Day 189 – 06 February 2010: Goodbye to BOT (and Malaysia), and hello to ‘very nice person’ in Singapore

Malaysia Photos

On the last ride on the Big Orange Truck, we gather a tip for JC, all of which will probably be going on a plane ticket to get his girlfriend out to KL, as he is stuck with the truck for another five weeks. There are tears from some, but I just give him a big sloppy kiss.

goodbye to BOT

the ceremonial last bag

Going through the border to Singapore on a bus, we have to get off and onto it three times with our luggage to go through customs and Immigration. It’s a lot quicker going through the border without the truck, but the bus conductor tries to charge us each an extra Singapore Dollar to arrange the visas, so Lucinda does the Visa run herself armed with all our passports. The bus conductor probably never met such a cheap skate bunch of westerners.

In Singapore, we are staying at the Welcome Inn hostel in dorms. It is indeed very welcoming, with an electronic voice complete with local accent bleating out ‘Welcome’, or rather ‘wackomb’, every time someone steps near the door. The Lady owner of the hostel introduces herself as a ‘very nice person’. She is very helpful, but has a school marmly manner about her. There are notices scattered about the premises such as in the toilets: ‘if you don’t flush, I kick your ass. I mean every word I say! PS I am very nice person.’

Part of the first wave of Asia economic development, with its colonial past Singapore has a large expat British community, and the majority population is a mix of people of Chinese, Malaysian and Indian origin. Being a city state, it is also the third most densely populated independent country in the world, although the experience of walking the streets is nothing like the average Indian or modern Chinese city. With the rise of China and other South East Asian countries, Singapore is no longer in boom times, but it is still the most expensive country we will visit in Asia and there are still skyscrapers being built, including a ‘triple tower’ with what looks like a massive oil liner resting on top of it.

However, our hostel is in the Indian quarter, and I accompany Big John, Tracy, Pete and Pam to an Indian restaurant which is both tasty and cheap. I feel I missed something in India, as every time I eat an Indian outside of India, it’s better than what I ate when I was there.

enter Singapore