Following the end of our time in Australia, we took an eight hour flight to Singapore. In making the flight, we entered a new country, a new continent and a new hemisphere, bringing with it all new culture and food. It’s not surprising then that we felt like we were starting our travels all over again; and we were really excited by it.
Our opinion of the places we’ve visited has certainly been impacted by the weather we’ve had along the way. We knew that south east Asia would be very hot and humid, but we were keen not to let that affect our experience. Still, we were completely unprepared for just how uncomfortably hot Singapore would be. Travelling from the airport to the city was easy and quick on the air conditioned metro system, but every time the train stopped to pick up more passengers, it was like opening an oven door.
The next day we awoke to poor visibility, and we could see less than a few hundred metres. It turns out that Singapore was suffering from particularly bad haze, caused by illegal forest fires in Indonesia. The haze appears every year, but a long dry season this year had made conditions worse. We pressed on anyway, starting with a boat cruise from Clarke Quay. The city of Singapore is very spread out and is too big to see on foot, meaning a boat tour was the best way to see most of the main sights; including the colonial quarter, Marina Bay (and it’s incredible hotel), the Merlion and even a brief glimpse of the Formula 1 track.
We jumped off the boat to see the Gardens by the Bay – Singapore’s version of the Eden project. We paid slightly more for a shuttle train around the gardens, and it was well worth the money to get out of the heat. We saw all kinds of plants and trees, including the massive “super trees”, tall structures covered with other plants which collect light and water used in other areas of the gardens.
After another boat trip back, we experienced our first hawker centre. A number of people had recommended the centres as cheap places to pick up good quality food, so we decided to try it out. There were countless stalls selling all kinds of food; some of it more recognisable than others. After a long day in the heat, we were pretty overwhelmed by the Chinese and Malay signs, so rather than risk eating something weird we played it safe and went for a burger!
We kept the western theme going the next day with a visit to Sentosa Island. Charlotte had visited before, but for Chris it was like nothing he’d seen before. Sentosa is a tiny island off the south coast of Singapore which is filled with theme parks and loads of other attractions, like zip lining and a sky diving simulator. We visited Madame Tussaud’s, and a related museum about the history of Singapore which involved live actors. This meant Chris found it unbelievably awkward, particularly as we were one of only 6 people on the tour. We then visited what is apparently the biggest aquarium in the world.
After eating a £3 lunch at a much less intimidating hawker centre, we visited an optical illusion museum. It wasn’t quite what we expected, but we still had fun making fools of ourselves climbing over the exhibitions for pictures. To finish we took a health and safety questionable cable car ride up to the peak of the island, followed by a downright dangerous go kart race back to the bottom. We won’t say who won the race, because she doesn’t want to appear big headed…
During our first 48 hours in Singapore, we’d seen huge variety in the local culture, food and even language. We wanted to find out more, so we visited the newly refurbished National Museum to learn all about Portuguese, Dutch, British, Japanese and eventually home rule; it was probably the most fascinating national history we’ve seen on our travels so far. The most interesting theme was that Singapore’s success lay in its ability to attract migrants from all kinds of backgrounds, and have them live and work alongside each other.
After we’d had our fill of history, we headed to the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel for a drink. This is where the Singapore Sling was invented, and traditionally patrons of the bar are allowed to throw the shells from their monkey nuts on the floor rather than in the bin. It means that Raffles is the only place in Singapore where littering is legal; elsewhere, dropping a single sweet wrapper carries a £1,000 fine, whilst litterbugs get £5,000 fines for repeat offences. The bar itself was a bit of a tourist trap, and was rough around the edges. Still, we didn’t mind paying just to say we’d been there like many famous travellers before us.
After learning all about the varied history of Singapore, we planned our own tour to visit four key areas of the city which have come to represent the four main cultures present. We started with Little India, which was full of colour as the Deepavali celebrations were ongoing. We walked down the main road with clothes shops blaring out Bhangra music, and ducked into a temple absolutely packed with people. We felt slightly in the way, so picked up our shoes and decided to head for the metro.
