Singapore, Bangkok and Bintan
=============================

.. articleMetaData::
   :Where: Singapore
   :Date: 20051223 1947 CET
   :Tags: holiday, nature, photography, travel

In the last week of November and the first week of December I had my
holiday, which I choose to spend in South East Asia.

.. image:: images/asia2005/dsc_6427.jpg
   :align: left

The first stop
was Singapore, where I have `some family`_ . That made it an exellent point to start my trip. The
flight to Singapore is quite long from where I'm living and the 7 hour
time difference is not very nice either. The moment I stepped out of
the `airport`_ and into the taxi the rain started pouring down, topped off with a nice
loud lightning strike - that was an excellent start.

Singapore is a very `modern and western`_ city, albeit it has a lot of eastern influences.

.. image:: images/asia2005/dsc_6458.jpg
   :align: right

Not only from
the Chinese and `Malay`_ , but also
from Tamils. Therefore in Singapore most signs are in 4 languages
(English, which is still the primairy language, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil
and Malay). The influences from the other cultures are mostly visible in
dedicated areas. There is Little India and of course China Town.
Interestingly enough, the largest hindoe temple (to the right) is in
China Town :).

.. image:: images/asia2005/dsc_6523.jpg
   :align: center

When `Stamford Raffles`_ reached Singapore in the early 1800s he did not find a
large bustling city that is now Singpare, but instead he found a lot of
rain forest. There is still some of it left, in the northern part of the
country, in a nature reserve called `Bukit Timah`_ where monkeys still roam freely (although they also pester
you near the entrance of the park).

.. image:: images/asia2005/dsc_6576.jpg
   :align: left

From Singapore we made a
6 day trip to `Bangkok`_ , which
official name in Thai is "กรุงเทพมหานคร
อมรรัตนโกสินทร์
มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลก
ภพนพรัตน์
ราชธานีบุรีรมย์
อุดมราชนิเวศน์ มหาสถาน
อมรพิมาน อวตารสถิต
สักกะทัตติยะ
วิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์". Bangkok
is a whole different world compared to Singapore. Where Singapore is
clean and modern, Bangkok is large and polluted and has a horrible
traffic problem. The main attraction (atleast for me) is all the
different temples (wat in Thai). As I like photography, all those
temples are a nice subject to take shots of. At your left you find the
46 meter long reclining buddha at `Wat Pho`_ .

.. image:: images/asia2005/dsc_6616.jpg
   :align: right

Above is one of the decorations around the building housing the emerald
buddha at `Wat Phra Kaew`_ . This temple lies on the Grand Palace premises, which
houses a lot of other templates and the some buildings used for
royalty.

.. image:: images/asia2005/dsc_6689.jpg
   :align: left

We visited the day before
the King's birthday which unfortunately meant that some of the buildings
were closed. Our hotel was close to `Khaosan Road`_ ,
which is a very vibrant area with lots of food stands and shops that
sell fake stuff :). One temple that has quite a different style
compared to the others is `Wat Arun`_ which you
see here on the left. It's in Khmer style and covered with porcelain.

After 6 days we left Bangkok and prepared for our next trip. The next
trip went to Bintan, an Indonesian island about an hour by ferry from
Singapore. As Dutchie I needed to get a visa for `Indonesia`_ so we had
to spend some annoying time at the Indonesian embassy in Singapore. We
managed to retrieve our passport with the visa just in time before
going to Thailand so we were all set to go.

.. image:: images/asia2005/dsc_6766.jpg
   :align: center

`Bintan`_ is a small
island and mostly leased by Singapore to put resorts on. We did not go
to the North Western resort area but instead we went to Trikora Beach
on the east side. We stayed at the `Shady Shack`_ which is
definitely not a luxurious place. It did have running water (from a
large tank) and electricity but that was about it. The main attraction
was the nice beach on which our shacks were located. We were the only
tourists there and it was very nice and quiet to relax on for a whole
day.

.. image:: images/asia2005/dsc_6874.jpg
   :align: right

On the second day of our
stay we walked to a nearby fishing village that was built on poles in
the ocean. During the night the villagers go out fishing with their
kelang (houses on floats) and during they day they would sell their
fish in the village. Bintan gave me a small tan and I relaxed quite
nicely. In the afternoon of the second day we went back to Singapore
where I concluded my holiday.

For all the other pictures that I made during the trip see my `gallery`_ .


.. _`some family`: http://bijfemme.nl
.. _`airport`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Changi_Airport
.. _`modern and western`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore
.. _`Malay`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_people
.. _`Stamford Raffles`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Stamford_Raffles
.. _`Bukit Timah`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukit_Timah_Nature_Reserve
.. _`Bangkok`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok
.. _`Wat Pho`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho
.. _`Wat Phra Kaew`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Phra_Kaew
.. _`Khaosan Road`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaosan_Road
.. _`Wat Arun`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Arun
.. _`Indonesia`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia
.. _`Bintan`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bintan
.. _`Shady Shack`: http://www.lobo.kinemotion.de/
.. _`gallery`: http://photos.derickrethans.nl/asia05