Sin in Singapore

We caught the overnight train from KL to Singapore; it is a journey of about 450km. I booked two sleeper beds. Nuch as never has been on a train before, so she was nervous about it. The Train Station at KL is a work of art. It looks more like something you would expect in Tokyo. Very modern and functional. The fare was only £13 return. It’s a great way to travel, a good adventure.

After about fifteen minutes into the journey, and I’d finally settled into my upper bunk bed the problem started. The woman across the isle began to snore with the venom of a pneumatic drill. At first it was funny! Then it became worrying. She was blocking out the sounds of the train. I’m a light sleeper anyway, so I had resigned myself to no sleep and had a good book. Nuch however wasn’t, she sleeps through my snoring every night, and this however was different. Everyone in the carriage was getting up just to see if the woman had smuggled several farm yard animals with her.

In the morning, everyone including Nuch and I were very nasty to her. Talking in load voices about “who was sleeping with a farm yard animal last night”. I actually wanted to throttle her.

It was Monday 1st May, Labour Day. The streets were very quiet. We decided to find a Hotel for the day. A) To get some sleep and B) to get a shower. The Taxi driver took us to three Hotels, all fully booked. He then asked if we were fussy, he knew a Hotel that would have room, so long as we had open minds. Sod that! Just get me to a Hotel. We pulled up and straight away that a Hotel letting rooms for the hour was going to be interesting. We checked into the small room and went straight to sleep.

Around Dinner Time, Nuch realised she hadn’t eaten for a few hours and off we trotted to find some food. Right! This is when things became clear. We were only in the middle of Singapore Red Light Area. Women on the side of the road, who looked very Chinese were wearing next to nothing and parading for all the guys. I had to laugh. I had just come from Bangkok, the Sin capital of Asia to Singapore. Singapore the State where you can be whipped for dropping litter or be-headed for spraying graffiti. Here we were in the middle of a vice den.

We caught a Taxi and headed Down Town. Singapore is a super clean and orderly place. It is also expensive. On a par with London. There does seem to be some night life going on, I would come back here, but harmed with a bit more info. We ate at a Thai Restaurant. You guessed it “Not as good as Thailand”.

On the way from The Hotel back to the Station we were treated to a spectacular view if the Singapore skyline, all lit up at night, it looked fantastic.

Singapore Railway Station is totally opposite to KL. It reminded me of Derby Station circa 1978. Very old, dirty and a news stand that obviously used to be a branch of W H Smith in the colonial days. We did however have a fantastic meal here. I had Fried Blackened Beef in a Chilli sauce with Special fried rice. Fantastic. This meal even rated on Nuch’s “Compared to Thailand” scale as OK.

So Singapore. A first world nation state, but don’t scratch the surface.