Hitchhiking in Singapore: 3 nights in hostels
11th, 12th and 13th of January, 2025.
The living room of Bohemian Hostel is very nice, with nice colorful couches, nice carnival masks decorating the place, and other staff. The night receptionist is also nice, but you must be very patient with him. You cannot pay by card in this building, having to walk about 200 hundred metres to another hostel / coffee shop to do that.
I booked a room in a 4 beds in Female Dorm but that’s not what I get. Why? There’s an open door to another 4 beds dorm, a mixed one, with only two chairs as a barrier for the passage. What a hell? Why not to close the door? Why do these people think that we book a Female Dorm only? To not be seen by other men, so we can change and dress freely in a women only environment. Is that too difficult to get? Plus, the smells and noises of another room as well. Anyway, this is simply not right!
The beds are not bad, but you can get a bit cold with the tiny blankets they give us, as the AC is quite cold all the time.
The bathrooms are also not enough for the whole floor: only two toilets and showers per story. And as they are together, toilet and shower, it’s even less, if you think about it.
The breakfast is included, and even though I liked, it’s definitely too poor for the price we are paying for room. It consists of toasts, peanut butter, jam, and different types of kaya (a Malay spread made out of eggs and coconut), coffee and tea. We can drink tap water here.
I spread my clothes and things around the room, as they got wet during my walking in the rain.
Here in Singapore, you can pay with bank card in 7-Elevens! Yay! As I am super tired, and don’t know anything yet about eating prices around here, I get an egg and cheese sandwich (cold one, they don’t have those yummy sandwiches to warm up like in Thailand), and a yogurt, and I have that for dinner. I go to sleep right away.
It’s supposed to be raining all day long for the next two days. That’s why in the next morning I decide to book another hostel, a cheaper one this time, the cheapest one in town. It’s only hundred metres walking from here. As the check-in is at 15.00 hours only, after breakfast, I leave my backpack at this hostel, and go to explore a little bit of the town, even under the rain. The lovely lady staying at the reception during the day, let me borrow an umbrella, which is life saving.
I have met an Indian girl earlier. Lochana is from Maharashtra state, but she has been living and working in Japan for the past two and a half years. She’s fluent in Japanese and works in finances. As I walk outside the hostel, she calls for me and ask if I mind for her to join me during my exploration. I don’t!
Our first stop is Fort Canning, a lovely green area right in the middle of the country. It’s funnily weird to wright that. It’s a beautiful and peaceful place, and I’m sure it’s even more enjoyable when it’s not raining. Laugh. The main attraction is an area called Tree Tunnel, which is simply some stairs built in a spiral shape, but when looked from the bottom up, ended in trees, which gives a very nice looking to it. There’s a queue of people for taking a photo here, but as Lochana and I don’t really need a photo at the centre of stairs, we are happy to just take some photos and leave.
My plan is to get some free food at Krsn’s Free Meals, in Little India. We walk there, and it’s such a nice feeling to walk into Little India. I feel like back home. Lochana not so much, as she tells me that most of these people are from South India. At Krsna’s Free Meals, a surprise: you must make a donation of 0.50 cents per meal. They don’t say anything like that online. When I tell the people that I don’t have any money with me, they ask me if I am not working. What kind of question is that? I tell her that I’ve been doing volunteer work for many years, to what she says that then I’m allowed to take one meal. Lochana doesn’t feel comfortable with this situation, and neither do I to be honest, so she decides not to pay for it. I also don’t like the attitude / energy of the people working here, which makes me really sad.
Lochana will have lunch in a restaurant nearby here, and I will carry on with my expedition alone.
The lunchbox consists in rice, a stew of okra, red bell-peper and chickpeas, and cucumber salad. It’s OK. To be honest, the food in the Gurudwaras I’ve been is way better.
I walk to the Gelan Gallery, which supposed to be a street art place. It’s partially, as it consists of basically only one big wall, with a nice entrance facade, and that’s all. In this same quarter, it’s located Sultan Mosque, a significant mark for the Muslim community. I visit. You cannot enter the mosque per se, only an outside area from which you can observe. People in the entrance were nice but I have the feeling that they hope to “catch” some of us, the “infidels”, and convert us to Islam. I got that feeling not only from their intentions, but also from the many banners talking about slam around this area. The only ones I read were the ones talking about women and Islam, and honestly, they don’t explain anything really, at least none of the things that make me believe that women are considered submissive in Islam.
I go back to the hostel around four o’clock, as I still want to go out for some sightseen at night. And I must check-in in the new cheaper hostel I’m staying tonight.
