2. Singapore bus tour

Depending upon which airline you fly with there are certain perks in Singapore. Our boarding passes granted us a S$3 bus trip round the whole city. There was about 13 stops and you could get on and off when ever you wanted as there was buses every 15 minutes or so. Sounds great doesn’t it. Well it would have been, if we had managed to stay away for it.

Firstly it took us over an hour to find the bus stop. You could see the buses from our bedroom window as they were parked outside the mall opposite our hotel and it seemed like a simple task of walking over the bridge from the hotel to the mall and then getting outside to the bus stop. Of course it wasn’t. The malls here are everywhere and they are designed like Theseus’ labyrinth; easy to get into and impossible to get out. Inside the mall was so disorientating that whenever we found an exit it was nowhere near the bus stop. Our final solution was to get outside and walk around the exterior of the whole mall until we found the bus.

We paid our S$3 and got on and the driver told us it would take 2 hours to do the whole loop. We got comfortable with our map of the bus route and tried to follow where the bus was going but soon Isla was asleep on my shoulder and it was all I could do to not fall asleep and slip off my chair into the isle. Before I knew it a voice over the tannoy said, “Everyone must alight here for Botanical Gardens. The next bus will be along in 15 minutes.”

I didn’t quite understand why we had to get off but we did and it was a good opportunity to stretch our legs and get something to drink. Sure enough the bus turned up 15 minutes later and we got back on. The strange thing was that it was the same bus and the same driver. I think that he must have nipped off for a cigarette break or something.

Anyway, we made back to the mall a further hour later having almost no memory of what we had seen. Singapore is a very strange place as you are never really quite sure which country you are in. One minute it looks like Tokyo then it becomes Colonial Britain then looks like part of New England in the States. Also there is Little India and Chinatown so it’s all very confusing especially if you’ve just arrived and been awake for 26 hours.

On the way back to the hotel we decided to get some food and found the mall’s food court. However one look as a shop called “Pig guts and organs” changed our mind and we just decided to head to bed. Luckily though we walked past a Pizza Hut of all things and grabbed some food in there. Once back at the hotel I think it took about 8 seconds to fall asleep and the bed was the most comfortable one that I’ve even slept in. Then again I was so tired that the mattress could have been made out of crushed glass and fire and I would have fallen asleep just as quickly. Well maybe 9 seconds.