What do the next few days have in store for us?
25.2.16
The descent to Changi airport was interesting, so many blue roofed depots and warehouses and loads of boats.
We landed at 3.30 pm, there’s no change in time between Bali & Singapore.
First impressions were how much high rise there is, and it’s huge!
In my mind Singapore was a little tiny island.
Once we had collected our bags we saw tourist cards, but they didn’t sell the 3 day travel ticket and said we need to buy that at the station.
So we followed the signs to the train at Terminal 3, a fair walk, a lift and an escalator later we were at the station, where they sell various tickets but not the 3 day card. That’s at Transit 2 terminal.
That was Johns run sorted for today 🙂
Cards in hand we went two stops, changed, then 6 and walked 15 minutes to Hotel 101 in the Geylang area.
The area is as far removed from our little bit of tranquility in Bali as it could possibly be, with numerous Chinese eateries, massive roads, buses etc.
At reception I explained my fears after the reviews.
She said we could look at the room first.
It was on the 8th floor.
The carpet was filthy, the bath plug hole full of hair, the sink plughole had paper in it, no toilet paper and a ragged old towel by the bathroom door.
I pulled back the duvet….2 black curly hairs !!!!!!!!
John took photos!
We went down to reception, there was a male staff there and we showed him the photos. We explained that we booked last October, that we had concerns about recent reviews. He took us to see a different room on the same floor, in the lift he said that its been under new management since December and there’s been some problems.
I said ‘OK, but would you sleep in a bed with someone else’s pubic hair? ‘
Of course not he replied.
The next room still had a hairy plug hole, a hair on the toilet, a hair on one of the towels and a towel so ragged I told him I would use one like that to wash my dog.
2 cleaning ladies appeared, they were not happy, they soaked the bathroom with the shower head and gave us 2 new towels.
I asked about prostitutes and he said don’t worry they only use the ground floor.
Oh that’s OK then!
By this time it was around 6 pm, so we caught a bus to the station, and made our way across the underground to Chinatown.
We found a restaurant that was heaving with locals and good prices, so we went in.
They give you a sheet of choices and a pen, so we chose a few different dishes.
When the waitress came she started writing ‘2’ by the side of each choice, we explained we only want one portion of each thing to share. She said we can’t just order 1, so we left !
Walked a little further and found a nice covered walkway of stalls. Had delicious lemon chicken and John had duck.
The restaurant prices are generally about 3 times what we’ve been used to, but this area was reasonable.
Had a stroll around the shops, loads of tacky gift shops.
Have to say Singapore isn’t really doing it for me so far and hoping it will grow on me.
We made our way back. The underground system is just continuous signs telling you what you can and can’t do, send photos to them on whatsapp if you have anything to report, press the intercom by the door to report anything suspicious, and so on but this took the biscuit!
Constant announcements, hold onto the hand rail on the escalator, mind the gap etc. It reminded me of a computer game the kids had where you built a hospital…
Found our way back to the stop where we got off, but walked as we couldn’t work out where to catch the bus as it’s a one way system.
Apprehensively turned into our road, expecting ladies of the night everywhere, but in fact they’re in a building opposite.
We were going to watch the next episode of Happy Valley but this has been great entertainment, watching the customers stop, discuss, peer inside, pay and go in, or not.
Well, we’re hoping we can get some sleep, its pretty noisy and intermittent shouting going on.
No crashing waves to doze off to tonight.
Goodnight from the seedy area of Singapore.
(note to self : research research research!)
