Vectis: Cool, i'm still around then.
Want to meet up?
Went to Bukit Timah today but, frankly, it was so hot and humid which, coupled with only 4 hours’ sleep last night meant I ended up doing very little! The heat was 31 degrees (high 90s) and the humidity an appalling 90%, apparently the hottest it's been in Singapore for a long time. Walking was hellish, but I did manage to see some species, such as
Yellow-vented Bulbul,
Asian Fairy-bluebird,
Pacific Swallow,
Germain’s Swiftlet,
Crimson Sunbird (brief view, hoping for better!),
Javan Myna,
Tree Sparrow, and
Banded Woodpecker.
As well as these birds, there were large monitor lizards on the path, I nearly stepped on a three-feet long specimen, and abundant monkeys, which were very cute - I love monkeys - but there were signs everywhere warning people not to feed them as that makes the monkeys aggressive and is bad for them. There were also some large and beautiful butterflies and some scary-looking large ants.
Last evening I went up to the 21st floor (the hostel is located in a huge block of flats and shops) and took a photo of the city lit up, something Singapore is famous for. I had to go high to get above the roof of the next-door Buddha’s Tooth Relic Temple, a large and lovely new Chinese temple (must get photo of that before I leave on Saturday). Five minutes after I got the photo, a spectacular tropical storm erupted.
Generally I don't like cities, but Singapore is clean, safe - there is no air of menace like you get in a lot of places - and there are no sirens every five minutes, unlike in the UK and other places. I wouldn't mind living here, if it wasn't so hot.
I saw an amusing (to me, anyway) sign on MRT train, this stated, among other prohibited items, ‘No durians’. Durians are spectacularly smelly fruit very popular in SE Asia, so I am going to track some down tomorrow to see if they really smell as appalling as they are reputed to be. They sell them in the nearby Chinese market, apparently.
Food's good here, too. Loads of food centres (indoor stalls selling Asian - Thai, Malay, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc) food - and the Chinese food street (Smith St) in Chinatown. Good food, you won't get food poisoning!, and cheap, as well. Forget MacDonald's, KFC, or any of that crap, go for the local stuff.
I can't upload any photos here, because there's no editing software, but I have loaded them as taken onto my blog:
travels
Chowchilla - sounds great. Photo opportunities a little limited here as it's been almost too hot to bother getting the camera out!