It has begun!

Location: Net Cafe, Little India, Singapore.

So I have been a bit slack in updating this thing. However, when I was in New Zealand there wasn't that much interesting stuff to right about. So in a nutshell, my last few weeks in Christchurch were spent packing stuff up, having a big party, drinking lots of beer and saying goodbye to lots of good friends. We spent a couple days in Wellington, then continued the drive up to Auckland. In Auckland I didn't do much at all really. Enjoyed being at home again and just lying on the couch for most of the time. My last weekend in Auckland was spent with some close friends of mine. While we have seen a lot of each other individually over the last few years, our little posse has never all been together at one time for about 4 years now. We all made the effort to be in Auckland for the weekend, with people flying in from around NZ and one from Australia. Needless to say it was a great weekend.

But then the actual adventure officially started.....

Day 1 (31/03/08): Singapore

First and foremost, I have arrived safely in Singapore! I had a few hours to wait in Auckland airport, and so I watched the Hong Kong Sevens tournament, including NZ winning the final! The plane flight was alright, it was very bumpy for the first and last hour, which made eating the meals difficult. I didn't manage to get a huge amount of sleep, only napped for a few hours. The flight was over rather quickly though, which was good. So from now on, as the title of this blog says, all travel is to be done by anything other than plane!

Getting through Singapore airport was very easy. It was 6:30 in the morning, so the airport was only just starting to wake up, with a lot of cleaners around. I managed to get a Singapore map and a small amount of money out. I tried to decipher the bus system, but in the end I opted for the easy option and caught the train. The trains here are quite amazing; fast and clean. Unfortunately, as it was early in the morning, it was rush hour, with standing room only in the train full of school kids and people heading to work. I got off at the right stop and managed to find my way to the backpackers I had booked in Auckland a few days ago. Admittedly I did somewhat cheat and used my compass to help me find my way. My initial impression of Singapore was the heat. You can't not notice the wall of heat and humidity that hits you like a freight train when you step out of any air-conditioned building. It is also very neat and tidy, at least in the main areas.Once you get into the back roads and alleys, it is just like any other big city.

The backpackers is a pretty nice place, right in the middle of the Little India section of Singapore. However, as it was early in the morning, I could actually get my bed yet. So instead I decided the best way to battle jet lag and lack of sleep was to have a full on first day! I could leave my bag at the backpackers, so I put a few things in my small day bag and browsed through the selection of fliers at the backpackers. One of the main reasons I was interested in coming to Singapore is for the wild life; the internationally famous bird park, zoo and night safari. I thought about doing the zoo and night safari today but figured that going out all day and all night was probably a bit too much. Instead I decided to head off to the Jurong Bird Park. There was a shuttle company running buses direct to the bird park, so I caught it at the nearest stop (a local shopping centre).

I ended up spending the whole day at the bird park, from about 10 in the morning till when it shut at 5 in the afternoon. The size, scope and variety of the place is amazing. I have always enjoyed bird watching, but here the birds were so tame you could get really close to them to take photos. And take photos I did! 380 of them! My new camera is working really well, the manual zoom really allows you to zoom and frame your shots very nicely. Exhibits ranged from open air wetlands (for things like storks, pelicans, flamingos) to closed cages (which made taking photos difficult through the bars), to the large aviaries. These aviaries are amazing. they are incredibly big. I think the biggest one was about 2 hectares in size, with a 30m man made waterfall inside it (supposedly the largest man made waterfall in existence). The aviaries were great because you could walk around inside the habitat and watch for birds in the trees and their natural environment. As I said, I was a completely snap-happy and took heaps of photos, which I'm sure my dad will appreciate. The only down side of it all was that because the bird park is very tourist orientated, the only food place they had was a burger bar. So after traveling several thousand kilometers to far off countries and cultures, the first foreign meal I eat is a hamburger! It also cost a fair bit, which means that at the end of the day, I was 21c short of the shuttle bus fare back to the city. Luckily the driver didn't care, and since I was the only person on the shuttle, he drove me straight to my stop.

I am now back in Little India at an internet cafe. I got my bed at the backpackers and explored Little India a tiny bit. I can now walk to the local shopping center without needing the map! I went to a little food court and got my first authentic meal; a beef noodle soup with little dry bits of whole fish (I didn't look too close). It was very tasty and very cheap! I plan to have an early night tonight, to try and catch up on all the sleep I didn't get in the last few days, and to try and recover from spending the whole day walking around in the equatorial heat. Tomorrow I will go to the zoo (and probably spend the whole day there taking hundreds of photos), and then the night safari in the evening. So another full day.