Hot, Hot Singapore!

Well, happy new year 2012, people!

Singapore was super, duper hot during my visit the past 3 days. I felt as if water has been sucked out from my body and the only thing walking around is just some mindless form of myself, treading the path along Clarke Quay and Chinatown. Haha! Seriously! It was super, duper hot! I really hate the weather!

I am not going to write about where to go in Singapore – in fact, throughout my several visits to the land down under, I never came up with a plan. I just go with the flow. Heh! I just would like to document all the funny/weird/agonizing things that happened throughout the trip as keepsakes of this journey called my life.

1. Since we kiasi that the Custom might be jammed up during the weekend long holiday, we started journey at 4.30 am. It’s crazy really.

2. Got the shock of our lives when we passed by Seremban stopover and saw about 200 Mat Rempits hogging two petrol stations. We were glad that we pumped petrol while we were still in Subang before embarking on our journey to Singapore. I was wondering which poor sod who is unlucky enough to run out of petrol at such ungodly hour and had to stop at these two petrol stations. Moral of the story – please people, make sure your gas tank is full before you go on a long journey.

3. A Mat Rempit was tail-gating us briefly before Jasmine managed to shake him off – without our knowledge. She was worried I might freak out.

4. These so called “dare devils” did some stunts and this is probably my second time seeing such things live – I considered myself lucky – not because I saw them, it’s because I rarely go back home that late to witness such shit! I wonder when Malaysia would come up with more action packed movies, probably could try to hire these people to do some deadly stunts to keep the unemployment rates low.

5. Custom was surprisingly easy breezy. We got worried for nothing.

6. Went to visit Dempsey Hill, where the old police barrack was. It has been turned into upscale cafés. There were more foreigners than locals here. See… it’s a wonder, a small country like Singapore (considerably less land area) is able to preserve heritage places into commercial lots without having to tear them down into pieces and develop another soul-less buildings like how KL is going about it. Pudu Jail into a hotel? Oh please! The only thing that will be staying there would be some lost souls. Perhaps, they should turn it into a tourist spot. Double dare people staying there, those who couldn’t last would lose their deposit. If they do last a week, they would be awarded RM100,000. Good plan eh?

7. Check in Rucksack Inn at Hong Kong Street. It’s a really clean hostel, with friendly owners. Err, if you are afraid of coldness, then perhaps you might want to b ring your own blanket because the one provided is just a thin cloth. But then, Singapore was really hot, so it’s no issue for us. And also, the lazy me really loathe climbing stairs.. it was a good thing that we were only on second floor, so the climbing wasn’t too bad… bathrooms are really clean because they mop it twice a day.. However, the people staying here ought to be considerate by remembering to collect their underwear after they used the bathroom lah!

8. The only thing I don’t like about staying in hostel is having to share common bathroom with people – lack of privacy. Our friend, Ms Kanasai was applying deodorant on her armpits at the common wash basin area when suddenly, a guy appeared and greeted her good morning. She didn’t know what to do, so she quickly ran back to our room – I think it was super hilarious! Well, I should pay more and not stay in hostel if I am so particular, right?! Not the hostel’s fault! LOL!

9. Always travel with people who could sleep throughout the night even if you tend to snore like a Harley Davison’s bike. Well, I am glad that this time, I wasn’t the loudest one. LOL!

10. One thing cool staying at Rucksack Inn, when you were checking out, they gave you a marker pen to leave a mark that you stayed with them before… never ever give the marker pen to people whose life depends on 9gag.

Yuin selfishly replaced his name with such a huge “ultraman”

11. Well, we didn’t end up doing a countdown at Esplanade. We were there at 6 pm and there were already people hogging the riverside with mats, picnic baskets, tripods, etc. speaking of kiasu-ness! I do notice however, there were many, many foreigners as well! There was a carnival like atmosphere. Unfortunately, the heat took over us, somehow, we simply couldn’t last another 3 hours before midnight, so we decided to leave for Chinatown and had late dinner instead. Went back to the hostel right on time to countdown with the rest of the world on tv.

12. Wicked the musical was great! I couldn’t help but wonder, if Adam Lambert didn’t join the American Idol, we would perhaps get to see him here on stage in Singapore! As Fiyero!

13. We tried the much talked about chilli crabs. The one that we had on our last day there was superb. It’s at Roland’s Restaurant near Marina Drive. A bit pricey though, S$58 per kg. Datin said, try to go for 1.3kg to 1.5kg crab. Anything heavier than that, the meat of the crab would be too hard or the claws would be too hard to break!

14. Singaporeans simply LOVEEEEEEEEEEEE to stand in the line. We went to Maxwell Food Center nearby Chinatown for Tian Tian Chicken rice and also Zhen Zhen’s porridge and yee sang.. Tian Tian’s queue wasn’t too bad but Zhen Zhen’s queue was utterly crazy. They love the yee sang and congee. Well, it’s nice nevertheless but I don’t think I have such patience to stand in the line with 32 people ahead of me just to buy a bowl of porridge and yee sang?!? But since we have all the time to kill, we did. Actually, Yuin and Ms Kanasai did, while the other two of us watched Junior Masterchef on Jasmine’s ipad. LOL!

15. Couldn’t help noticing.. but it seems Singaporeans are considerate lot. I mean most of them. In our short stay, we were being offered unused parking tickets! Not once, but twice! They have this coupon system as parking (yeah, super old school!) so if you have used it and haven’t fully utilize the available time, you can pass on your ticket to others. Cool!

16. Visited Johor Premium Outlet in Senai on our way back to KL. Well, most of the things are quite alright if you are willing to fork out more than RM800 for a handbag.. I looked at the discounted prices also, I am not willing to pay that much for a handbag or a shirt! Anyway, Clarks is rather cheap! So is Fossil.

So I guess that’s about it, on our short trip to Singapore. I guess it doesn’t matter what we do, where we go, what we eat, what we fuss about.. most important of all, having to spend time with some really good people enrich one’s lives. I am glad, my really good people are awesome!