Follow Matthew's travels around the world…
A dark, stormy, turbulent sky for my last night in Singapore. Given the way the project has gone out here, that’s probably a fitting note on which to end. It pretty well sums up my time out here.
I’m off for one last dinner of chilli crab tonight. My bags are packed, my tickets are confirmed, and 24 hours from now I’ll be on my way back to England, for a little while at last. Home sweet home, at least until December!
It’s my last weekend in Singapore, so I decided I should probably take the opportunity to do a little sightseeing, despite the poor weather. I waited for the worst of the rain to clear in the morning, then jumped in a cab to Arab Street to see a different side of Singapore life. Lots of interesting shops (and a nice change from the branded stores that line Orchard Road) and a chance to buy a few souvenirs to bring back home.
I’m thinking that perhaps I haven’t picked the best weekend to do lots of sight-seeing around Singapore. At least based on the forecasts of heavy showers all weekend!
They’re very process-oriented here in Singapore. The process is generally followed regardless of whether it makes common sense or not, and fighting against this behaviour is an exercise in futility. This is a country that’s used to following rules.
Which explains why my bowl of wonton soup was accompanied by another smaller bowl of wonton soup. Apparently, soup is included with all meals. Even if the meal is soup.
Few things suck quite as much as being sick when you’re on the road. I managed to catch a cold in Istanbul, and it’s managed to reach that really unpleasant stage where my nose runs constantly. I must have really looked poorly, because even my slave-driver of a client suggested that I should probably take myself home and get an early night (mind you, it was already 7:30pm, so it’s not like I was working a half-day or anything). I figure giving him my cold will be a sort of parting gift…
I’m using up the remains of the cold medicine I bought in Turkey. It seems effective enough, but I suspect it’s actual a combination of horse tranquillisers and morphine, because it leaves me high as a kite. So each morning you’ve got to make that fateful judgement call: do I suffer and sniffle all day with a clear head but a blocked nose, or do I take another sachet of the Turkish cold medicine and struggle through the day with a clear nose but a foggy head?
The second challenge with getting sick on the road is actually tucking yourself up in bed. It’s bad enough that there’s no one nearby to whinge to (in a last-ditch attempt for sympathy, I was even tempted to pour out my heart to the woman at room service, but was thwarted when she misunderstood my lamenting for “one prawn cocktail starter”). No, worse still is the fact that it’s awfully hard to find comfort food when you’re a long way from home. So you either have to drag yourself out someplace (not fun, especially when it’s pouring with rain outside) or you have to settle for what’s on offer at the hotel.
The Mandarin Oriental have gone all out to welcome me back. Thank goodness this is my final stay here — I’m not sure what they’d do to up the ante next time!
They also brought by a selection of deep-fried vegetable chips this afternoon, which was nice. I’m half-expecting a Geisha to be waiting for me tomorrow!
