Today was a pretty darn exciting day. I finally got to visit Haw Par Villa and the Tiger Balm Gardens, went back to Mustafa Centre and Chinatown and visited two Anytime Fitness clubs in Singapore - along with a bunch of malls.
I started the day with a bus ride to Mustafa Centre, where I'd discovered a whole wall of Tiger Balm products and Indian Salwar Kameez suits in 2007. I went back today and stocked up on plenty of Tiger Balm and Ayurvedic remedies, bought a couple of sets of Salwar Kameez fabric (to make headscarves for the daughter of one of the members at my gym, who is just five years old and has Leukaemia AGAIN) and grabbed a few bits and pieces from the Ayurvedic section for my yoga teacher Vanessa, who is studying Ayurveda back in Melbourne.
On my way over to Farrer Park MRT station, I found a hearse truck. I'll post a photo up later but for now lets just say it was a truck that was covered with gold statues of various deities, with a crypt thing in the back for the hearse to travel in air-conditioned comfort. Rock on with your dead self!
After a short train ride I arrived at Chinatown, where I had Chicken Rice with Roasted Pork for breakfast, washed down with a pineapple juice for all of about $4 AUD. I had a walk around the market stalls, bought a carry bag and left. I then promptly forgot to go back to grab a couple of things I was meant to bring home with me, so looks like I'll be bying them in KL now.
Next stop was the two-train ride to Jurong East and the ensuing ramble around trying to find the first of the 5 Anytime Fitness Clubs in Singapore. When I did finally find it, I was stoked! The PT Hafiz and Manager Hanz extended a very warm welcome and we made the usual comparisons of our clubs - he has a subwoofer, I have an extra 300 square meters of floor space...etc. It's a lovely club in the Fusion colour scheme (the one I actually wanted, with the purple walls). It's quite a bit smaller than my club but having only been open about three weeks, it has an awesome vibe!
I popped into the Mall next door for lunch and then it started to rain, so I ducked into the mall next to the MRT station. It had just stopped raining when I jumped on the MRT and headed for Haw Par Villa and the Tiger Balm Gardens, created by - guess who - the founders of the Tiger Balm company. The day was shortening and I only had 45 mins here before the Ten Courts of Hell closed for the day, so I darted through it, taking photos of everything and the relevant signs so that I can review it all later.
The ten courts of hell refers to Chinese Buddhism and the various punishments dished out to people who were naughty. If you lied, they tied you up and cut out your tongue, etc. It's similar to the Ten Commandments and a number of other religious precedents, so I won't bore you with too many details, but the statues and displays were awesome and pretty freaky. I imagine kids will be having nightmares all over Singapore tonight.
The Tiger Balm Gardens are also pretty cool with lots of displays, statues and the like. Again, photos to come once I get back on WiFi.
The weather alerts app on my phone went berserk at one point so I decided to get the heck out as it sounded like the apocalypse was coming. Turns out the forecast was right, as by the time I got into the MRT station it started to bucket down and didn't stop for over an hour. I got off at Tiong Bahru thinking it would stop and I could walk to the AF club in Valley Point and still get to Marine Parade before the end of staffed hours at 9pm but sadly the universe had other ideas.
When it rains in Singapore, you will NEVER get a cab. The queues were over 100 people deep and the buses and bus shelters crammed also. I was already at the closest MRT station and still nearly 2km walk away with no umbrella, so I gave up and had dinner.
The rain finally backed off around 7.30pm, which gave me just enough time to let my iPhone get me lost while trying to walk to the AF Club. I found a friendly local who told me which bus to catch and I arrived at the club just on 8pm. I met the PT who is from Adelaide and we had a chat before I did a quick workout as they have my favourite piece of equipment (the Precor AMT) which has an iPhone charger built in.
I LOVED this club. It's not only massive but it also has an awesome vibe. If I move to Singapore, I'm coming here. It is fabulous. Photos again will follow.
After all this adventure I was pretty darn tired so I jumped in a cab and went home to Betel Box. $11 SGD for a 20 minute cab ride is awesome, it would have been at least triple that in melbourne and it is tax deductible!
So, I only got to two clubs today, which means I have to do three tomorrow and cross over into Malaysia before my flight to KL from Senai (JB). Better get some sleep then!
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