Singapore

Once the last shopping had been completed, bags packed for the last time, final video taken and last photos snapped Johan took his last MRT trip to the airport and waited to fly home. A life-long dream to one day travel the world with his wife had been realized. The months and months of planning and dreaming had come to pass. Jobless and homeless we had set off for our year and today that whole adventure was wrapping up.

Thousands and thousands of photos, different places, different beds, bathrooms, people, food, buildings, animals, moments and memories together had come to pass. The time that we had had together had been only good. We would never have imagined that we would have enjoyed each other's company as much as we did and that we would have lived and travelled so well together. We had gotten on so well. Who knew that we would love India so much and that Janine would have accumulated so many things, and who could have guessed that rat really does taste like rat?

What would have ever been able to prepare us for the road that we had just travelled?

Johan arrived in Cape Town International Airport in the late morning Friday the 2nd of February 2007. Janine arrived shortly after in the early afternoon. We were home for good. A whole new and unknown life chapter was about to begin. Our world journey was over...


...for now.

Johan spent most of his time thinking, reflecting and comparing prices for consumer electronics. He obviously missed Janine. He watched a movie in a massive shopping complex, ate too many Burger King meals, went to the fabulous Night Safari (highly recommended!) and went as a spectator to an annual Hindu procession in Little India where devotees pierce themselves with needles and pull offering carts attached with hooks to their bare backs...quite a sight.

Culture shock: Broadband speeds of 100Mbps with unlimited bandwidth at a cost of about R300 per month...

On our 4th day in Singapore Janine's time of world travel had come to an end. She was to leave to Johannesburg to see friends while Johan would stay in Singapore for another 3 days to reflect over his past year and the year that lay ahead. After being in each other's company (and pretty much only each other's company) 24/7 for almost a year the idea of parting, even for 3 days, was too much. We were depressed the whole day. Johan escorted Janine to the airport and eventually we had to part. Janine was heading back to her favourite country in all the world. ..and Johan to a small room in a cheap backpacker spot in China Town.

Shopping, shopping, shopping. That is what we did. That is what everyone does in Singapore. It is their national sport and they play hard! Janine had a list of things she wanted to get for her sister and other family members so we went all over for more than a day to compare prices. Our bargain hunting really paid off and we got great deals on everything. Both of us love these Singapore stop overs and on this stop over we decided to do the OmniMax (and watched a boring under-the-sea documentary with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet voice-overs) and the Jurong Bird park (spectacular, except for the rain).

Just over 15kg check-in each and about 12kg hand baggage in hand we were dropped off at the airport and successfully boarded our plane (because we slipped through the hand luggage check point while they were checking someone else's hand luggage!). What a relief. Our journey from this point on was going to be an arduous one. Because our original plan was to spend time in Malaysia (before we chose to spend more time in Laos) our flight was still taking us to Kuala Lumpur. From here we had to make our way from their low cost terminal to their main terminal and catch a lift to our hotel. Very early the next morning the whole process would have to be reversed to get us back to the Low cost terminal and get ourselves and all our baggage successfully back onto another Air Asia flight which would take us to Johor Baru, still in Malaysia but on the border with Singapore. This was much cheaper than flying directly into Singapore.

One airport shuttle bus would take us to our connecting bus. We waited and waited for that connecting bus which eventually came and took us the few kilometres to the border. Again all our luggage had to come with us through the border because we were going to catch yet another bus on the other side. At our final bus stop we managed to secure a taxi quickly and pack our load in the boot. A luxurious, but bit run down room at the Peninsula Excelsior awaited us. We were finally in Singapore, shopping paradise...

Landing in Singapore is always a great experience. The airport has won countless awards for being the best airport in the world. It is still Johan's favourite by far! We used Singapore as a stepping stone for our cheap flight on AirAsia to Bangkok the day after the next day.

The city was covered in beautiful Christmas decorations - especially the famous Orchard Road where most of the upmarket shopping happens. We stayed in a great 4 star hotel at half price as we flew with the national carrier, SIngapore Airlines, and qualified for certain discounts on their Stopover packages.

We stop again in Singapore on our way back to South Africa, so this stopover was just a recon mission. We looked at all the gadgets and electronics that can be bought for future reference!

Breakfast was at the chinese market where you can buy anything from live eels to live frogs, live tortoises to pig organs. Fortunately we were not too hungry and just had some fresh watermelon juice...

It rained most of the day and we therefore stayed indoors - browsing the shops and planning for our next visit...