You Have a Lucky Face

Well we are a week into our adventure and the injuries are mounting! Our poor westernized feet, more used to plush carpet and the occasional bathroom tile, have taken a battering – and I still have half a Sea Urchin embedded in my hand from a minor diving mishap yesterday! Still, this is a small price to pay for the amazing time we are having.

Singapore was outstanding. Many people will tell you that there isn’t much to do there, but having pounded out at least 20 miles of it in 3 days I can tell you otherwise. All this walking is even more shocking when you consider that they have one of the most efficient transportation networks on Earth. Trains are clean and air conditioned, buses are regular and have TV and Singapore Air are more likely to be the worlds favourite airline than others making the same claim.

During our brief stay we went to the zoo (twice), met some pink dolphins, got conveyored round a massive aquarium, played on Asia’s biggest mini golf course and experienced the madness of Chinatown the week before Chinese New Year. We also indulged in a $20 Singapore Sling at Raffles Long Bar (where they invented it), which was considerably nicer than the can of “Kick-a-poo” I sampled, which even though it claimed to be the “Original Joy Juice”, in fact just tasted like fizzy pepper.

I also got some good advice from an Indian chap. He stopped me in the street to tell me I had a lucky face, “You want to know why?” he offered.

I didn’t, but I suspected he was going to tell me anyway. He pulled out a notepad and wrote down 3 flowers and numbered them 1 to 3. He then gave me a small piece of folded up paper.

“Pick a flower please.”
“Rose” says I.
“And a number.”
“2”
“Now please open the paper and what does it say?”
“3 and Lily.”

At this point I expected him to frown and wonder what went wrong, but no, instead he smiled and said “See, 100% success. Money come in but doesn’t go out. You are a very lucky man.”
I couldn’t quite work out how this made me lucky, but by this point I suspected that any more conversation was indeed going to result in “money going out”, so I bade the Indian Derran Brown farewell and tried to make my escape.

“Dont cut your hair on Saturday.” He called out after me. This is undoubtedly the most bizarre piece of advice I have received in a long time, even more so as I have my head shaved to a grade 2 now.

“Don’t cut your nails on Thursday.” He cried, instantly beating his personal best on the weird scale.

Another interesting moment came when we were walking along the riverfront. A rather camp looking chap, dressed in a vaguely nautical style, approached us and asked “You wan 45 minute cruise on da bum boat? Only Fiteen dollar!”.

I was understandably taken aback by such an offer, but being the adventurous types how could we refuse? Fortunately the “bum boat” is not some vessel of ill repute, but a kind of oriental junk that cruises the Singapore river and plays a tape of an American giving a very cheesy tour of the sights.

Anyway, time is money – at least it is in an internet café, so I must push on. We have long since left the 21st century and after a brief stay in Phuket have moved on to Koh Phi Phi.

This is a Singapore based blog, so more about Thailand next week….

Please check out the link on the right for more photos, and feel free to leave comments!