Singapore

As many of you London folk will know cause I've been waffling on aobut it for months to anyone who will listen, I'm away on a month-long 'working holiday'. The main reason for the trip was to surprise my Mum for her 60th birthday. Mum is awaiting an operation and can't travel. She's dying to come over to visit me so I figured well if Mohammad can't go the the mountain, the mountain must go to Mohammad. Or something like that.

My trip started out with me sitting at the airport enjoying a leisurely breakfast when my phone rings with a frantic Renee, my workmate, saying "Ange, we think Jack has let the cat out of the bag. Your Dad called here at work, and Jack yelled out to ask us what time your flight was. We're not sure if he heard though". I thought to myself, 'If you've ruined my surprise I'll blimmin' kill you Jack Harris!!!' My poor workmates were left with strict instructions to tell my parents I was in a meeting if they called, and Renee would text me and then I would call them back. It was just my bad fortune that Jack is a terrible ditz sometimes. I'm sure my workmates must have given him hell for it. So I called Dad and did damage control saying Jack was mistaken, I was off to the Flower Show but Jack thought I was going on holiday for the Bank Holiday weekend. Dad seemed to buy that. Oh the lies! I tell you, this surprise lark has made me into a terrible liar.

When I got on the plane I was almost struck dumb by the British guy sitting in front of me actually making conversation with me and offering everyone sweets. I swiftly deduced he was not from London. Wayne was in fact from Manchester, and it was his first time on a plane. His girlfriend had gone home to the middle of nowhere, Australia, to have their baby girl (born the previous day) and he was off to see them. So he was flying non-stop to Sydney, then flying to Brisbane where he would then take a five-hour bus ride. Yeah. Rather him than me. I also quickly made friends with the young man next to me, Li from Singapore, who had been on holiday in London. He gave me some good tips on what to do in Singapore, bless him.

I got into Singapore at 8am and sprang into action right away. I chucked my main luggage into storage and trundled off to Pasir Ris station where I met Simon, who was taking a guided tour of Changi, the site of the POW camp in WWII. Now I was raised watching Tenko and such things, so I was very interested in it. The beauty of the tour was that much of it was on a lovely air-conditioned coach, as Singapore was stinking hot.

What makes Changi interesting to me is that unlike most of the other Japanese-run POW camps, women and children were also interred there. There were huge ex-Pat populations in Singapore and Malaya when the war broke out, and that the Japanese invasion of South-East Asia would not be stopped by the might of the British Empire was unthinkable. So by the time everyone realised that they were in serious trouble, it was too late for many of the civilians. The Japanese sank many of the evacuation ships, so many of the women and children kept in these camps had already survived sinking ships and near-drowning. They also interred many native Singaporeans and people of Chinese descent, as many Chinese-Singaporeans had funded the effort to get rid of the Japanese when they invaded Manchuria. Simon's grandparents were among them.

The Japanese were merciless and all those who were at Changi suffered terrible hardships, even the children. But there are many stories of heroism, self-sacrifice, and especially of sisterhood amongst the women. There is little left of Changi Prison now - just a watchtower and a wall, but the Changi museum depicts all too well what life must have been like. When they weren't working, both the men and women ran 'universities' - if you had any knowledge about anything at all, you would run classes for your fellow prisoners. One man after the war applied for an engineering job and put down under 'Education', "Changi University". He got the job. Whether his employer had heard of Changi and sympathised with him, or just had no idea where Changi University was, we'll never know. Anyway, if you want to learn more - especially about what happened to the women I suggest watching the excellent movie "Paradise Road" which came out about 5 years ago.

After a quick nap at my hotel, I ventured forth to the Night Safari at Singapore Zoo. I'd seen it featured on a travel show a few years ago and thought 'If I ever get to Singapore I'm gonna do that'. It was excellent, made more so by the woman who hosted the show. After greeting the audience at length in six languages, she was off on her one-woman stand-up comedy routine. I got to see all sorts of nocturnal animals, some native to Singapore and some from all around the world, like wolves and owls. They even got a 'macho' guy up out of the audience. wrapped a boa constrictor around him, and pretended to run off. If that was me I think I would have died on the spot as I have a ridiculous fear of snakes.

The next day I went to Raffles, Clarke Quay, Chinatown and Little India which were great. I'm calling Singapore Asia 101: Asia for Beginners. It's so easy to find your way around as everyone speaks English and the signs are in English. Anyone who's never been to Asia before would love it, as it has the asian vibe without the obvious poverty or language difficulties. Public transport is amazing and the food is incredible. The most I paid for a meal was $6 Singapore dollars (about $4nz or 1pound 50 p)

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