Tuesday lunchtime and still feeling extremely wishy washy….what happened on this long weekend? Plenty! Wal and I buzzed off from school right on the bell and Truckie whisked us off to get our evening flight to Singapore on Thursday. The flight was pretty pain free and I watched a few videos on my iPod, Wal slept, all good. Josh was a champion and was there to greet us in his little car, and then when we got to his apartment we managed to stay up for a couple of hours chatting, having the first of many beers for the trip!On Friday, off to eat roti Pradas for breakfast at a local haunt, cup of coffee, then off to the golf, The Singapore Open. I’m no great fan of golf: my personal attempts have been rather lame and I haven’t felt the need to spectate in the past, but I have to admit, this was a pretty awesome experience. Mickelson, Els and Scott to name just a few were very impressive. World class sportsmen doing their thing, right up close is an incredible experience. As it was a working day, the crowds at the golf were way down, enabling us to get up close and personal. Mid afternoon we retired back to the football sized pool and got into some very competitive super velocity tennis ball throwing!
Friday night we arranged to go over the other side of town to Chad’s place. Cathy and kids were there, Cathy was all dolled up ready to go out to a ball and we had a few beers with Chad and caught up with all the happenings. They have a great set-up there, a beautiful big plush apartment with huge pool and other amenities. Chad arranged to meet us at the races later, so we raced off to make sure we met up with the rest of the group. Off to Kranji Race Club for Singapore’s famous night races, we opted for the air-conditioned upper deck of the grandstand and split our betting duties up accordingly. I got a winner first up paying $8 for a win (we had $20 on it) so that set us up for a great start. After a lot of winning and losing, we ended up with a $50 profit for the night, probably about even when you take into account our food and beverage bill…wonderful result. Wal and I met a further bevy of Josh’s Singapore mates and we also met up with Morgs, a mate of Wal’s from Melbourne who is currently working in Bangkok and flew over to enjoy the festivities. After the last race we went back to one of Chad’s favorite bars and enjoyed a big Erdinger that he bought at god knows what cost, then bid him good night. Kristin, Josh’s fiancée, came to pick us up, and we travelled back in the early morning through Singapore’s magnificently tidy and clean suburbs and streets.
Saturday, after sumptuous coffee shop brekky, it was back to the golf. One of Josh’s friends had sourced some passes, so 14 of us got in for free instead of paying the $50 entry! Sun not yet over the yardarm, we had the first of what would turn out to be many beers that day and night. The crowd was up around the 14,000 mark today so we didn’t get nearly as close to the famous players, with a few very funny exceptions! Josh had a few challenges to perform, including singing the Australian national anthem at one hole, holding up a purloined quiet sign at another and commandeering a golf cart at yet another. He accomplished all set tasks with a minimum of fuss: quite some feat in Singapore’s strictly regulated society, as at some points I was almost certain we would be arrested at worst, escorted from the course at least. In full caddie’s kit he escorted one of the world’s leading players, Simon Dyson, to the toilet, managing to get him past the queue, and held up a “shut up” sign behind Ernie Els as he took a shot! Our group managed to cheer on a succession of Aussie pros as they walked off down various fairways and we had a ball.
We went straight from the golf to Harry’s bar down at Boat Quay. Here the festivities continued and more challenges for the “back nine” were accepted and completed, including convincing complete strangers that he was a “ladyboy” and the obligatory singing with the band. This fun went on and on for many hours and Wal and I enjoyed getting to know many of Josh’s mates. One of the most interesting characters was a short red-headed guy known as the “ginger ninja”: what a hoot he turned out to be later on a pole at a pole dancing bar!
Eventually a call for taxis, and no buck’s night would be complete without at least a bit of shady action at a strip bar or something similar. Orchard Towers, colloquially known as the “four floors of whores”(!) fitted the bill for the organizers: Four floors of lots of different bars and dance clubs in one building, very famous for the proliferation of afore mentioned “ladyboys”. Chad was leading the way, and managed to get us in to all manner of exclusive entry and lived up to his “King of Singapore” reputation by not only getting us in, but also having the outrageous cover charges waived at most places….nice work Big Chad!! We had an absolute ball, and Josh continued to perform challenges and enjoy his night. As people slowly drifted away, we found ourselves a smallish group again ready for sleep, so hailed a cab and made it back to Josh’s place.
There were way too many moments to record here, but suffice to say that Wal and I got limited sleep, had copious amounts of alcohol and talked and socialized non-stop for three days and nights! This was an extremely enjoyable, but also extremely enervating long weekend and I only feel vaguely recovered today. Oh, and P.S. Man, that Singapore is expensive!! Photos are a selection of golf, races, bars etc!