Singapore Part 1

We arrived in Singapore. In the airport we got some local dollars from an ATM, bought a coffee to split the change into smaller bills, and picked up a three day tourist pass for the public transit - MRT (you can probably make a good guess as to what that stands for)...or SMRT if you want to add Singapore to the beginning and make it almost "smart." I basically don't consider any trip to really begin until you get out of the airport. So ended our 24 hour transit.

And so began our adventures.


We took the MRT train out of the airport. Basic subway/elevated train kind of thing, but nicer than average. Hopping off the train we walked to our hostel. The walk was about 10 minutes. The only bad thing about it was that it's about 32 degrees C (about 90 F) and pretty humid.

We got to the hostel, the Green Kiwi, checked in. I took a shower (very nice showers here). We lounged about  bit, then walked down the street to find Christian some toiletries he needed.

Once we had rested, we decided to take a peek at something in the city. But what? We browsed the map for a bit, and decided Chinatown was easy enough to get to. A shortish walk past Little India and a few stops down the MRT and suddenly we were emerging out of an escalator into Chinatown, a much denser, more vibrant experience than I had expected. Here's some pics of us wandering the shops:

We wandered around and ate some dinner in Chinatown. By now the fatigue was setting in (for me especially) so we headed back to the hostel, and here I am writing...

Some interesting facts: 

• Drug trafficking is a capital offence. China Airlines was kind enough to tell us about this about 5 times before we disembarked into Singapore. As a result, Christian and I naturally assume the worst about other offences, such as jaywalking or playing loud music on the MRT. Probably all punishable by death. In all seriousness...or some seriousness at least, the number of finable offences is something of a local joke I gather.
• Taking off shoes before entering is important around here. There's about a hundred shoes outside the door to our hostel.
• Char siew is barbecued pork. I learned this after eating it rather than before. Christian was worried it might turn out to be dog. 

We are trying to stay up as long as possible so that our sleep cycles are aligned to local time. It's not too bad, we are ready for bed but it's only 7, so we'll stick it out a bit longer.

That's all for now.