So we are sitting at the train station, 2hrs early, and I’m thinking, I’m going to need something to drink on the over night train back to Kuala Lumpur. There is a local grocery store so I head on over there.
On this trip, I tended to stay away from Cola drinks as a regular supplement to balance off the buckets we sweat while walking around bird parks, Little Indias and outdoor market. I decided to go with those “powerade” type of drinks. Here they call them “isotonic drink”. While they have quite a number that are “cloudy but not clear” in coloring, they taste fine.
I had a whopping $2.00SGD left to spend and this drink was labeled as $1.50. Excellent! I bring it to the counter to pay. The lady says “That’s 15cents extras for cold. Okay?” I was stunned. Was she trying to rip me off? This was a large store, so that was unlikely. I just replied “The label said $1.50.” and gestured with my thumb towards the coolers. She basically repeated her statement and said “Sure, whatever.” Then she scanned a barcode and charged me $1.65.
It’s the little stories that make this(any) trip memorable.
The bus to Singapore was interesting enough but the customs a bit of a pain. Not that we had any troubles, just the having to get off the bus, twice (once for leaving Malaysia and once for entering Singapore) all within 10 mins of each other was a hassle.
Now that we are here, we can enjoy the sights.
We decided on a hostel to stay in this time. Never done this before, had some reservations about how “open” it might be but we lucked out (yet again) and found a place where we got our own room for about $60. The room is nothing to really note but it’s clean and sleepable(I’m calling dibs on that word creation right there!). There are some interesting rules though:
We did get 3 bottles of “room temperature” water for free, so not like we need any more. Love the “hire a towel” line.
This is one of the coolest buildings I have ever seen. Park View Square. Don’t know the right term for the style but it is from a time where I’m sure I would have loved to have lived in a “big city”. The building has such character. I got a nighttime shot of it but it’s not too clear. I’ll see if I can try again tomorrow night.
We found this kind of market area. Lots of food, clothing and trinkets to buy.
I heard about the electronics square where you can hey things for “10 – 20%” less than retail price. I was seriously disappointed. Prices weren’t all that different, and the variety was nice but eventually turned monotonous.
Here is an example. My wife is looking for a lighter laptop to eventually replace the one she has. So we looked at a few and I decide to grab a shot of the price of one.
That price is in Singapore dollars and is about $1032USD right now. I did a search online and lookie what I found on a Canadian website:
Which is about $200SGD less that a “non-retail” price. If you are going to another country and considering buying something of value, you had better be prepared and go with some sort of internet-connected device to know what you can haggle for! Coincidentally, the NewEgg one has more ram too.
Singapore is very modern. You won’t be wanting for much of anything from back home. You have everything from Uni-Glo to McDonalds here. There is always the ubiquitous 7-11 but the content varies a bit. Occasionally you get a surprise machine showing up.
Yeah, you saw that. Instant mash potatoes and gravy….from a slurpy-type machine. I am strongly conflicted on trying it. On one hand, this just had to be gross. On the other hand, where else can you possibly have such an experience for $0.81? I’ll see how brave (or stupid?) I feel tomorrow.
Now, this might seem a bit odd, for me to post a picture of a subway door here but having taken them so much, and seen all of Seoul’s styles, I was surprised to see the extravagance of stainless steel. This was not s cheap install by any means and taking the subway is cheap here indeed (one of the few things that is so).
So, onto the highlight of the night. The water show. This is a display of water and light. It is about 10 miss long (actually, closer to 12 according to the video below). It is worth the watch.
One last pic for this post. You probably heard off “photo-bombing” but in case you haven’t, that’s where you do something odd/funny/embarrassing to someone elses picture as they are taking it. I got the chance to do so and the girls got a big laugh from it. I asked for a copy and here it is :)
We have been pretty spoiled with the inter-city busses in Korea. I mean how m much more relaxed can you get than this?
This pic was taken in 2007 when my wife cane to Korea by herself and I came for a visit. Still, the busses have reclining seats and a swing out leg support as well. How do you beat that?
When I saw “Massage bus” sticker on the bus wee were about to get onto for Singapore I was both curious and happy. These seats have massagers built in!
They are also very comfy…
…and bright.
I was going to be supper happy when I saw this:
It seems they either don’t work or the bus driver hadn’t turned them on….not getting power to charge my tablet :(
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