Singapore Sightseeing

On Saturday, Claire, a girl I met at the hostel, and me took a sightseeing walk around the city. We first went to Sim Lim Square, an electronics mecca. It was five floors of gadget heaven. Unfortunately, I have all the electronics I need and can carry, not to mention I’m far from a gadget geek, so the place didn’t really do much for me. We then headed toward Bugis Street Markets where they sell all sorts of cheap goods. I refrained from buying anything as my backpack is already bursting and I’m saving what little space I have left for Thai goods. After, we made our way to world-renowned Raffles Hotel in the heart of the colonial district. The hotel dates back to the 19th century and was declared a national monument in the 20th century. The Long Bar within the hotel is famous for its cocktail, the Singapore Sling, but being on a backpacker’s budget I decided to save the upwards of S$20 that it would cost for one drink and just look at the bar instead.

That night, Claire, Clionagh, and I headed to Chinatown for the Chinese New Year kick-off celebration. The streets were littered with people and tons of lights. At one point, they set off firecrackers unexpectedly and at first I thought someone had opened fire on the crowd until I realized what it was. The firecrackers were followed by fireworks and dancing dragons. It was fantastic to watch. The Chinese New Year is celebrated for the entire month of February so I’m excited to experience New Year’s festivities in the different Asian countries I’ll be visiting.

Yesterday, I went for another walk around the city down in Chinatown and checked out a Hindu temple and a Buddhist temple. I wasn’t overly impressed with either, especially the Hindu temple because they made you pay to take pictures. I also felt somewhat strange entering temples that weren’t of my faith. It was as if I was intruding on the ceremonies of others.

Last night, I decided to join a few of my fellow hostellers for a bbq at a bar nearby. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet for S$6, which is a great price, but I didn’t particularly like the food so it was more of an all-you-can-tolerate buffet. The menu included chicken wings, two kinds of fish, a horrendous excuse for a hotdog, and vegetable curry with rice. The curry actually was decent but it was missing something – meat. Afterwards, we all went back to the hostel and watched a terrible bootleg version of “Pirates of the Caribbean.” You know it’s not going to be good when you have Disc A and Disc B for an hour and a half movie.

I woke up this morning extremely itchy, even worse so than I’ve been for the past few days, and went straight to a mirror. I counted 19, yes 19, bites on my neck, face, and forehead and ran down to reception. She confirmed my suspicion that it was bedbugs. I also have a few mosquito bites on my arms and legs, so I wasn’t sure if they were just mosquito bites or bedbugs but the pattern suggested bedbugs. The hostel moved me to another bed and sprayed down the room with disinfectant. Usually people carry bedbugs in their bags and transport them from place to place, which is why the hostel insists that no bags be kept near the beds, but obviously they got here somehow. I think I’m having an allergic reaction to the bites because they don’t just look like normal bites, they look like welts on my skin – itchy, disgusting welts.

Bedbugs can’t sustain heat so I took my pack outside wrapped in a garbage bag and am letting it sit in the sun for a few hours. The hostel is also washing and drying my clothes because my laundry bag was near the bed. There’s really nothing you can do for the bites except use Tiger Balm (the best cure-all) to assuage the itch. Getting bitten isn’t the most fun thing in the world, but it is a fact of hostels – they have bedbugs, even the cleanest ones. Hey, at least I get my laundry done for free.