Sparkling Singapore

Saturday, 30 May 2015

I suspect I am the last person to know that Singapore is an amazingly nice, clean, well organised and pretty city.  At least the touristy areas are, I can't speak for the rest.  It is very expensive for an Asian city though - all the prices seem to be very Sydney-ish and not cheap at all. 

So after arriving here late last night I tossed and turned in the funky little hotel we are staying at by one of the river/canal things.  I'm not sure what was stopping me sleeping but I guess I must have eventually slept as when my alarm went off at 6.30am I did have to wake up.

I needed the early wakeup as I wanted to go out to Macritchie Reserve and go for a run as recommended by lots of running sites and by an actual real live human being - Andy. It's a big forested area with a big lake out in the suburbs. To save time I took taxi out there (I could have got the bus) and then proceeded to go for the most sweaty 11k run ever.  I guess it was probably 27 or 28 as I was running.  I only managed to run the first 6k, then the heat and the sun got the better of me and I confined my running to the shaded rainforest, rather than the exposed sunny areas.  

It was a bit like Singapore's equivalent of Melbourne's Tan  - there were lots and lots of people out walking and running. Despite my slow pace I was no-where near the slowest runner out there, but I"m sure I was the sweatiest. I left an actual puddle of sweat on the seat of the taxi on the way back to the hotel - sorry taxi driver.  

The humidity was a big change from the run I did with Clare just yesterday in Kingston under the shadow of a fresh dusting of snow on the mountain, It was almost as clean though, not a piece of rubbish in sight the whole way around the trail.  I saw a monkey and turtles, and a bridal party (despite it still only being around 9am) and a lot paddlers (kayak paddlers on the lake), not people wading - the lake didn't look all that enticing.

The reason I had to start so early was so that I could be back to join my collegues & travelling companions on a touristy day out.   To briefly summarise the rest of the day we took a river cruise,  did a lot of walking, we looked at the exhibition centre which is shaped like a flower opening up, and at Gardens by the Bay, both of which were fantastic.

- we also took in a little bit of Dragon Boat racing on the way as there is a big regatta happening at the moment. I have photos but I can't get them to upload at the moment and I need to go to sleep as I have another early start to get the plane to Cheannai tomorrow. 

I must just say that I was really impressed by Singapore, everything seems clean and organised and the greenery everywhere is really nice - half the population must be employed as gardeners.  The other half of the population appears to be expats - and I guess if you don't mind the heat it must be one of the nice Asian cities to be working away from home.