Singapore 2000

September 17
At 8:00 A.M. I left with Rajendra and other friends for Johor Baru immigration. I got the visa for two weeks. The people at immigration knew that Manisha Koirala, an actress of Indian Cinema is a Nepali. Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala seem to be quite popular in Malaysia. Indian movies are very well received here like in Nepal.
Without much ado I entered Singapore through Bukit Timah Express way. There are 4 tracks for cars and a separate one for cycle. Thank god the streets are so wide, at last I pedal feeling free. Singapore is considered the cleanest city in the world, I get a chance to observe it today.
After nearly a hour and a half, I took a wrong direction and went towards Jurong east. After cycling for one hour, I asked the way for Mount Vernon and people are surprised as I had left it far away, some 20kms. Finally I reached the Thomson road and asked about Gorkha Contigenti in a police headquarter. It was already 5:00 P.M. when I reached the camp. The chief inspector was in Nepal and nobody else knew about me. They only knew about Laxman Sapkota's crew. They told me how they had collected funds for Sapkota when his cycle was lost. I got an address of a paying guest house of Nepalese and headed there. I met many Nepalse there, had meals with them and around 9:30 went to take a tour in the Deskar road with Dinesh. It is a famous red light area. There were many fair and black skinned Asian girls waiting for the customers. Many Indian, Pakistani and Bengali males were selecting those girls. It was a Sunday, a fun day, for those who could afford. We couldn't.

September 18
The guest house where I am staying is owned by Toran Dhwaj Adhikari, who has been here for 20 years now. Nabin and Dinesh are his nephews who are also studying here. They have an established business here. Many Nepalese come to stay in their flat, and there are always some sleeping on floor due to lack of space. I ate at Maya's place, very popular among Nepalese and went to meet the consulate. The consulate seemed more eager to talk about himself than listen to me.  He showed me a gift presented by our Ex crown prince Dipendra in his recent visit here, He seemed to be quite impressed with Dipendra.

September 20
In Singapore also, the weather doesn't fluctuate much but you never know when it's going to rain. Around 77% of people are Chinese here and the rest are Indian and Malaysian. I met Laxman Sapkota at last in dinnertime. I had made many efforts to meet him and now finally he found me. We had a lot to share. His crew had returned from Indonesia as they couldn't get a visa to Australia from there. I asked him why was he so eager to revisit all the places he had already visited once. He answered that he wanted to instill a sense of adventure in Nepalese youth. However he was very much disappointed, his crew hadn't lived up to his expectation. Two had already returned to Nepal after failing to obtain a visa for Belgium and there were two more who were rearing to return. Their tour had hence ended there. Their group was quite well known here in Singapore. I was often asked whether I belonged to that group too. People here naturally wondered about the people who were supposedly on world tour but remained sedentary there for nearly two months.

September 21
Today I went to see Sentosa island, a famous tourist spot in Singapore. It nearly took me a hour and a half to reach the bridge of the island. There I met the wife and children of a famous Nepali singer Kumar Basnet. There were three ways of entering the island, by road, by boat or by cable car. I chose the road. Inside the island, there was a separate track for bicycle. There are many tourists here. First I took a look at the ruined city of the lost civilization. In the midst of a forest, there are ruins of ancient houses, different statues, paintings and the Hypostyle hall.
I passed through the Saloso beach to Merlion park. The vast statue of Merlion bearing the logo of Singapore is really awesome. I don't even ask how much does it cost to enter the statue and climb to the top of it. I hate it when I have to pay for the sightseeing, simply because I don't have money. Before returning I took a tour of world village, where houses were built in the native style of many countries. In the village of South Asia, there are no houses of Nepali architecture style. I dream of a day when such a house is built here, I dream of my own house.

September 22
Singapore is a city of commerce and business. After Hongkong was handed over to China, it has been a business heaven for many Chinese. Even some Nepalese have business here. I met Buddhi Gurung, a Nepali businessman in the lunch today. We even had dinner together. After few pegs of whisky, he became very talkative. He described how close he was to the ex prince Dhirendra and still is to many past and present political leaders of Nepal.  It was already late and Maya's place was closing. We headed for a disco. I called Dinesh to say that that I wouldn't be returning there that night. I was going to stay in Buddhi's place. Inside the disco, I danced while he just sipped beer and looked around. He had already got himself a girlfriend when I came to fetch again. She was a thin Phillippino woman. We returned around 1:A.M., the girl also accompanied us. It was now impossible for Buddhi to accommodate me in his place. I understood the situation and forgave him for not keeping his promise. They left, I sat depressed on the stairs of the guest house which was already closed.

26 September
I left the fine city today.I left Serangoon at 11:00 A.M. Dinesh, Nabin and Panchani came to see me off. I was planning to take a ferry to Indonesia. We roamed around in the seaside for a while and parted promising to keep in touch.