Dean's Thailand Life

I had been in Singapore for about an hour and I was ready to start exploring. I had already signed up for a tour and dinner at the night zoo, so I had 3 hours or so to explore before the tour would pick me up.

First thing after walking out of the hotel, I walked down to the Fountain of Wealth, the world’s largest fountain, which was across the street from the hotel. I took a couple of fun pictures, but like all of the pictures from the first day, I accidentally deleted them, so you’ll have to deal with a Wikipedia link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_of_Wealth

The fountain itself is based inside a shopping mall, which I was soon to discover is pretty much the way the entire city is laid out. Shopping mall after shopping mall linked to shopping mall which is under a hotel which has a skybridge to a shopping mall which goes into the basement which is attached to the subway which, get this, links endless numbers of shopping malls.

I walked around the inner fountain of the Fountain of Wealth three times in a clockwise fashion with my right hand in the fountain whilst wishing for wealth. According to the placards, doing that should bring me wealth. We’ll see.

I wandered about the endlessly linked shopping malls and a down a few outdoor sidewalks. Everything was neat clean and orderly. If it weren’t for the large number of asians, I would easily believe I was in a miscellaneous American metropolis. Portland or Philadelphia or Cincinnati or something.

I eventually stumbled on a large park which was apparently the site of the island city-state’s british stronghold during World War II. This was the beginning of my introduction to Singapore’s only truly significant historical event. I was exploring around the top of the bunker and intended to go up to a little observation tower they had on the top of it, but a fence blocked my way. The sign on the fence indicated that there should be no trespassing and accentuated the point with a decal of a man pointing a rifle at another who had his hands in the air.

Singapore: Do what we say or we will shoot you. (This point would have been a lot more poignant if I hadn’t deleted the photo).

At this point I had been sweating in the hot tropical sun for a couple hours. I don’t know exactly how hot it was, probably in the low triple digits. Singapore is a mere 1 degree above the equator. Further, the Vernal Equinox, when the sun is directly overhead, was only 20 days later.

I was craving water. In Thailand, you can find a 7-Eleven or the Japanese version, Family Mart, on just about every block. Water is 7 or 8 baht for 600 ml. About $0.25. You can basically keep cool by stopping into 7-eleven, buying a bottle of water, drinking it before it gets warm, then stop at the next 7-eleven for more.

I had yet to see a convenience store of any sort in Singapore, though there was no shortage of coffee shops, smoothie bars, regular bars, and other places that sell expensive beverages loaded with sugar, salt, and caffeine. I checked a map of the park I was in and had a little knife-and-fork decal to indicate a place I could go for food. Everything was closed (it seemed like they were setting up for a wedding), but there was a vending machine.

The vending machine only took coins and I hadn’t been in the country for long enough to amass the large pocketfuls of heavy change which would eventually rip a hole in my wallet and lead me to use any excuse I could to ditch them. The only place nearby that could make change was a tour office for the tour of the “Battle Box.” I bought a ticket, got my change, and bought a 100 plus. The 100 plus was a Singaporean gatorade knockoff, the closest thing to water I could find.

The Battle Box tour promised to be amazing. It was a S$3 million (that’s Singaporean dollars, about 1.5:1 US) restoration project inside the actual Bunker the brits holed up in during World War II. It started off wonderfully with some nicely timed sound effects and lighting. I dutifully followed the “no photography” signs until I saw no one else on the tour was being reprimanded. I took some awesome pictures, but alas, I deleted them.

In any case, the tour, which had started so excellently, went quickly downhill. The tour guide was bored and impatient. He acted more like a shepherd, more interested in moving us than showing us what was going on. Also, it didn’t help that the many of the other people on the tour came from non-deodorant cultures. You learn which cultures those are pretty quickly when you live in the tropics. It gets much worse in confined spaces like the Battle Box.

The tour led us through the last days of the Japanese invasion of the Island, leading up to the British surrender. It was clear that large amounts of money had been spent on this project at one point, but now most everything either didn’t work, or worked poorly. Several scenes were recreated using creepy animatronic representation of the commanders, but many were held together with duct tape or simply didn’t work.

All I really learned during the tour was that they british had to surrender mostly because the Japanese destroyed the pipes that brought water in from the reservoirs. Also, that the commander was unhappy about surrendering. That last bit was the major shocker.

After the tour, I wandered back from the park towards my hotel, discovering that 500ml bottles of water cost at least S$2. Just walking and sweating is an expensive hobby in Singapore, especially since I hadn’t brought a reusable water bottle. I did a spectacular job of getting lost and only barely made it back to the hotel through the maze of shopping malls, overpasses, and underpasses in time to throw on some shorts (wearing jeans had been miserable) before heading off to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo.

I forgot the USB cable to offload pictures from my camera so this post will just be a brief story, until I get back to Thailand

On Thursday evening, I set about scheduling my taxi ride to the airport for 6 am on Friday. There is a well established rate of 800 baht, about $24, for a taxi ride to the airport. Last time I went to the airport using my usual driver, he charged me 2700 baht, about $80. I take some responsibility for that, since I forgot the absolute Thai rule of “establish the price first.”

Thursday had been a very long day at the end of a very long 4 day week and I just wanted to go home and go to sleep. I would have to be up even earlier than usual to get ready for the flight, and I still had to pack. I tried a couple local options to get a taxi, and after struggling with language issues for a little bit, I was offered a price of 1200 baht. I turned it down and went up to my condo to eat dinner and work up the energy to go into town and schedule the taxi there. I tried one more local option and bargained them down to 1300 baht before given in and wanting the whole thing to be over with. I pretty much failed that adventure.

I arrived in Singapore and briefly panicked. I was really unprepared for the trip. I hadn’t researched Taxi rates or customs including the distance and expected cost to my location. I didn’t know what side of the road they drove on, and I didn’t know if I could drink their water. Worst, I had neglected to bring my US ATM card and I didn’t know if my Thai ATM card worked internationally. I only had about 2500 Thai Baht in my wallet. Worse still, I still had a couple pieces of gum in my bag and Singapore is supposed to be strictly against people bringing gum into the country.

It all came to naught, of course. They didn’t give a crap about the gum, I converted the baht into 100 singaporean dollars and my atm card works flawlessly. I can drink the water and they drive on the left. Singapore taxi drivers are strictly regulated and don’t even attempt to negotiate. You get in and tell them where to go, and they take you there, then charge you the amount on the meter which goes up at a rate clearly explained on the window of the car. They also don’t expect tips at all, even though I didn’t figure this out until tipping 2 very confused drivers.

The first driver drove me from the airport to the wrong hotel. Instead of taking me to the Conrad Centennial, he took me to The International. The staff at the International were simply the nicest, most courteous, and most helpful staffers I have ever met. I timidly told them I thought I was in the wrong place and they went ahead and called the Conrad, confirmed that I had a reservation there, then waited outside for me while a taxi came to take me to the write place. I will make every attempt to stay at the International if I ever return.

I don’t doubt that it helped that I was supposed to be at one of the nicest hotels in Singapore when they were deciding to be helpful and courteous.

The next driver got me where I was going and checking in was harmless. The gorgeous room was so nicely set that the remote control for the 30 some odd inch Sony Bravia came in a leather case. The cleaning staff had left the stereo to a classical station to complete the ambiance. I dropped my stuff and went about the first thing I always do when I get to a new place: try to get lost.