Our next stop had twice as many people, but half the atmosphere. Orchard Road is the shopping precinct of Singapore, and with big European brands has come to represent the western influence on Singapore. We came out of the metro to a massive Louis Vuitton and Prada sign, and immediately looked for somewhere cheaper. After pushing our way through the Sunday shopping crowds for a while, we gave up and hopped on a cheap bus to Chinatown.
Out of all the places we visited, Chinatown was certainly the most ready for tourists; the main road was full of stalls selling tat. After walking on though, we found some really ornate streets, one of which was entirely devoted to Chinese food. The best spot in the area was definitely the Buddha tooth relic temple, a massive temple with literally thousands of Buddhas all over the walls and in the roof garden.
After walking around with both tourists and locals, we saw one of the monks check his Rolex watch (it looked legit) and decide it was time for prayer. We watched the monks chanting and playing instruments in the main hall; a pretty impressive sight. Outside in the main square, old men sat playing checkers whilst others just sat or slept on the benches; it seemed like half the locals were out and about, all in and around the temple.
Our final stop was Arab Street, which was designated as a Muslim settlement many years ago for migrants from Malaysia and traders from the Middle East. It was a really quaint area of lovely shops and restaurants surrounding a huge mosque, but it seemed really quiet as a lot of places were closed on Sunday. We did find one place open for an iced coffee, and we met a local guy whose name was Brighton! A very strange coincidence to end a tour of four countries in one day.
After a long day of walking, we decided to take it easier the next day with a trip to the zoo. It was a 90 minute journey on public transport to reach the zoo, but it was well worth the trip. We walked in the heat past some really big and impressive enclosures, and looked on in jealousy at the polar bear swimming around his cooled enclosure.
But the highlight of the day, and the highlight of the year, came in the elephant enclosure where we learned that we had a new niece! We had a text to say that Chris’ sister gave birth to Thea Florence Hanser in the early hours, so we rushed back to a wifi zone to get more details. After that we were completely distracted and called it a day. But you can’t blame us; she is pretty…super.
We still had Thea on our minds when we arrived in Bangkok. We’ve heard very mixed reviews of Bangkok; some have told us that it was a thriving city with endless opportunities to explore, whilst others said it was best to get in and get out. We decided to stay for two days with the intention of coming back if we fell in love with it, but we didn’t get off to a great start when the taxi driver fleeced us out of 100 baht.
We based ourselves right in the middle of the main sights, so when we walked out in the intense heat it was quite surprising that there weren’t too many eating options. The few restaurants around the Grand Palace were all very tourist orientated, and we started to feel like maybe we’d picked a bad area to base ourselves. Still, it was only walking distance to Wat Pho, where we saw the incredible reclining Buddha statue. Whilst impressive, the site was really busy, and with a lot less air con on offer than in Singapore we ran out of steam quite quickly.
After heading home to cool off, we decided to make the most of our short visit and head out again to Chinatown. We took a river ferry from near our hotel, along with about 1,000 other people on a tiny boat; quite an experience chugging along the filthy river. For those of you who have seen the second Hangover movie, we had a certain expectation of what Chinatown in Bangkok might look like, and it didn’t disappoint. It was absolutely buzzing with life, and fairly grimy and hot. We ignored constant shouts from tuk tuk drivers and opted to walk down the main street past hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of food; including shark fin. The atmosphere turned quite eerie after dark, with fewer people around once most places closed up at 8pm.
We were up early the next day for a visit to Bangkok’s biggest Buddha temple at the Grand Palace. The temples are all about peace and tranquility…so when we were met with 41 degree heat, countless signs about pickpockets, and literally hordes of tourists talking at the top of their voice, it made for an altogether different experience. The complex was quite a sight to behold, with some extravagantly decorated buildings and shrines. The main attraction was the Emerald Buddha, which was less than 1m high and so quite underwhelming, and some parts of the temples were closed off for some reason. We lasted as long as we could without melting before we headed back to cool off.
