Singapore Slung

The morning began with another look on the Malaysian website and another attempt to book the flipping train tickets to KL. There was a phone number so we decided to give them a call from a payphone and sort it all out that way. When we did find one, near the famous Mustafa Centre, we couldn’t get through. So the only option left was to jump on the metro again and go all the way up to Woodlands again and trek the 1km to Woodlands Crossing to buy the tickets there and then head back. All in all about an hour and a half to two hour round trip. Not what we wanted but there seemed no other way. After lunch we completed said trip and managed to finally purchase the tickets – two “superior” class seats for the 6 and a half hour trip to KL.

The Mustafa Centre...at night

It had been a long and hot walk to get there without our luggage and the journey the next day with all our belongings was not looking desirable. But that was then and this was now. Our next metro ride was to the Geylang district, a few kilometres east of our hotel, and the red light district of Singapore. We simply wanted to have a look around and see what the place was like as we had seen some hotels there that were cheap but had decided against them due to their location. And apparently the whole industry was relatively respectable anyway. But when we got there we didn’t see anything of interest. It just seemed like another little neighbourhood of Singapore, nothing to report home about. It was another long, hot walk back to the hotel and we both grabbed a shower, stuck the AC on and began searching for accommodation in KL.

The Geylang (Red Light) District

It didn’t take long to find a good hotel and we booked it quickly before setting off for a curry. We were in Little India so it seemed appropriate, and it was……pretty good. The spicy chicken and spinach dish that I got would have been much better if the chicken wasn’t on-the-bone, which I can’t stand as you have to pick all the gristle off. James’s Murg Makhani was much nicer and I had definite food envy after the first bite. Nevertheless, we were fed and now needed to hit the harbour area again to see the city lit up at night. Before we got there we were to stop off at Raffles hotel, for a Singapore Sling, the infamous cocktail for which Raffles is famous for. I had been advised by friends that we should get one as it was “the” thing to do in Singapore. It made sense too, but after a quick search on the old internet to find out actually how much they were we quickly dismissed the idea as preposterous. We were looking at about $60 for two drinks, and as much as we like a tipple here and there that was just too much for us to handle. So we had a look round, used the toilets and generally soaked up the Raffles atmosphere before heading off again.

The Raffles gents

 Down at the harbour it was an amazing sight and slightly better than by day, even though that is amazing in itself. I grabbed some night pictures of everything and then we headed back towards Little India hoping to find somewhere selling beers for $6 or under – that is all we had between us after saving $4 for the metro on our last day.

Singapore by night

There didn’t seem to be any cheap bars around, or any bars for that matter, but we saw a sign in a local street eatery and they did just what we needed – two 665ml Tiger beers for $12. Bazinga! They were ice-cold, which was great as we were damned hot after the walk back, and they went down a treat. We drank them whilst a drunk Kermit The Frog rambled on from a table further down. We received a few interested glances our way, but we had been getting used to it by now, and it would surely be getting more prevalent as our trip goes on.

Suppin' on a Tiger (not in a building site)