Sunburnt in Paradise

I woke sometime around 9ish.As my consciousness slowly crept foward, I could feel the skin on my face tighten around my skull. My arms tingling with tenderness. It had been a long day wandering around Singapore and my skin now resembled a ripe apple, rosy and slightless squishing in all the wrong places.

I remembered seeing some creams in Little India the day before, and proceed to find them again.

Little India street

I wandered back through the streets, clinging to side alleys where the shadows were longer, less the sun release it wrath upon me again. I was glowing.

The backstreets appeared to be in more decay. Dozens of burnt out husks, black and eroded lay abandoned throughout the area, some still wrapped in police tape, others tied with vines as nature reclaimed their shells.

I found the creams in Mustafa and hide on the basement level, lathering my limbs with Alovera cream and then a thick layer of sunblock. I had the feeling I was being watch. Someone staring down at me. I turned to see the store mannequin glaring at me from above. I glanced around the rest of the floor and noticed they all had facial hair either molded onto them or painted in thick black pen.

Tough Mannequin

With my new protective layer, I felt confident to explore once more and made my way on foot back down to China Town. On the way, I ran up and down Sin Lin centre, 6 floors of electronics and computer; each one had staff emploring me to enter, all escalators and elevators manned with girls in mini-skirts handing out photocopied pricelists.

ChinaTown was large and by this stage my battery had worn flat. My memories would not be limited to pictures but the smells of fresh seafood in the bustling fresh food markets, the smooth cold touch of cheap jade statues and ornaments, the bellowing sales pitch of countless tailors offering fine silken suits made to order in 5 hours and shipped across the world. Huge shopping centers stood on every conrer, market stalls weaved into side streets, ice cream vendors sailed with carts; the place was alive with people spending and collecting.

I need some food and began to wander. Everywhere were food centres with cheap curries and asian noodles. After finding one that smelled less offensive, I ate some Brasied Duck noodles for a mere S$3

Food stalls

I sat down in Speakers Corner, a large grass area and listened to various middle aged women single out kareoke numbers while old men played chess and suck on their sweet smelling cigars.

Checkout had been at noon but the pickup bus wouldnt arrive till 10pm. I would spend the rest of the day going on Myster Walking Tours (MWT), picking complete strangers and following behind them until they went somewhere interesting. Its a great way to see places you wouldnt go. In Brisbane it would often lead me to carparks, in Singapore it lead me to an anti-drug dance-off by high school students ...

... State funerals...

... Majestic boats ...

... Huge fountains promising fortunes ...

Wealth Fountain at Suntec Towers

Enter at own risk ... buts its just a park right?

Goodbye Singapore, perhaps one day we will met again one day ...

Famous 1/2 lion, 1/2 fish status, the symbol of Singapore