Our final stop was to visit the Siam Museum, in the hope that we could learn a bit about Thailand’s history. Whilst not as rich as Singapore’s story, we still learnt a lot about the country and what it means to be Thai. We even heard all about how the British stole a few cities from Thailand and claimed them for Burma when it was a British colony; naughty us.
And just like that, we’d run out of things we wanted to see in Bangkok. There was a commercial area about 30 minutes away with loads of shopping malls, but you can shop anywhere. There were a few other small things to see, but somehow we felt like we’d had out fill of the place and we were ready to move on to Chiang Mai in the north.
After the chaos of Bangkok, the slower pace of Chiang Mai came as a welcome respite. We stayed right on the edge of the old city, which is surrounded by a moat and a number of gates. The distances were walkable, and to our delight the heat and humidity had dropped right off, so we took full advantage and explored the town. The main sights are two really impressive temples; one which was really old and badly damaged, and another which is in much better condition and an important centre for modern day Buddhism. As we walked around, there were loads of monks visiting from elsewhere, including one really important monk who everyone moved out the way for and started applauding; no idea who he was. The rest of the town is really geared up for tourism, so most places are either restaurants or tour agents; it’s always so strange to have the old world temples right amongst all the modern day shops.
After a recommendation from an old friend (thanks Catherine!) we decided to spend a day at one of the many elephant sanctuaries in the hills around Chiang Mai. There were loads to choose from, but we opted for a sanctuary which has saved over 60 elephants from mistreatment, either from illegal logging activities or abuse whilst begging on city streets or performing for tourists. The founder of the park was on the cover of Time magazine because of her conservation work, and the government even had to protect her from loggers who weren’t too happy with her comments on animal welfare in the industry.
Our experience was truly incredible; a real highlight of our entire trip. We learnt all about the elephants in the park, and how they have formed their own herds since they’ve been rescued. We were allowed to get right up close to the animals as we fed them, walked with them and even bathed them in the river (although we ended up getting just as drenched as they did).
On our walk around, one of the elephants slipped and fell over, making a loud noise as he did so. Our guide was quick to move us all back, just in case the other elephants ran over to help. That’s exactly what they did, and two other elephants used their trunk to help the poor chap back onto his feet; pretty cool.
The park was also home to about 400 rescued cats and dogs, all of which were just milling around with the people and elephants. We asked if any of the cats have ever been trodden on; apparently they are too quick! Charlotte wanted to adopt all of them, and there was even a board asking for volunteers to fly some of the pets back to adoptive owners all over the world. With all the crap that goes on in the world, it was completely rejuvenating to see a thriving community of people doing something so worthwhile, and we were glad that the cost of our tour was going to a good cause.
After eating a lot of very tasty Thai food (and one incredibly spicy soup that nearly made Chris cry) we spent our final day in Chiang Mai at a cooking class to try and replicate some of the dishes. Our chef/guide was very funny, and after a tour of a local market we got straight on with making a soup and noodle dish. Chris’ dish involved a bit of flambé, but he managed to come out with both eyebrows intact. We ate everything we made, including a green and red curry, so we were VERY full when we left at lunchtime armed with a cookbook to try more dishes when we get home.
We spent our final evening walking through the heaving market along the main road in Chiang Mai. There were literally hundreds of stalls, and thousands of people, making for a great atmosphere. The goods actually looked like they were locally made and of a good quality (not a fake Prada bag in sight), but after a slow wander round we only bought a waffle each.
It was a relaxing end to a relaxing visit to Chiang Mai, and we felt like we were back into the backpacking way of life again. In three different cities we’d seen a massive variety of sights, and we expect that variety to continue as we travel on to Laos; that’s all to come in the next blog.
#woodsontour
Out of the Office 