Singapore
Added on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Singapore at night
My hotel was located in the suburb of Geylong, the red light district of Singapore. I wasn’t there to be naughty but because the hotels were cheap. Someone said it was complicated to stay there and as I left to sort out my airline ticket for Australia an Indian woman called me ‘darling’. I guess the only complication was whether to give her $100 or catch a bus.
It wasn’t a difficult decision because I hate walking and I’ve never had a ride with a girl that’s really taken me anywhere whereas buses are extremely useful. Sitting on the top deck of a double-decker I crossed Singapore imagining it was a tour bus. There were great views but I was a bit groggy from all the riding and needed a nurse to make me feel better.
We whizzed past the elaborate art décor building of Parkview Square to Bugis Junction at Rochor Road, and then the bus continued on past Raffles Hotel on the way to Harbour Road. Twenty years ago I had a fling with the niece of the manager of the Raffles Hotel and that won me a complimentary week’s stay. Now, I’d be lucky to get past reception. I was tired looking and had the hard look of the road all over my face. There was nothing soft in my demeanour; the tough riding had eliminated all need to be gentle. With just one companion there is the chance to share the pain and isolation of being so far away from home and for so long. Alone you are hostage to your own thoughts, and it is this for which you have to do battle.
So engrossed, jousting with these thoughts I overshot my intended destination and had to get bus #80 back four stops. The Peoples Park Complex was a good place to buy a last minute airline ticket and I needed to get to Perth to meet the arrival of the bike Monday afternoon. Having dragged myself down the Malay Peninsula sleeping rough with no rest after India, and not a lot to eat since Bangkok, I had a headache. I wondered just then if that Indian woman practised first aid? It would pass.
After buying the ticket I walked past a faux Scottish Bagpipe Band and then took the MRT to Raffles Place. Climbing up the escalator, the scale of this mini Manhattan revealed itself. The OUB building appeared on my right opposite the Clifford Centre and Ocean Towers. It was panoply of civil engineering and architecture that was a testament to mans genius. In Singapore, small may be beautiful, but order is power.
After a coffee I started to walk around the Waterfront, looking and hanging about. Light faded and this metropolis became illuminated. Singapore turned into a city of colour. After the bleached skies of India and south east Asia, Singapore’s dark blue night sky was deep and intense. After riding thousands of kilometres past dirty browns and greens, here there was suddenly a spectrum that had broadened. Reds and yellows competed for attention with turquoise and tamarind. When I saw this colour I immediately felt something, in as much as colour cannot allow you to feel nothing.
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