Singapore

The next stop was Singapore, a place the measure of which one gets as one comes in to land: I have never seen another landscape so verdant and lush, so seemingly bountiful and so wholly and completely inorganic. It looked as though a gigantic model-builder had arranged the shrubs and trees, the buildings and roads and cared for them with the help of nature, never managing to get rid of the original signs of the maker. Every plant and lawn, every bit of nature – not to mention the architecture, which was determined to look resolutely and consciously man-made – was created, not begotten. Most odd.
The hotel in which I was staying was a case in point – all of the design and architecture was tortured and self-proclaiming: table-tops cleverly but pontlessly suspended in mid-air by an intricate cantilevering of steel wires between ceiling and floor, a swimming pool that jutted its see-through side over the side of the building only to face a building site, and so forth. It was certainly comfortable, but rather over-done.
The next day, Renee-less, I met up with Kleine, who is a friend of my friend Joe back in London; Kleine was charged, somewhat unilaterally, by Joe with showing me around and recommending things to see and do – something that, I must say, he did with gusto and great ability, and I hope to one day repay the favour in London. We had a great lunch in a cheap-and-cheerful local place, followed soon after by a coffee or two and a shopping break at Burberry, where (with Kleine's sage advice) I acquired a bag that matches (or matched then) perfectly my new hair. This made me happy.
In the afternoon, I explored Chinatown and Arab Street, both of which were in their own ways interesting (Arab Street was probably the most run-down looking part of Singapore that I saw, and thus somehow the most human) – and then headed to the Night Safari, next to the zoo. This is a park dedicated to nocturnal animals, open only at night – one is treated to a show involving some of the animals, and can then spend the rest of one's time wandering around or being driven around on a little tram-thing, spotting giraffes and rhinos, elephants and hyenas as they all go about their nightly business. I then met up with Kleine and a couple of his Italian friends and we had giggly, raucous drinks at a place called Taboo; given my early flight the next morning, I did not stay long.