Day 5- Beach Day

I went out to Sentosa Island just south of the mainland today to check out the beach scene. There are three separate beaches on the island. I heard Tanjong beach was where Asia's finest come to hang out, so naturally I made it a point to turn up. Let me tell you though, Sentosa is a tourist trap. Within minutes I was taking pictures with exotic birds and paying too much to keep the pictures. The birds were just too cute I had to! The guy plopped a parakeet looking bird named Sleeping Beauty, belly up, in my hand and it was the cutest moment of my whole vacation. I walked around the entire island and I finally arrived at the spot I had been looking for, Tanjong. Beautiful and relaxing, no children, to my satisfaction. The whole rest of the island is extremely family friendly. I took in the view of the beach and the people, and everything I had read was right. This is where Asia's finest come. I've never been one to have a particle type, but suddenly I could see myself marrying a buff Asian man and never coming home.

After laying out for a while I got up, got dressed and went to find a wifi location when I was stopped by a Malay man named Bernard. I told him I was looking for a drink and wifi and he said he had both. He asked if I was lost because few people know about Tanjong. I told him no I had just done my research. He was young and friendly and somehow I just knew he was good people, although I couldn't quite put my finger on why. He took me back to his group of friends, 3 other guys. When I told them this was my first trip abroad they were floored. "Why did you pick Singapore of all places in Asia? Why not Bangkok?" I have heard that from at least three different people since I've been here. I explained my reasons and they continued on about Bangkok, Cambodia and Bali. So now I know for next time. Eventually, I asked if they were married. (I've learned that's a Very important question to ask.) They laughed and told me they're gay. That's why I had a good feeling about these guys! And another thing, two of them work in production for the local media. After that, I put my guard all the way down, stripped down to my bathing suit, laid back out on my towel and continued to discuss things such as politics and culture. Perfect. I was curious about political relations with Malaysia, because I've heard all sorts of things, and they told me that Singapore gets their water supply from Malaysia. Anytime there is conflict, Malaysia will use that as leverage but that was about it. I told them about the drug cartels of Mexico which they had no idea about, and my run in with the cops in Cancun, and how my friends and I just paid the cops off. They said Malaysia's law enforcement was a lot like that. We talked about the LGBT community. Homosexuality is "technically" illegal here, although there are still gay bars and some
acceptance. I told them how the federal government in American continually strikes down state laws banning gay marriage. One of them said, "To us, America had already made it. I don't think this generation will see anything like that in Singapore. The government doesn't even want to touch that topic."

Eventually, they had to leave to get to their "meetings" and the first guy I met drove me to the other side of the island so I could get another drink and continue using wifi. Then I walked around and checked out the flea markets that had popped up while I had been laying out. I saw a pink selfie pole and had to get one. I've joined the crowd I was just making fun of two days ago.

 I knew I had a long way to go to get back home to I started my trek early. I was starving but I decided to get back to my side of town and eat at a hawker center there. I'm staying on the far east side of Singapore and it is not served by the train, so everyday I have to take the train to the airport to use the hotel's complimentary shuttle. (It took two hours from the time I left Sentosa to the time I arrived at the hotel. I use that time to write these blogs.) Dealing with the shuttle at the airport is the one thing about my holiday here I could live without. Yesterday the shuttle completely failed me and I was stuck at the airport for three hours at the end of the night. I finally got a cab and on the way home I told the cab driver my sob story. When we got to the hotel the cab driver came inside with me and defiantly handed the concierge my bill. Fortunately, due to the cab driver's playing hardball my bill was comped by the hotel.