6 weeks in Singapore Port

Keiichi Iwasaki

21年前

As Myanmar could not be passed, I thought of crossing to India by boat from Singapore.

Passing through Malaysia to Singapore, a country at the end of the Malay Peninsula.

The road signs have been changed to “English” and the roads are well maintained and the city looks as clean as they say.

I remember reading in my junior high school English textbook that “there is not a single piece of rubbish in Singapore”.

　　I remember one of my friends saying “Singapore has strict rules and regulations and sleeping in the open is forbidden”.

But I’m optimistic, the chances of a policeman finding a stray sleeping in the dark are pretty slim.

If you lie on the side of the road, a passing police car might spot you, but if you lie in the shadows, they won’t unless you call them.

It is difficult to draw a line between lying down on a bench for a rest and camping out, as camping can be seen as resting on a bench in the middle of the night.

In other words, it would be difficult to strictly prohibit camping.

I carefully searched for a place to sleep, but Singapore is so well managed that it is difficult to find a place to lie down.

After carefully following the side of the road, I came across a small park just off the road.

In the centre of the park there was a metal bed with some other outdoor equipment for simple training, the metal bed was probably for abdominal training.

The metal bed is probably for sit-ups.

I thought to myself in the dark and lay down. Before I fall asleep, I think to myself, “I have to get up early tomorrow morning”, because this park has a lot of training equipment, and in my experience, people always start training early in the morning.

　The next morning my prediction came true and I woke up to find five people training around me, even though it was still dark.

I quickly packed my bags and left the park.

I was told that there is only one port for international cruise ships in Singapore, so we headed there.

The plan was to cross to India from here.

I arrived at a port called the World Tread Centre, which was indeed an international passenger port, with a large, modern building and a huge ship on the pier.

I was told that there were no passenger ships operating between Singapore and India at the moment.

Normally I would have been appalled at this point, but I had cargo ships in mind in the first place, so I figured that there was more to come.

Singapore is at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, so the only way forward from here is by boat, and somehow I was going to get on a boat.

There is only one port for passenger ships, but there are many ports for cargo ships, and as I cycled along the seafront, I saw a port full of containers.

I found the entrance and tried to enter, but there was a gate and a security guard who would not let an unknown foreigner in.

After some thought, I checked the phone book and decided to visit the shipping company.

　From that day on, I slept in a construction site at the back of the World Tread Centre.

However, after six weeks of sleeping in the harbour and looking for a ship, I was unable to find one to take us to India.

　So I had to go back to Thailand the way I came.