Singapore

I spent a week in Singapore. Enough time to acclimatise to the temperature and to have a look around.

I spent my first two nights at a very cycle friendly hostel:

The people that owned the place were cycle tourists. SK in the picture above cycled from Finland to Singapore, a few years ago. He’s a fountain of knowledge and was able to give me some great tips on where to go whilst cycling in Asia.

My next few days were spent at a Warmshowers host’s home, Roli, he was from Switzerland. He had the rules of cycling framed and on his wall. http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/comment-page-8/

A week was a good amount of time to spend seeing the sights of Singapore. Also as expected due to the heat my ankles became cankles and my feet started to look like Shrek’s so a week was enough time for my swollen feet, ankles and calves to return to their original size.

Gardens by the Bay, which made me think of the Eden Project. It’s a work in progress which over time will look even more spectacular than it does already as the plants continue to grow.

Their subway trains are extremely safe.

Singapore’s a very diverse place with, temples, mosques and churches within a stones throw of each other. The government owned houses reflect the diversity of the country, so the ethnic diversity of residents within each block of flats exactly match the ethnic diversity of the country.

There’s a massive Art Deco building in Singapore. It is one of the most expensive office buildings in Singapore. It has a museum in it too. The deer below is an example of some of the things in it.

Although quite built up Singapore does have a lot of greenery.

I visited the Asian Civilisations Museum, which was really interesting and whetted my appetite for the countries that I have ahead of me.

As I was riding out of Singapore I met Andrew. I met his mum and dad last year near Eugene, Oregon and his dad, got in touch with me whilst I was in Singapore saying that I should contact Andrew, which I did. Unfortunately Andrew didn’t get my message until the day before I was leaving the country. Had he picked up my message sooner he would have wanted to arrange for a group of people to ride with me as I left Singapore for Malaysia. To be honest when I heard this I was pretty grateful as I am very very slow. When we met he actually explained that it would have been with friend of his who cycle tours – so it wouldn’t have actually have been as bad as I imagined it would be.

As I was leaving Singapore I got extremely lost and ended up on Singapore’s SLE and BKE (the E stands for Expressway). So at the time whilst I was riding along these roads I was thinking about just how great Andrew’s offer of seeing me off at the border was.

Cycling in Singapore was great. The motorists do give you room and as I understand its supposed to be a a metre or a metre and a half.

The dockless bikes are heavily used here. Although most riders ride on the pavement. There are actually posters asking people to be mindful of where they put them after use.

My new mosquito repellent:

It works on the mosquitoes in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Far better than using deet, although an odd feeling when applied.

Food is amazing here. Unfortunately they brought me the wrong cake and I wasted time photographing it. In that time they realised their mistake and exchanged it for this

Which looks nowhere near as good as the first cake, lesson learnt.