Review of Singapore - Part One

Well I haven't blogged in a while, mainly because nobody reads it and also because I don't get the time. I did miss it though, so I thought what better way to make a comeback than to write a review of the city of Singapore, where I have stayed for the past week.

My trip was not really for tourist reasons, so I did not see the 'touristy' aspects of Singapore like I would have wanted to. Although, I did plan it on my itinerary, I did not stick to it one bit. What's mildly humorous us the fact that I got teased about it by my partner, for not being 'adventurous' enough, or rather 'spontaneous'.

So anyway, I shall stop rambling on and get on with the review.

I start with the hostel I had been staying at during my stay in Singapore. I wanted something cheap and simple, mainly because I came on a very tight budget. So I picked the Dragon Inn Hostel on Kelantan Road, right next to Little India. Now, I don't know what changed my mind from the jolly sounding 'Happy Apartment' (located near Orchard Road, right near the botanical gardens) - I mean the price was pretty much the same. My, what a mistake it was. The hostel is quite new, so it's unfair to completely thrash it. However, in all honesty, I've stayed at a lot of backpacker's accommodation and this has to be the worst.

First I'll start with the area. Little India is no Geylang (also known as the Red Light District of Singapore) - but it's full of pervy men that will stare shamelessly at girls that are walking alone. Solo female travellers beware of this as I did get followed one time on my way back to the hostel. There was an Indian man, perhaps in his mid to late thirties, holding a medium sized burgundy and black suitcase, in front of me. He saw me approaching and stopped in his tracks, waiting for me to go past. He smiled and said hello as I did. Don't get me wrong, I'm a friendly person, but this guy was not saying hello in a friendly way. I gave him an evil 'don't mess with me' look and carried on. He then started to walk behind me, and I stopped, turned around and gave him the evil look again. I carried on to cross the street where my hostel was, now getting concerned that this guy would know where I'm staying. So once I crossed the street, I turned around again and saw he was still on the other side staring, smiling, waving. Me being me, I gave him the middle finger and mouthed to him to 'F*** off' and I never saw him again. But what if I had seen him again? What if he had grouped up his mates and come looking for me, only to attack at my most vulnerable point?

This was not the only incident that really made me think twice about how safe this area was. The day before I checked out, the glass exterior and door of the hostel got completely smashed at about 8.30am by some madman. I was woken up by the sound of smashing glass, and heard screaming. I thought the hostel was being crappy and renovating at some crazy early hours of the morning. So, I went back to bed. Later I found out that they weren't renovating, and in fact someone had attacked.

Now to go onto the main part - the actual hostel. It is reasonably priced, still a bit more expensive than most hostels I've stayed in. I'd been staying in the twin room, so had to pay for two people anyway. I like to have my privacy so settled for this as I could not be bothered to find alternative accommodation. The actual hostel has two computers for free internet access for guests, a small seating area with two couches, a dining table, fridge freezer and other small kitchen appliances. The reception is in the same general area. As you go further in, you see the stairs leading up, and next to the stairs are 3 small bathrooms. Now the bathrooms are an interesting part of the hostel which I will come to. In front of the stairs are some lockers, which you have to pay to use, $1 a day, and next to the lockers is a back door. As you go up the stairs (taking your shoes off first), you come to the first floor, which is where I was staying.

There is also a second floor. The ground and first floor have communal bathrooms, with the first floor bathrooms containing a laundry. $5 for each load of washing, and a further $5 for half load of drying. I stupidly got a room next to the bathrooms, so not only could I always hear the tick of lights going on and off, I could smell the distinct smell of urine from when backpackers neglected to flush the loo. Moreover, these bathrooms were tiny cubicles with a toilet, and a shower beside the toilet. I dont mean a proper shower, I mean one next to the toilet. So basically you have to shower next to the toilet and you get the whole seat wet. Unlucky for the next person who is bursting for the loo. The day of the attack on the glass exterior was also the day the water pipe needed repairing so everybody had to use the downstairs shower, of which there was only one. I didn't particularly want to go downstairs and shower with everybody in the reception area as I'd have to come out with nothing but a towel wrapped around me, don't really feel comfortable doing that. So, grossly enough, I didn't shower that day. The showers/toilets were actually disgusting. There were long strands of bunches of hair in the shower, and it had that constant smell of urine that made me gag. I lost my appetite for the duration of the trip.

The most stunning part of my room was the view from the window. It was a dazzling view of...wait for it...*drum roll*....the bathroom. Yes, I opened the window only to see into the bathroom. Not only this, but my room was tiny, with a queen sized bed crammed into it. I wonder how they even got that in there!! There was barely any room to walk, especially since I had my luggage in there too (and I didn't travel with much!)

Next I go onto the noise value. Yes, granted, backpackers are usually youngsters who go out a lot and come back in the early hours after clubbing/pub-crawling. But it wasn't the backpackers that made the most noise, it was the staff. I could hear them from the reception area talking, at hours like 11:30pm to midnight. I tolerated this for most of my trip, but towards the end of it, it got ridiculous. The walls of the hostel are paper thin so you can hear conversations quite clearly from your room. It's actually pretty interesting.

More aspects of amenities that didn't work properly - the free wireless internet they offered. Yes, I had all the correct settings and occasionally it would work, but mostly it was slow and unreliable. Also, the phone was working fine one day at reception and I used to several times to make calls using international calling cards. One day all of a sudden the dialling tone changed so it would take too long to register the digits when dialled, so it would not accept the card numbers. The hostel did not take any responsibility for the faulty phone and told me to go to the 7/11 shop and find a payphone.

The staff were generally helpful, but did not seem to polite when I was polite towards them. For example, when I went to give them money for my second load of washing and approached the staff member, she looked at me and said in a very rude fashion "WHAT"...wow, wasn't expecting that one. I kept my cool though, for once, and was sulking to myself that I had to stay an extra night in this place, again, not my choice. I was reading a few of the reviews on hostelworld.com and the members that had criticized the hostel, well the staff had replied immaturely saying things like "WHY NOT U PAID hotel price and stay at hotel ?
stop coments others if u cannot accept back packer 's hostel style." and even "u booked 3 night in dorm and did not show up on 1st night , i cancelled yours booking to lets yours 2 bed open to hostel.com .
( i did not charge u for no show on the 1 st night as busy on others )
the 2nd day u show up and i explained to u u no show no call , the bed is open to sell and taken . i help u to take a private room at s$35 each x 2 person .if u are not happy the price as all the guest paid , u should not take the room . u should have walk away i/o stayed two night .? ( why u donot walk away ? )why u commect this way and the true is u did not show up and no call to confirm u want to take the 2nd / 3rd night dorm .
pls donot come to my hostel again .i am not taking u again ."

And that concludes part one of my review of Singapore. My next post will contain more positive aspects, I promise!