Singapore and Malaysia
You burn the leeches off you.
17.09.2008
27 °C
After the tropical tranquility of PNG we arrived in Singapore. What a difference. The noise, the traffic and even the every day use of electricity hit us like a slap in the face, screaming,“ welcome back to the modern world!” By all accounts Singapore is probably what every city aspires to be. Dramatic, multicultural and ruled with an iron first of fines and incarceration if anyone steps out of line. This is what it’s all about it’s just we forgot how to deal with it.
Catching Singapore answer to the tube, the cleaner more efficient MRT we soon got into the swing of things in this brave new world. There is ever shade and shape of people from all over Asia crammed into this city. A mix of Chinese and South Indians with the rest being Malays all flowing about the city, seemlying all getting on famously. People take of Singapore being the “Fine” city. At first I though this to be a complement until I found out they mean they fine you for everything.
As cosmopolitan as it first may appear Singapore has very strict rules and no free press. It’s all taken care of by the democratically elected government.
You can escape the sterile nature of the city by visiting Little India and China Town. These place look like forts of anarchy surrounded by enforced order. We stayed in Little India and did most of our eating in China Town.
After three nights in Singapore we headed off to Malaysia and the Oldest Rainforest in the world Taman Negara. The arrival into the Jungle was fantastic. 3 hours on a boat going upstream. This rainforest has been untouched by the ice age and other earthly destructive forces so Sue and I decided an 11k trek, one night, and 11k back all unsupervised was in order. There was a sketchy path laid out to make our way out to a hide deep in the jungle. The first day went swimmingly. We saw monkeys, bush pigs lots of birds and a monitor lizard. We had the jungle to our self until we reached the hide 6 hours later. There were another 8 people who arrived, all talking loudly completely negating the point of a hide. You’re supposed to hide ...…do you see…hide! We didn’t see anything more that night.
Sue and I left at first light for the 11k trek back to leave our noisy friend behind and get a chance to see more jungle beasties. It rained during the night so the going was tough and slow. Sue had also picked up a stomach bug during the following day and now it was taking sweet revenge for the tenacity of thinking she could eat just one more dim sum. It was very hard going. It was hot and humid and we had to put on the same clothes and we had sweated in the day before so we smelt like death. Leaches taking ever opportunity to suck more blood out of us, Sue becoming weaker on every step and still over 8K to go. It was looking grim but Sue some how found the strength to walk on. Lets just say that there were times Sue had to, “leave her mark in the Jungle.” Sue also got a leech on her bum and I got one……Somewhere else.
For all the second days trials we still thought it was all worth it. We saw a lot of animals and we were the only ones who did the trek without a guide and the walk back. The others took a boat back we later found out.
Back to Singapore for one night then on to the Phillies. We'll be returning to Malaysia in due time.
Catching Singapore answer to the tube, the cleaner more efficient MRT we soon got into the swing of things in this brave new world. There is ever shade and shape of people from all over Asia crammed into this city. A mix of Chinese and South Indians with the rest being Malays all flowing about the city, seemlying all getting on famously. People take of Singapore being the “Fine” city. At first I though this to be a complement until I found out they mean they fine you for everything.
As cosmopolitan as it first may appear Singapore has very strict rules and no free press. It’s all taken care of by the democratically elected government.You can escape the sterile nature of the city by visiting Little India and China Town. These place look like forts of anarchy surrounded by enforced order. We stayed in Little India and did most of our eating in China Town.
After three nights in Singapore we headed off to Malaysia and the Oldest Rainforest in the world Taman Negara. The arrival into the Jungle was fantastic. 3 hours on a boat going upstream. This rainforest has been untouched by the ice age and other earthly destructive forces so Sue and I decided an 11k trek, one night, and 11k back all unsupervised was in order. There was a sketchy path laid out to make our way out to a hide deep in the jungle. The first day went swimmingly. We saw monkeys, bush pigs lots of birds and a monitor lizard. We had the jungle to our self until we reached the hide 6 hours later. There were another 8 people who arrived, all talking loudly completely negating the point of a hide. You’re supposed to hide ...…do you see…hide! We didn’t see anything more that night.
Sue and I left at first light for the 11k trek back to leave our noisy friend behind and get a chance to see more jungle beasties. It rained during the night so the going was tough and slow. Sue had also picked up a stomach bug during the following day and now it was taking sweet revenge for the tenacity of thinking she could eat just one more dim sum. It was very hard going. It was hot and humid and we had to put on the same clothes and we had sweated in the day before so we smelt like death. Leaches taking ever opportunity to suck more blood out of us, Sue becoming weaker on every step and still over 8K to go. It was looking grim but Sue some how found the strength to walk on. Lets just say that there were times Sue had to, “leave her mark in the Jungle.” Sue also got a leech on her bum and I got one……Somewhere else.
For all the second days trials we still thought it was all worth it. We saw a lot of animals and we were the only ones who did the trek without a guide and the walk back. The others took a boat back we later found out.
Back to Singapore for one night then on to the Phillies. We'll be returning to Malaysia in due time.
