which are so tiny), an ipod nano and a tiny-looking 1TB external hard drive.

on the down side, this mall has the worst toilets i’ve ever seen/used (enough said), and the most off-putting food court:

(speaking of shopping, i forgot to mention it in one of my previous posts, because i can’t remember which day we went, but i feel i must give a mention to a store called mustafa. just down the road from our hotel in little india, it’s like wilkinson’s on steroids. you wouldn’t believe the choice: you can change money, book a holiday, buy luggage, clothes, cameras, toiletries, basically everything you could ever want. it’s open 24 hours a day and continually heaving. it’s a tourist attraction in itself: a must-see).

finally, it’s time to head back to the hotel, buy a little budda in the gift shop, and head to the airport.

australia ahoy!