It seems to be a clear design of Singapore to have travelers end up with hours long layovers in Singapore, enough time for people to unload hundreds of dollars in the endless shopping center that is seemingly this entire wonderful little country.    I fell for the scheme last time, buying a digital camera and iPod.   This time I had no plans to buy anything.   Instead I planned to see various neighborhoods in Singapore (Chinatown, Little India and downtown).    I stopped by the Tourist Desk in the airport where a nice woman outlined a tour and gave me a 10 trip Metro Pass.

I headed off to the train station, comfortably located within the airport and took the first train to the Tanah Merah Interchange.    The first caution flag came when the door opened and the heat and humidity hit me.    The temperature was 90 degrees Fahrenheit with 70% humidity.    The “Heat Index” was 105 degrees.   I was packing my carry on luggage (a backpack with 25 pounds of computer equipment and books).

My first stop was Chinatown.   I walked through several streets lined with tiny shops.   My unscientific survey shows the following categorization among shops in Singapore

            50%     Clothing, Jewelry or Electronics Shops

            25%     Restaurants or Food Stores

            10%     Architectural or Engineering Firms

            8%       Massage Clinics

            5%       7-11’s

            2%       Other

7-11 was the most prevalent American brand I saw, although I plan on researching whether “British India” is the renamed-for-use-outside-North-America Banana Republic or just a dead on knock-off.

By the time I had walked about 4 km across Singapore I was getting really tired and feeling sick, nauseous and covered in sweat.  I realized that I was getting the initial symptoms of heat stroke and ducked into shops to cool off.

One of the places I thought would be better cooled was the indoor Tekka Market in Little India.  Bad Assumption.

Nothing adds to the nausea of heat stroke more than a hot, stinky fish market.

I made a hasty retreat to the airport and fell sound asleep at the departure lounge, and then again on the plane, sleeping from before takeoff until just before crossing the shoreline on approach to the airport in Chennai.

Back in India.   The Chennai Airport seemed just as run-down as the Kolkata Airport, in fact so similar I questioned my memory and wondered if I had been here before and was confused (not the case, I had only been to the nicer domestic terminal in Chennai).  The upside was that the taxi-wallahs, touts and beggars where must less prevalent here than in Kolkata.  

I saw a man holding a sign for “Shawm Swanmer – Trader’s Hotel” and decided to impersonate someone with a similar name as mine and get a nice ride to the hotel.    I then slept for the better part of 24 hours, sleeping off the heat-stroke and jet lag.