Singapore - Asia lite. Thailand - Asia plus!

Hello everybody!

So, flight to Singapore was awesome. Although I was carrying 41kg (including my bike), I managed to only have to pay for 6kg for extra bags and managed to score the emergency aisle seats. Hells yes! (as my sister constantly says). So Massimo, the Singa air manager, you are a legend!

All I wanted to say about it was this – my father went on for about 5 minutes about Singapore Airline’s peanuts – that they were amazingly fresh and crunchy. Dad – the peanuts were good, but not enough  to mention in this blog.

Got to Singa. Singapore is Asia lite. You almost feel guilty, in that Asia is meant to be a challenge, where crucial things are lost in translation, where you are bamboozled by crazy traffic and persistent touts. Singapore is just like Sydney CBD. It's so easy, everyone follows the rules, the traffic is predictable. But in Singapore if you ever want a service that is slightly different to that described (for example, we wanted to purchase one avocado, and not the four pack), it blows their mind! They cannot deal with unconformity and the whole shop goes to a hushed silence as they have to deal with the troublesome expats. 

Now the fun bit – Chiang Mai in Thailand was Asia plus, just how I remembered it and how I like it. Tuk tuks everywhere, dank guesthouses but the friendliest people you’ve ever met. The highlight was definitely the elephant trainer course. These beasts are absolutely beautiful, but massive! We learnt a few commands for the elephants and the different ways to mount the elephant. We then walked them into the bush for their feeding. The really fun part was when they had to take a bath. Unfortunately, we were still on top of them! A picture tells a thousand words, so just check out some of the shots below.

 (note he is passing up my drink bottle, as I dropped it!)

After Chiang Mai, I visited my sister at Universal Studios theme park. This place is amazing- due to all the concrete it manages to be about 10 degrees hotter than the rest of Singapore, so it’s an absolute swelterbox. The whole point of the theme park was that it was a condition of the company opening a casino on the island. Because I was with my sister, who is mates with all the other characters, I got some great shots – check them out below (she is Marylin Monroe).

It was awesome to spend time with my sister and see her crazy life in Singapore. I really don’t know how she does it, but the place must grow on you.

Next post – Oxford!

Toby