Singapore

On Sunday I had a later start than anticipated as I stayed out later than expected the night before watching the football. The plan for the day was essentially to get to Singapore, although once again at the bus terminal it was a nightmare knowing what I was doing as there were several bus companies with staff who were not very helpful. In the end I managed to get a bus to Johor Bahru which is the city which borders Singapore. I thought that was the safest bet as I've read about scams where people sell you tickets to somewhere in another country but only actually take you to the border as a way of ripping you off.

When arriving in Johor Bahru it was actually a pretty simple system to get into Singapore, catching a local bus that would take you across the border and into Singapore itself the other end, something that worked out massively cheaper than what some of bus companies were offering for a direct transfer from Melaka. It took ages to cross the border however, with a massive traffic jam to get into the Malaysian Customs. When finally reaching there I was faced with another long wait to get stamped out the country, before getting back on the bus which took me over the bridge to the Singapore Customs. There was once again another massive queue here, one to get stamped into the country, and then once past that a long wait to get bags scanned. Eventually I got across the border and back on the bus into Singapore, which took me right into the Downtown Core which was useful.

When arriving it was dark outside, and I didn't actually have a map downloaded on my tablet or any Singapore Dollars on me. My first job was therefore to get some WiFi to get some bearings and find a bed for the night, and to change up some money as I was pretty starving. By the time I'd done that it was pretty late so I had a well earned rest. Singapore is only a small country, but despite this is the 4th richest country in the world based on GDP per capita. As a result compared to everywhere else in South East Asia it is incredibly expensive. If you have money to spend there is an array of high end restaurants, shopping, and entertainment complexes. For the backpacker community it is a shock to the system coming from Malaysia where it so incredibly cheaper.

After taking advantage of the good WiFi in Singapore to back up my photos I headed out to explore, focusing on Marina Bay and the Gardens by the Bay. The Gardens by the Bay was a pretty place to walk round with a modern and futuristic approach to it. The highlights was perhaps these sky tree things which were very impressive. Around this were several smaller gardens based on different cultures. From the gardens I took a slow walk round Marina Bay which had a great view of the city skyline.

From Marina Bay I went and checked out Bugis Street and Little India which was home to several temples and mosques, as well as a few interesting markets selling an array of items from different Asian cultures. Come evening I went back to the Gardens by the Bay to watch this light performance produced by the sky tree things. It was really busy but the performance was amazing. After leaving the gardens I went back down to Marina Bay to see the city skyline at night. The Helix bridge and science museum were particularly impressive too, with the science museum producing this digital effects show on the exterior of the building.

Tuesday was another laid back start to the day, focusing my intentions on exploring Chinatown and Downtown Singapore. I walked round a few of the older buildings to start with before following the river to Clarke Quay. From here I went over to Chinatown, home to several temples and street markets, as well as this particularly interesting Buddhist temple. Unfortunately here I developed some pretty bad diarrhoea which cut short my exploration for the day, although I did manage to get down to the Gardens by the Bay in the evening to watch the light performance which I really enjoyed the previous night and thought was worth seeing again.

Overnight my condition deteriorated rapidly, and I went from what was normal diarrhoea to completely abnormal diarrhoea. This scuppered my plans for the day as it was pretty uncontrollable, and I was back and forth from the bathroom regularly. I just about managed to get out to the nearby shop for bottled water supplies, before crawling back into bed. Come afternoon I managed to control it enough to see a doctor who gave me some antibiotics, before heading back to relax for the evening.

The following night was even worse and I was up five times in the night. Luckily by lunchtime the next day my system was empty and I couldn't physically go to the toilet anymore. By evening things were under control and I was able to go out to Marina Bay without feeling as if I was going to shit myself in front of members of the public. Marina Bay had this light festival on I wanted to check out and it was pretty cool with lots of temporary light sculptures and around the bay, as well as a fountain and light show in the harbour. The Merlion statue was impressive too with a digital effects show on the statue.

On Friday I was a lot better in the sense that my bowel movements were under control, although not quite out of stage 7 on the poo scale. I decided to leave Singapore and head back into Malaysia as I'd already stayed 5 nights and it's not the cheapest place in the world just to sit on a toilet seat. The border crossing was a lot quicker than the one coming over, as I googled the best time to cross this time and found out Friday lunchtime was a quiet time, unlike a Sunday evening when I came over which is a busy time! When back in Johor Bahru I wasn't sure whether to stay the night or catch the bus somewhere. The city itself had an old town with a couple of mosques, but other than that not much to see, so I therefore decided to catch the bus back to Kuala Lumpur.