How Sunday turned into Monday...

Sunday afternoon and the saga of the soaking wet floor turned into Sunday evening on the night train to Singapore. For me, that romantic notion of slumbering on a train as it rumbles through the night in an unknown place has always held intrigue, and I love the chance to go. Now, Malaysia is not exactly an unknown place to me, but when it’s the middle of the night and the train is stopped on the tracks and you can smell the fresh night air and all you can hear are the noises of the jungle around you, it feels unknown enough.

How the whole thing came about in the first place I’m not sure. I’ve been needing to go down and check out the libraries and resources available in Singapore, with regards to my thesis research, and while I’d originally planned to do it when I flew into Singapore from the states last week, 36 hours of traveling and no sleep, 100 lbs of luggage, and the fact that it was the middle of the night when I flew in were all deterring factors. So Sunday I sat down with the calendar and realized that with the Chinese New Year coming up, where things will close for an average of a week, sometimes up to two, I needed to get down and do that before then. My weekend, which is Sunday to Tuesday, seemed like it might be the best option, despite it being half over... I called a friend to ask if she knew about the bus timetable, thinking I'd grab the bus down in the morning, it was 8:30 pm. She said don’t worry about the bus, grab the night train tonight, you can sleep and you’ll be there at 7 tomorrow morning. My house is four blocks from the train station. So, I grabbed a day pack, threw in some notebooks, an extra shirt, money, and I was off. On the train by 10 pm. The sleeper cabins are very comfortable and mine came equipped with an old Chinese man on the other side of the aisle giving me all kinds of tourist pointers about Malaysia. Since I’m so new here. ;-) He was funny. Above me, a rather obsessive man who spent the entire trip with his prayer beads in hand going round and round and round. Every time I woke up, there they were hanging over the side of the bunk, round and round…

The morning in Singapore was beautiful. The sun was shining, it wasn’t hot yet, and there was this amazing fresh breeze blowing off the harbor. You don’t get this in KL, because we’re inland a ways from the sea. Walking around the city and enjoying the breeze alone made it worth the trip down. I walked all over the business district, watching people hurry to work, happened upon the local Chinese noodle shops where business people hurriedly slupped their noodles, and old men took their time with their “kopi” and noodles… Many of them would spend the day there chatting away anyway. I found a road that skirted the harbor and worked my way along the harbor as the sun got higher in the sky, and shortly I happened upon the Esplanade, (also known as the giant Durian), where tourists were lining up for harbor cruises, snapping cameras and looking sharp in their kaki pants and Hawaiian shirts. I worked my way through the park along the riverfront where workers were just starting to work on the decorations for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations. Soon enough I arrived at my destination, the National Library. The National Library has just re-opened in a brand new 15 storey, all glass building in downtown Singapore. It is far and away the nicest place I’ve ever found to bury my head in books all day. The entire 11th floor is dedicated to Southeast Asian studies and I was able to find all kinds of books, articles, and journals for my research. Then I was able to sit on a couch and have a 360 degree view over the city, all the way to the harbor while I worked. (I’m getting excited about a library folks… I guess I’ve taken to this grad student thing pretty well…).

Before I knew it, I filled half a notebook with notes (the library is all reference) and the sun was setting admist the steam from the mid-afternoon showers. I made my way out of the library, and walked along, trying to decide where to have dinner. Then I stumbled on the riverfront, something I didn’t see the last time I was in Singapore. Dozens of restaurants lining the harbor, colored lanterns and strings of lights twinkling off the water, as boats glided past and the famous Raffles Hotel reflected off the water from the otherside. I found a little Thai restaurant, and sat and wrote in my journal, mulling over the nice day I’d had in Singapore. Two glasses of wine later, I started slowly making my way toward the train station. Thinking I’d just flag down a cab when I was ready. Not so easy in Singapore. After 45 unsuccessful minutes, I quickly acquainted myself with the bus system, (as in stuck my head into the next bus that came by and asked him what bus to take to the train station), and hopped on the next #100 bus that dropped me at the station with no time to spare… I ran to the train, jumped in my sleeper… and off we went back into the dark musty jungles of Malaysia.

I arrived back in KL at 6:30 am this morning. Now that’s what I call a day trip.