Travel Virus

Batam is an Indonesian island right in front of Singapore. Indeed I can see it from my room and I’ve been planning to visit it since long time. It’s just a one-hour ferry ride from Singapore but the differences in development are huge. It’s full of shopping centers to please and attract Singaporean tourists. To my surprise, few wester people were around, but we were actually able to pay with euros!
I’ve been told Batam is not very representative of Indonesia, still it’s fine to visit it to have a first introduction to the country. It’s quite poor and there is a lack of infrastructures, but there are also quite a number of nice colorful houses with little gardens, that seem to offer a more human quality of life than Singapore’s tiny apartments in 30-story buildings… after all, it’s all a matter of perspectives.

Clark quay is one of the most fancy places in Singapore to spend the evening with friends! There are colorful restaurants and creative cafès at every corner, the most scenic are directly facing the river. This upmarket area is popular with foreigners and tourists, and conveniently located closed to the city center. It’s modern and colorful, nothing really of the traditional Singapore, more of a modern Mediterranean atmosphere.

Singapore is always crowded, but the crowdedness of Marina Bay for new year’s countdown is something absolutely impressive!
I was amazed of the extreme organization put in place by Singapore police: they are certainly used to handling such kind of masses and they are doing it well. We had a nice (and too expensive) dinner on the riverside and then at 10pm we moved toward Marina bay just to discover that the Merlion area was closed already because too packed of people, so we found a small place on the bridge from where to watch the fireworks. Despite one and a half hour might seem a long time to wait, it was certainly worth! I would imagine we were on the top 5% for best view, among the half million people that were around the marina to wait for 2010! The fireworks were really impressive, toward the conclusion they shoot so many that it seemed daytime. Well done Singapore. Getting home afterwards was not easy thou.

Thailand is well know to be a hot tourist destination, no wonder why! It’s beautiful, peaceful, cheap and the people are very friendly… what else?
All this you can find in Phuket, and indeed most tourists stop there, but the very best of Thai sea is not far away…
Phi phi islands are the most famous, however they are pretty full of tourists by now. Similan Islands, north of Phuket, are absurdly beautiful tiny islands with awesome coral reef and packed of colorful exotic fishes! It’s a great spot for snorkeling, I’ve seen more fishes snorkeling here than scuba-diving in other places. I had encounters that I never imagined… a water turtle! how fantastic! It was a huge one, about as big as myself, and kept swimming around me… what a wonderful creature. In southeast Asia turtles are the symbol of longevity and of academia, and they are supposed to bring good luck. Swimming together with a turtle it’s an amazing experience, I never even dreamed of it, sometimes reality is better than dreams.
The trick to enjoy Similand islands at their best is to sleep on a boat instead of on the islands, and stay at least one night.
I also experienced what “swimming with fishes” actually means… I was snorkeling near the reef surrounded by colorful fishes going on all directions, better than swimming in an aquarium!
Finally I even saw a barracuda.
Next trip I have to get an underwater camera…

Chinatown is one of the touristic hot spots in Singapore and one of the most traditional -though quite fake – areas of this little country.
There are traditional messy colorful malls, like the people’s complex, and modern hospital-like malls, just opposite (chinapoint).
It’s a must to try all the strange kinds of food sold here! the steamboat (or hot post) is the traditional Chinese dish, but you can go more extreme and check out the tapioca sweets, bamboo cakes, fish cakes on a stick, prawn donuts…
If you are on shopping mood, you can also manage some good deals in between the various tourist traps.
The atmosphere is great, there is always something going on, people everywhere, eating, walking, bargaining, praying… at the huge red temple, just near the shops and stands!

Today when I woke up and looked out of the window, I saw hundreds of people quietly running on the street! felt very surreal… and hundreds and hundreds more kept running…

it’s the Singapore marathon on east cost park! Over 50.000 participants, and my room seems to be a very good viewpoint, check out the pic

They started very early morning, around 5 or so; the full marathon is 42 km, the half marathon is 21 and then thee is also the option to run 10km. Like usual Singapore is very well organized, and everything is very smooth and quite with all those tens of thousands of people.

Finally Malaysia!
After 7 months in Singapore i crossed the land border to Malaysia, visiting the border town of Johor Bahru, to find out it’s actually just an extension of Singapore with malls everywhere!
I suppose it’s like Tijuana in Mexico, which does not actually qualifies as Mexico to me… so I’m not sure i can say I’ve been to Malaysia… I hope to have the chance to see more of this country! anyway i had a few hours taste of it, and seems like the Chinese are running most of the businesses and the Singaporeans are the only clients!

Globalization: I’m Italian, living in Singapore, go to Malaysia, buy shoes branded “Fabiano Ricco” imported by chinese who went to Italy to copy the design and produce it in china and sell it in Malaysia for Singapore tourists!

The area around Raffles Place MRT, along the river, is very lively at night, with fancy & expensive restaurants and cafes. The Christmas lights give it a fairy-tale atmosphere…. I like so much to see the Christmas lights on palm trees at the equator
Walking around the streets here doesn’t feel like it is Asia… this area is very popular with tourists, you’ll find many western people around and no local dining places, everything is aiconditioned, so bring a jumper because it’s freezing (inside)
If you want to experience the real Singapore, just take the metro, two stops, alight at Bugis!