Day 168 - Time to Explore, Singapore!

I really like this place.

Day 168 - 08th December

So what a comfy night's sleep in my new digs. The bed might not look like much but believe me, it's mighty comfy (sorry, I was watching To Kill A Mockingbird).

So I had a quick freshen up and headed straight out to explore.

Sultan's Mosque

I walked North, towards Little India and found myself open mouthed and staring at everything, left, right and centre. Singapore really is a fantastic city and I was only just starting.

One of the hundreds of shopping malls, it seems.

I found City Hall, Raffles Hotel and Sultan Mosque on my travels as well as an abundance of shopping malls (too many shopping malls)!

I liked this street. Artsy.

Not that I have much when it's long, but my hair was becoming an annoyance. I could feel it wobbling in the wind and I refuse to succumb to a Bobby Charlton. So one of my tasks for the day was to find a barbers. Sure, I passed plenty of hair salons, hairdressers, even a Toni and Guy, but I'm not paying SPG$50 for a clipper job - I'm not a 'Cheap Charlie' as my Koh Samui contingent named Matt, but it's literally a five minute trim. It ain't worth £25.

After doing a loop near Shaw Towers, I found myself wanting to get to Marina Bay Sands Hotel (the famous, three towered hotel in the east of the city). I thought I'd take a shortcut through Suntec City Shopping Mall - how big could it really be?

Turns out, five complexes in one, a convention centre and a Fountain of Wealth big! I spent a good fifty minutes in there, just wandering around, trying to find an east exit.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Impressive, huh?

I jumped on Promenade MRT and headed to BayFront station. When I came out, I found the Marina Bay Sands Building. It was incredible. Wandering around inside, I felt like a small fish in an ocean. It was just enormous. I did get to see some of the athletes from the Asian Paralympic Games here in Singapore which was worth the visit.

I'd found a barbers, not too far from my hostel, so I set off after it. Two hours later, my hair still wobbling, sweating in the humidity and wandering around some deserted backstreets, I decided to get some Wi-Fi and find a reliable source for a haircut.

That reliable source was CUTS, a Korean style barbers situated in Raffles Place. Another hour later, wandering around with my HERE Maps and getting lost in two further malls, I found it. It was, bizarrely, located inside the underground shopping precinct that formed part of the MRT station. It got weirder when I had to put $10 in a machine for a ticket number - it was like being at the deli counter in Tescos!

But hairs off to them (sorry, bad pun), they did a cracking job and even vacuumed my head afterwards. Not a normal service but worth the experience.

I made a few hours stop to talk to my mum and sister. We had some laughs, especially when they tried to guest my favourite song, going from my clue of his name relates to William to Elvis Presley and Nat King Cole - the mind boggles sometimes. My dad made an appearance as well and it made me miss Christmas at home.

What a dinner winner!

I headed back to Chinatown, the night creeping in and had some dinner at one of the small stalls. This time I had a fantastic duck and pork combo with rice and soy sauce. You can't argue with this sort of grub at $6 (£3) a pop. The portions are great!

I wound down with a little writing (yes, wound down) and cracked on with the formatting of my sitcom. Before I knew it, four hours had passed and it was midnight.

What a day!

Day 123 - Khmer haircuts, gate crashing 60th birthday parties and All Blacks at their best!

I have no idea who this guy is yet I'm drinking his free beer and eating the free buffet.

Day 123 - 24th October

So I was feeling much better after a fairly good sleep but still not 100%. I still felt really clammy and was trying to rehydrate myself with countless bottles of water. 

I had plenty to do for the day to keep me occupied and I was sad to have to let Mr Moeuth down on visiting his living quarters but I just couldn't bet on whether I would be feeling better or not.

The day began downstairs in Bou Savy, with me plotting out my next novel. This one has potential but needs a lot of research and structuring. I've had the idea since 2009 but it has been a stop, start, stop, start type of novel so I decided to wait, work on other projects before coming back to it.

Di and Ian visited me and I took Di down to the pharmacy on Sivutha whilst I went bag searching for my suits. I found a decent sized red bag that can do the trick so bargained my way to an $11 purchase. Now I've just got to carry it for the next four weeks until my sister takes them back home for me.

Di was then treated to lunch by Ian whilst I headed out to get my haircut, the second one of the trip. This was a totally different experience to the one in Vietnam. This time, I was told $3 would be the rate. I was plonked down in a barber's chair and a bib put around me before a cloak to catch the hair (yeah, so far it seems about right, right?). 

So all of a sudden he brings out a powder puff and douses my face, including my beard in this white powder. At this stage I look like a cross between a cocaine addict and an old man. He whipped up
his clippers and started forcing the blades through my hair until I'd been sheared like a sheep around the back and sides. He tidied up the back and then ask if it was OK. Put it this way, my back and sides were a number 3, my hair on top was still full length. I looked like something out of Backstreet Boys!

After the initial terror of what was happening to me, it all turned out OK!

After overcoming the language barrier, I managed to get him to trim the top off and twenty minutes later, it was a decent outcome. He provided me with a cup of water and wet towel to wipe the powder off. I worked out the powder was just to make me smell nice.

When I arrived back at Bou Savy, I'd received an email that stated my credit card had failed to secure my place on Monday's flight to Vientiane. I tried to book again with two other cards but still was thwarted. So good ol' Mum and Dad came to the rescue and booked it for me from the UK (love ya Kimbo and Michaelob).

By 4:30pm, Di, Ian and I were on route to Sonolong Hotel where I'd been unofficially invited to one of my project's celebration party. When we arrived, we found it was this stunning, top class hotel and that it was actually a 60th Birthday party for a donor of the project. As we circulated, it became apparent that we were outcasts. What were we to do?

The violinist they'd hired was good.

Well, I'll tell you what we did do. We drank the free beers, we ate the free food, we sang Happy Birthday like Brian was an old friend and we took part in the post cake-candle blow out party games. I even held down a 30 minute conversation with Brian's wife until it was clear I had no idea who he was.

In the end, it worked out OK and said Brian was actually a really interesting chap. He'd travelled all over the world, had some great stories and gave me free champagne. Win, win, win!

Afterwards, Di and I laughed about the incident over dinner before heading to Charlie's bar to watch the Rugby World Cup semi final - South Africa v.s. New Zealand.

There was quite a following for South Africa so Di and I were drowned out in our calls throughout the game. It didn't matter in the end. The All Blacks won (oops, spoiler alert!).

Well what a day. Di's leaving on Sunday afternoon. It's going to be sad. I'll miss the conversation and the tea we shared!