Singapore & Bangkok

After leaving from Cairns and again some bad experiences in Darwin (delayed plane and some really small crappy room to wait in for 6 hours with 1000 people, not funny!) we arrive in Singapore. What a city! Huge, very modern, truly Asian and with many different cultures and influences.
The next morning we head for Kampung Glam, the Malaysian quarter. Within a couple of streets we leave the Western atmosphere and fall right down into muslim Malaysia. A big mosque, small shops, Malay food (breakfast with fried rice and all sorts of really nice meat, egg and vegetable dishes, a bit like Indonesian ' rijsttafel'), a perfume shop with nice floral essences, etc. And it s friday so the mosque calls its beliefers to attend the sermon. After breakfast, we take a walk to Little India, and travel once more to a whole different country within Singapore. Many buddhist and Hindu temples, and jewellers that sell the yellowish gold of India, alongside beautil colourful cloth and traditional Indian dresses.
After visiting 2 countries in 1 morning, we head out to the modern part of the city, the Marina bay. Really ugly skyscrapers and posh buildings, some colonial hotels and of course we make a boattrip, see photos, in which we see the Merlion, Singapore's icon, which is half lion, half fish. Our guide explains to us that the fish part of the Merlion refers to the traditional part and hisory of Singapore, being a sea town, and the lion symbolizes its strength and refers to the original name of Singpore, Singapura = Lion city.
We join the hip and trendy of Singapore for a steamboat dinner ( a big bowl with 2 types of boiling hot soup , in which you cook your fish, meat or vegetables, a bit like fondue) at a bustling streetcorner and head for a nightcap to the Quays, to conclude the day with a Singapore sling. Of course!

The next day we leave from the ultra modern airport of Singapore for Bangkok. This is something really different. Where Singapore is a mix between East and West, Bangkok is really East. Our hotel is in the quarter of Banglamphu, which has a very quiet and sort of authentic feel to it. Closeby is the horrible Walt-Disney-fied Kaosan Road, with a branch of restaurant The Golden Arches - also known as Mc Donalds :) - and many tourist trap restaurants. If you are planning to go to Bangkok, don' t go here! We flee to another part of town to see the Royal Palace and Temple. So much gold, so much glitz, so many amazing buildings, and so many tourists, it' s almost too much to take in at once. We therefore head out to the more quiet and peaceful temple of What Pho, which is truly gorgeous. Take a look at some of the pictures!
And then, boattrip time! We jump into a local boat, which dangerously tends to one side, but hey, we can swim :) It turns out, that will not be necessary, and we arrive back in Banglamphu again. After some Tiger beer, yep, we're definately in Thailand and some curry we call it a night and nexy day we fly to Luang Prabang in Laos.