exchange rate 1.71 Singaporean dollars to US$1 dollar

Mo 6/28/99 - Bali to Singapore

I was awake without John's help early, 6am, and wondered about the coming day, thinking through how flying to Singapore would unfold. At 730am we walked down our side street, the first taxi passing by spotted us, and stopped. Airport please (15,000). We were there in twenty minutes and two hours before departure, plenty of time to find something for breakfast and work on journal notes.

We were scheduled for two flights, Denpasssar to Jakarta and Jakarta to Singapore (by Indonesia and soon Asia!). Both flights were aboard Air Garuda Boeing 737's and filled to capacity.

My first mission in Singapore was to retrieve a package at poste restante that Sue had sent. It took too much effort and time to find where the GPO use to be, then after navigating the subway to the suburbs I found the package hadn't arrived.

At the same time John went to Orchard St. to retrieve his airline ticket on Cathay Pacific for a 24 hour ride home. He was successful, a relief after fighting with a women at Ticket Planet for months.

We took the LP's first recommendation for dining in Little India, xxx, and had a great relatively inexpensive meal (S$5.50).

A secondary and very important goal for reaching Singapore was the film "Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me". John and I had talked often about it and looked forward to seeing the film. We needlessly bought tickets hours in advance, the theatre was empty, and that was a fear. Without a good audience laughing the film may loss strength, and this was the case. The huge theatre across  from our hotel hosted only a dozen customers so laughter wasn't contagious, similar to watching a comedy on video at home, effect was lost.

We returned to our room in silence where I banged on the journal until 215am.

Damn, John is leaving day after tomorrow!

Tu 6/29/99 - Singapore

I rose at 830a and transferred CIA World Book sections on countries I plan on visiting from John's laptop to the handheld, a lot of cutting and pasting, then worked on the journal in an effort to catch up and transfer the files while I still had John's notebook here to work with.

John requested Pizza Hut for lunch and I readily obliged sine it was one of his last meals on the trip. When we arrived I was happy to see a buffet, less happy about having only half an hour to pig and even less happy to pay S$10.
 

He wasn't feeling 100 percent and we dawdled over the decision for a long train ride end of western railway line to the Singapore Discovery Museum, he wouldn't commit either way, so I thought that something cultural should also be good before his departure.

The Singapore Discovery Museum was billed as having teams of cutting edge and hands on displays and presentations. They have a competitors version of the IMAX theatre called IWERKS and our first attack on the museum was to see two movies, both hokey on Singapore and their defense forces. Inside the museum carried a similar theme although their was a little history, but we were soon tired of the military propaganda and headed back to the city after an hour and a half.

Of the different eating areas around Singapore, we visited Little India and Boat Quay, so Chinatown seemed to be the logical next jaunt. We walked along Beach, down Bridge, beyond Boat Quay and it's pretty lit curved set of old buildings following the Singapore River, and into Chinatown. Perhaps we only reached the edge and once we found ourselves blocked at the end of a street, my energy waned and we took in a restaurant we had just passed. The See Kee Fish Head Noodle Soup House didn't look especially fancy and when we ordered from a menu without prices I was a little tickled. But then as we sat at a table on the sidewalk waiting for dinner to be served I then notice and extraordinary number of Mercedes arriving and departing the packed restaurant. Oh, oh. My dinner was great - fried noodles with gravy, pork, chicken, cuttlefish, and shrimp. Our total bill was S$28, yeeks!.

With the buffet Pizza Hut lunch, train tickets, admission to the museum and now dinner, I was blowing way beyond the US$30 day budget.

I battled to the end with the journal in our room, up until 130a, and now I only have to download files to website then - done! After 2 1/2 months I am caught up!!

We 6/30/99 - Singapore

I woke at 5am with John, we scratched around the sidewalk for ten minutes wondering and waiting for a taxi to the airport (S$10, not traffic).

It was strange accompanying John to the airport for  his trip home. I have spent eight months, nearly every day with John since the start of the trip - every plane, train, bus, ferry  - every sea, country, mountain, city, river - every lodge, meal, bedroom, dessert. And even altercations with locals, our theft, illnesses, and other things that shouldn't be mentioned like burps and farts. All these things would end and I probably wouldn't see him for seven months. Each of us would be on new endeavours.

We sat in near silence to the airport. He checked in, we grabbed something quick from the cafeteria. It short conversations since the taxi we wished each other well, briefly summarised our next moves, and positively reinforced one another and our somewhat uncertain futures. It was sad but we both understood one another, and we didn't let sadness seep out.

Okay, I was now on my own, and the first short term resolution was to stop spending so much money. I found a bus back into the city (S$1.50), then spent a good part of the day running simple errands and taking photographs around Singapore. Visiting a place is interesting - the more you look, the more one find. I had a small list of places to visit and the list grew. I was particularly taken by the old shophouses in the city, buildings from the early century lined up side by side the length of some blocks, with shops downstairs and one or two floors above for homes, colourfully painted brightly or in contrasting pastels. The architecture is a combination of European, Malay, and Chinese.

