Day one and we reach Singapore

Previous page - Vaccinations to go to the Himalayas

 

The journey begins

The big day arrived.  We needed to travel to Perth on the train and then from the Perth Railway Station we needed to hire a taxi out to Perth International Airport. 

We had tickets booked on the train which left Bunbury at 6:00 a.m. so our daughter Hayley, her fiancé Ken and Jeremy’s girlfriend Tanya all came to the station to see us off. I sat next to a chatty fellow on the train which was good as it made the journey go all that much faster.  Jeremy and Ian sat together on the opposite side of the aisle to me.  As soon as we reached the city we easily found a taxi to the airport so everything ran very smoothly.  The plane left on time and before we knew it we were in Singapore.  We easily found a taxi at Singapore airport and headed for our accommodation for the one night we were in the city.

 

 

Rucksack Inn, Hong Kong Street, Singapore

Rucksack Inn is in a bright yellow building so it stands out somewhat in Hong Kong Street. 

There seem to be several other backpacker hostels in this street too.  This backpacker hostel gets quite good ratings from its visitors so that is the main reason we chose it.  There are no lifts in the building so, like everyone else, we lump our gear up two flights of stairs.  My large and borrowed suitcase really is too large for us to keep man-handling but we couldn't have fitted all our gear in if we had all just taken rucksacks as originally planned.

 

 

On the landing we have to remove our shoes before entering the premises.  There are large shoe holders attached to the wall but we seem to be the only ones using them.  Others are leaving their shoes on the floor.  Inside we go and we are shown our room.  We knew we would have one queen sized bed and one set of bunks but we didn’t realize it would be such a tiny claustrophobic room. There were no windows at all and there was very little room to put anything. We only had to spend one night there so we tried to think positively about the situation.

Facilities at Rucksack Inn

We ventured out from our room to look at the facilities which ended up being a wash trough, a tiny “kitchen”, two toilets and two showers. We tried to tote up the number of beds that seem to be available and figure it is somewhere between 30 and 40.  How on earth would two showers and two toilets be sufficient?

We were all extremely tired so we thought we’d head off to find some dinner, have a quick shower and then hop into bed. The Receptionist suggested a large shopping centre nearby so we were happy with her suggestion and set off on foot. We soon found a Japanese restaurant and had tempura, miso soup, sushi rolls and some rock melon.  Cost $47 Singapore dollars.

Back at the hostel the shower situation was tried out. There was little room to hang clothes in the shower without them getting wet.  There was a little warm water left – just warm enough to shower in, thankfully.
We plopped into bed with the air conditioner going for some cool air, thinking we would soon be asleep. Poor Ian and Jeremy both had headaches.

At 11 p.m. I found myself leaping out to bed to complain about the wretched noise level. As soon as I opened the door I realized why the noise was so loud.  There was a party going on in the foyer.  There was an apology from management and the party goers were shoed out the door and down onto the street. The stomping footsteps noise continued on though.  We could only presume it was from the floor above.  At some stage we all fell asleep.

 

Next page - Sightseeing in Singapore to fill in time

 

........................................................................................................................................................................