The new hostel is called The Beat Arts Hostel, and it’s also in Chinatown. Again, it’s not great, but at least it’s cheaper. The six beds female dorm is OK, no complains. Apart from the fact that they turn off the AC from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. What? Yeah, so even that you are paying, if you want to stay in, do your things, or simply sleep the whole day because you are tired, you will not have the AC (or even a fan) during the hottest hours of the day. Bullshit, right? Even more when you pay such a fortune for a dorm room. The only common area is actually the tables where people can eat. There’s no breakfast, and even though they say that there’s tea and coffee “complimentary” all day, the jars of them are mostly empty the whole day, even more early morning. The reception is only “on” from 10.00 a.m., which is super late, and that’s when they refill the packages of tea and coffee, when almost all the guests already left to explore the country. Female and male bathrooms are separated, which is great, and there are enough showers and toilets. But the person who “planed” (not really) the space doesn’t really understand how human beings work. Right above the already tiny sinks, within a distance of 20 cm tops, there’s a shelf, which makes almost impossible to wash your face or teeth, at least not without wetting all the floor. The receptionist lady can be pleasant (she was to me) but I can tell that she is to the edge of being rude, just playing nice, when she actually doesn’t want to be. Then there’s a Chinese woman doing the cleaning, and dear Loki, she’s always speaking super loud and complaining about something. It’s clear for me that they both hate working here. So then… why?
I get to Gardens by the Bay later than I expected because of the rain, and because I was wandering around this big and fancy mall, wondering in which shops should I come and ask for leftovers later. When I finally arrive to the Grove Something Trees, the light show is almost to it’s end. It was not raining at this point, and it was 19.55 hours. I have no idea about what’s going on, and suddenly everybody starts leaving. And then it starts to rain. I’m assuming there will be another show at some point, so I sit and wait. It’s pouring rain for a long time but after 20.30 hours it stars to fade a little. As I suspected, at 20.45 hours another show starts. It’s beautiful, really, and I don’t regret waiting, even though it’s under the rain, and even more that next night the sky would be clear. Murphy! I’m sure that if I had let to come in the next night, it would be raining again. Anyway, it’s a light show with music playing. The trees go glowing with LED for fifteen minutes, in a very rhythmic beat. It’s truly nice and I think a must see once in Singapore, mostly because it’s FREE.
The request for leftovers is unsuccessful. People talk a lot about not wasting food in Singapore but when somebody comes and ask, nobody is whiling to give. Great! So I have some cheap steamed dumplings in a cheap area for food, called Lau Pa Sat. They have many different types of food, a lot around 5 SD, and in some stands you can pay buy card. You see, that’s one of the problems about Singapore, even though a super developed and high tech country, there’s one Asian aspect they still cannot get rid of it: in so many food shops they only accept cash.
Next morning, I go to 7-Eleven to have a cheap breakfast consisting of one yogurt, one banana, and one 25% discount cold sandwich, all for 5.40 SD. I have it back at the hostel, with the coffee I kept last night, when there were some in the jar. Luckily, because this morning there was none!
As it is supposed to be raining again the whole day today, I book another night in this hostel. As I said, it’s acceptable, and the cheapest one in the country, with the bed on a female six beds dorm at 25 SD.
I walk to the Gardens by the Bay, but this time to see it at daylight. All these times that I am walking around, I am using an umbrella from the hostels. At least this they provided. Garden by the Bay are actually very pleasant at daylight too. Mostly the green areas, as the Grove Glowing Trees don’t have much to offer without the LED on. You can walk all around for FREE, which is nice, and then there are the paid expositions, which I think are a waste of time and money.
My next stop is the DNA bridge. Last night, the LED were not on so I actually forgot all about it, as it’s in one of the ways to the Grove Glowing Trees. But I like it anyway during day light, and it offers some nice views of the country too. From here, I walk to the St. Andrew’s Cathedral, which is beautiful but nothing surprising. I missed the oldest church in town though, Chijmes, which I now regret. As I am very tired already, I decide to go back to Chinatown, where there’s a cheap vegetarian restaurant I am about to try.
The restaurant is called Lian Xin, and it’s located in the basement of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. It’s an amazing place to go, seriously! I mean, if you are not picky (like me), and happy to have only two choices on the menu, so your brain doesn’t go crazy, as it’s only one or another, you will love it here! The food is delicious and cheap! I have something called Popiah, which is basically a tortilla with some delicious filling (syrup, crushed peanuts, fresh lettuce, cucumbers, crunchy onions, and a simple vegetables stew), and it costs 4 SD for two pieces. As the restaurant closes at 17.00 hours, I decide to take away my dinner from here, and I have the other option, Reebu, a noodle curry soup, with fresh beans sprouts and a fried veggie patty. This one costs 5 SD. I also get some pastries for my breakfast tomorrow morning, a variation to 7-Eleven but at the same price: three different pastries for 5 SD. Last but not the least, the space of the restaurant is very nice, and almost all the stuff is very helpful and friendly, with the exception of one Chinese cleaning lady.
Back to the hostel, I take a shower and rest for a while. I also do some travel planing for tomorrow. Then I watch Finding Nemo, just to clear my mind with some light and enjoyable movie.
After dark, I go for a quick walk in Chinatown just to take some photos.
10 Years Around the World 