Days 130-133 - lounging in Singapore - Unfinished Business

September 6, 2023 to September 10, 2023

Days 130-133 - lounging in Singapore

There's so many good things to see and do in Singapore, other than getting a drenching on the coastal bike path. Unfortunately, we didn't do any of them. I was happy to stop, sit, drink coffee, eat food and just look. I find the minutiae of Singapore incredible. I could spend days in Chinatown alone but, as it turned out, we spent Thursday and Friday morning there before heading to Jerome and Kah Ying's place near Orchard Road. It felt appropriate; it was where we finished our 2011 ride.

Why, on Earth, did we come here on September 8?

Sri Mariamman, Singapore's oldest Hindu temple

Singapore has incredible plants and we didn't even get to the Botanic Gardens

We walked Telok Ayer, an old street that used to be the waterfront, before much land was reclaimed. It houses a couple of Singapore's oldest temples.

It's a melting pot of cultures and religions

Bespoke - a defining word of the 21st century.

We spent an hour in this interesting museum

We plonked ourselves down at several coffee houses

I could not recall another time when I'd been confronted by problems with straw heights.

It's good to see a Government attempting to stamp out this dreadful behaviour.

There were durians of all grades with a ten-fold range in price. You will need to dig deep for something that really stinks.

It seems that having durians here will see you locked up.

The Javan or white-vented myna, introduced to Singapore in the 1920's through the caged-bird trade. Australia got a close relative - the common myna, in 1862. Both have thrived.

Imagine if the porcine community harvested humans and sold them in squares.

A refreshing sight. I am not responsible for the loss of his left antenna.

I nearly forgot! I'm getting 10,000 more km out of shoes that had holes on day 1.

The generosity of strangers continued. As we were sitting in Chinatown, with my bike nearby, a fellow said hello, then wandered off and came back a little later with two bottles of water and a couple of bags of ice with straws.

On Friday afternoon we moved from Hotel 81 Cosy to Kah Ying and Jerome's place near Orchard Road.

We took this photo to compensate for missing out on the drowned rat photo on Wednesday.

This gave me another chance to mingle with the Singaporean traffic, fortunately in the dry. I got in a right tangle of bus lanes, roundabouts and one-way streets but found my way easily.

It seems a long time since I came here on my visa run in mid-August.

On Friday night, Michelle from The Straits Times, sent us a link to the article she wrote. This prompted us to buy the paper the next day.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/65-year-old-australian-cycles-over-9000km-from-australia-to-singapore#:~:text=His%20journey%20to%20Singapore%20did,%2C%20Timor%2DLeste%20and%20Indonesia

Kah Ying's sister, Casey, kindly scanned it.

Kah Ying's mum had us over for dinner on Saturday. The ride on the MRT took us remarkably close to Canberra! Kim's special bee hoon (a noodle dish) and vegetarian dumplings were excellent. Kim encouraged me to finish them both. My appetite did the job.

We had a fine splurge on Sunday morning at one of Kah Ying and Jerome's favourite French establishments.

It was late morning, by the time we finished breakfast, and time to get my bike in a box. The box that Jason gave me was brilliant, that is, large. It made the job even easier than normal. I received a message from Jason, as I packed. He had seen the Times article and said "Is this you? Wow". I thanked him for his part.

In 45 minutes, I had the bike in the box and panniers added for padding. There's no picture of the bike packed up in Singapore but I have an exhilarating photo of a bike box in Sydney.

We had time for another short walk and some more red bean buns before heading to the airport.

A farewell photo with Jerome and Kah Ying - the best of hosts.

The day before we left Singapore, a local cyclist, Tan Yew contacted me wondering if we could meet. It seemed that we had every minute allocated so I suggested catching up at the airport. We were out there early, checking in our baggage was a breeze, and so we had a couple of hours to chat with Tan Yew.

First, he took us to the tumbling water, a new feature at the airport.

They light the tumbling water after dark.

He then took us to dinner and there was even the gift of a cycling shirt. What could we give in return? Perhaps a little bit of advice. I suggested to Tan Yew that when he travels to Taiwan soon, with a group of cyclists, that he asks everyone to take an article of celebratory clothing. I hope, also, that I can be of use if needed, when he tackles a ride across Indonesia.

We couldn't have had a better last couple of hours in Singapore. And we were at the airport! Some people drift into your life for an hour or two and you wish for much longer. Tan Yew was one of these people. Who knows, perhaps we will meet for a ride.

And that was Singapore; next stop, Sydney.

Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 9,646 km (5,990 miles)

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