Leap Day

Friday February 29th

Today is leap day. Having had a number of close encounters with dodgy propositions in South East Asia the fact that this was the day in which women are 'allowed' to propose to men left me a bit nervous. However while watching TV before leaving the hotel I learned that this is not a well known tradition in Singapore. In fact they blame the Irish for this tradition. I know all this because some major new Singaporean film called Leap Days was being released. Some sort of Romantic Comedy type thing Looks rubbish. But the entertainment TV program was explaining the whole thing to their viewers.

Armed with the knowledge that it was safe to venture out I headed off to Bukit Timah, the only remaining patch of jungle on the island, to do some trekking. Mind you it was a bit of a trek to get the bus. The guide said the bus to get was a 861 bus, and so I walked into the centre of town to get it. It was a 25 minute walk, and if I'd thought about it I would have just got a bus to catch that one instead. The bus out was a bit slow, and of course I did what I've seen all these visitors do at Malahide Castle and saw where I was to get off a bit too late, so I missed my stop and had to walk back 10 minutes from the next stop.

Once I was at Bukit Timah thought it was pretty cool. I scaled Singapore's highest peak. OK it is only 163 metres high, and it did only take me 15 minutes. Overall in the park there are probably about 8 km of trails in total so I did them all in 2 hours. As usual there was lots of flora and very little fauna. Some squirrels, insects and the usual semi tame monkeys in the car park (none in the jungle).

After that I got the bus back and did a little more walking in Fort Canning Park. Then as I arrived back at the hotel I saw a 170 bus. That looked familiar. I'd seen them at the reserve while waiting for my 861 back into town. A quick check of the timetable tells me that not only does it go right to the reserve from my hotel, but its a lot quicker as well. I guess if I'd asked the hotel staff they might have known, but instead I relied on the brochure.

The strangest thing is that once back at the hotel I noticed on the news that one of the worlds most wanted terrorists had escaped from prison in Singapore and was suspected to be running around the forested areas of Singapore. I had seen the wanted poster in the ticket office in the park, but hadn't paid any attention to it. I'm glad I didn't run into him.

After the relatively empty bars last night, the after work crowd on the Friday certainly made things busier. The places I wanted to go for food tonight (again from before) were packed with lost of reserved for company X signs, so I had to slum it and go to Hooters instead. Its a sign of how relaxed Singapore seems to be now, compared to even 7 years ago, that this is the first one in Asia (you'd have put money on it being in Bangkok or Hong Kong). I've also noticed more jaywalking and even some litter.

After that I went to a Scottish bar where a Proclaimers tribute band were playing and I stayed there all night. In a case of be careful what you wish for, I didn't get hassled all night by any girls. Which is a pity because Singapore definitely beats all the others in the best looking locals, and has a fairly good influx of good looking expats as well.