For a late lunch I stopped at a restaurant I had noted a couple of days early beneath the Ah Chew Guest House called Jeffrey's Gathering Place. A waiter there was especially friendly, funny, and sat to talk about food and America. The buildings were shophouses behind my lodge, the dining inside and on the sidewalk, and I had hoped inexpensive. I was amazed, I hit the jackpot - the meals were great Asian dishes, large and appetising, and only S$2.50 to S$3.00, the perfect dinner for a poor traveller.

I later walked past Raffles Hotel, a gorgeous huge colonial hotel, through Boat Quay and into Chinatown to search for the Singapore Handicraft Center, which I found with some effort, but only after 9pm when most of the stores along the interior spiralling walkway were closed. A few were open and I browsed through, they claimed to sell Chinese antiques, and a few objects caught my eye, a bit expensive but the logistics of shipping them home was the real putoff. My real goal also came up empty, that was to find a couple of things to return send to Sue when I hopefully picked up my poste restante package tomorrow or the morning after.

On the walk back I attached a large four storey dining hall (called what? xxx) in Chinatown to feast on roast duck, again inexpensive, then at Boat Quay looked for a pub called Harry's. John and I read the book written by  Nick Leeson, a  future's trader on the Singapore Stock Exchange who worked for Baring's Bank and helped bankrupt England's oldest bank and start the economic collapse of southeast Asia (note - I saw his release from years in jail a week later on TV). He used socialise at Harry's on Boat Quay after work nearby, and so yup, I saw Harry's then walked through a couple of other pubs and then home.

Near midnight in one of the busy retail areas on Bridge, I was reeled into a sporting goods store by signs promising discounts and picked up a pair of Nike running shoes for S$59, pretty good.

Th 7/1/99 - Singapore

Well, now I had new running shoes, so I decided to literally run through my errands for the day. I could use some exercise, especially since my mid section has been mercilessly tortured by bad dieting (ya, another resolution).

So I started off with reconfirming my Air Seychelles ticket for tomorrow afternoon, oops, it wasn't for 130pm, the flight leaves 130am - eek, I'm leaving tonight! Had I blown that one, I would have had another four days in expensive Singapore, although the Seychelles may be the most expensive stop on the trip.

The new Suntek (sp) shopping center boasts of owning the largest water fountain in the world, a good Blacky picture for the school children, so I ran there. I then ran a couple of miles beyond Little India to Mustafa's department store for shampoo, film, etc., through the an outdoor market for little gifts for Sue, then to eat again at Jeffrey's Gathering Place, finding my waiter friend there again..

I had already tried poste restante at the GPO once for Sue's package containing a guide book on Africa, my binoculars, and goodies (I hoped), now, I had one last try before leaving Singapore. I nervously found my way into the flashy and shinny train station, to the ticket machine, downstairs to wait on the platform and on the east bound train for five stops. As I walked toward the crazy expensive glittering post office building in an open urban setting, I again had to smile at the outside glass elevator. The last time here they wee even cleaning the outside windows on the high circular main building - what a government!

Inside, I walked straight for the poste restante counter, again the place was quiet and vacant of customers, and asked for a package address to me. They brought the same plastic crate of letters and although I repeated that I was after a package, I thumbed through the letters, maybe the package had a slip there, and was then very bummed and empty handed. No, this can't be - the package has to be here. The worker said no, but asked another for help - oh yes, the package came an hour ago, it's under the desk. Ya hoo! Another care package.

I ran outside to rip it open - a letter, my Lonely Planet Guide to Africa, binoculars, a box of graham crackers (I'll have to buy some fresh milk), Necos, chocolate golf balls, news clippings, and more! I had also brought along items for a return package to Sue a few other things to mail and between it all, I spent three hours at the GPO.

The most comical item was my old greasy sailing and beaching turned backpacking shorts. They had been repaired a dozen times and now had patches and embroidering from Nepal on them, they were getting heavier with each repair and I was losing the battle, so I cut the ass out of them and posted it to Megan as a joke. Megan along with John prodded me to keep the shorts going, everytime I fixed them or saw a new hole, I thought of Megan and long ago decided to send them back to her, but the ass looked far better than the rest, so I decided to cut it out and save some cash on postage too. I sat on a wall to a fountain outside the GPO, cutting the shorts up and taking self portraits of the job while cleaners, construction workers, and occasional customers looked at me in total confusion. I guess I was carried away with it all, it did take the three hours, but I enjoyed myself, and left exhausted.

After finding a few more small personal items I needed I returned for the third time in two days to Jeffrey's Gathering Place. My waiter was there and again I let him chose my meal and again I was very pleased. I explained my long trip and said goodbye - I was leaving Singapore in hours.

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