My Singapore Story Part 1

I was in Singapore from the 22^nd until 24^th June. I was there to attend a wedding. This was how it went.

Initially I took days off from the 21^st as I was planning make some preparations with regards to the house before leaving. However, a colleague said that he needed to swap calls with me due to another event that he had to attend. I did voice my concern with regards to leaving early on post call day. Apparently these things happen quite often and for far more mundane reasons and therefore it can be arranged that I shall leave early after my call. The problem was this – in the past such arrangements can be made due to the fact that there were two people on call. One for ICU and the other for OT. Over the past 3 weeks or so, our numbers dwindled such that the on callperson for OT were to stay only until 9 pm and subsequently his/her job would be taken cared of by the medical assistants. Normally this is not a problem. Normally of course refers to calls not done by me...

My flight was supposed to be at 8 am 22 June 2012. This meant that I was supposed to be at the airport maybe at the latest by 7.30 am (domestic flight). The night before, I was unable to get even a wink of sleep as a lot of my patients were dying. Add to that a burr hole at three am and what you get is a slightly delirious anaesthetic medical officer who was ALMOST disorientated to time.

Luckily, Abang Hamran the MA helped me out by sending me off to the airport. I had to pass over to my relieving colleague via phone which was of course not ideal. I am sure that he is not very happy with all this despite the appearances.

My first flight was to Kuching where I was to take another plane to Singapore. Arriving at Kuching after about 40 minutes of flight (it’s that close), I had a nasi lemak breakfast at Old Town. I like Old Town’s nasi lemak. It tastes like what nasi lemak should taste like instead of the “we try to be special” crap of an excuse of nasi lemak at other high end places. The downside is of course they are rather expensive. Nasi lemak from the makcik in front of the hospital’s main entrance here in Sibu costs RM1. Old Town’s one cost me nearly RM10. Here in Sibu the nasi lemak would usually be served with ikan pusuk masin (salty fish) instead of the regular dried anchovies you get back in Semenanjung.

I decided to rent a car in Kuching as my flight to Singapore would not be until 3.40pm and I had a good 5 hours to kill. Besides, my iPad was running low on battery and there is only so much Infinity Blade that it can take. I didn’t see much in Kuching because for the most part I was in the rented Kancil, just sightseeing. The map app on the iPad seemed to work well though, before the battery dried up.

Finally I arrived in Singapore after another hour or so on the plane. Changi airport is nice. Unfortunately I didn’t dare to take any photo of the toilet as is my habit when visiting a new place. Stories of the Singaporean authorities installing cameras in toilets to catch offenders made me relauctant to add any jamban photo from Singapore to my collection. Shame, most of them were nice and clean. 

The Changi MRT station was quite busy

I always have this sense of guilt when travelling around Singapore. It’s as if anything and everything I do is potentially a crime punishable by a fine. I had my DSLR around my neck in the MRT and one uncle told me to cover it up. C’mon man, having a camera on a train is an offence? Admit it, you wouldn’t have told me to cover it up if I was white, right? Just because I’m a Malay from Sarawak with a camera on an MRT and suddenly I’m a pervert. If I was white I would probably be seen as a tourist. Wait a minute, in some sense I WAS a tourist. Only not white. Fucking racist Singaporeans...

There are many Fragrant Hotels in the area. This one's called Emerald

I stayed at the Fragrant Hotel in Singapore. Near Geylang, just because it was the cheapest that I could find on the internet. Not that I didn’t know what Geylang was. It wasn’t surprising to me that there were hookers walking around. What WAS surprising is the sheer number of them! I didn’t actually take a head count but I am sure there were more hookers in Geylang than in all of Amsterdam.

Apart from colourful hookers, Geylang also had all these colourful pre war buildings, beautifully preserved

I spent the rest of the night sleeping, hoping to wake up for the Spain-France match. I even paid the $10 for WiFi access so I could watch it on my iPad. In the end I slept through it and only woke up at 7 am the next day.

The only Jamban photo I took in singapore was that of the toilet bowl in my hotel room. The room was really nice. Better than the shit hole I stayed in during my first few days in Sibu. There were two beds because the single ones were all booked up.

(continued)