The Gay Crete Blog Visits......Singapore!

Is this man off his trolley??

Why....I hear you ask.....Would someone who runs a gay and lesbian homestay on Crete, Greece, be writing about Singapore? Is he off his trolley or what?

And why in the middle of the summer season?

Not at all...As some of you may remember I took my holidays in Australasia last year and I do like to share myexperiences, and also around this time of year is a good time to think about booking if you are heading towards Australia or New Zealand for a holiday during the southern summer, so here are is a little bit about our trip last winter and what I found in Singapore for the gay traveller.

Singapore is not a name that springs to mind for a holiday and sadly many travellers use it only as a stopover on the way to somewhere else not as a destination in itself, and certainly not a gay destination. Which is a shame because Singapore has much to offer in its own right, and of course, it is also close to many other destinations so can be used as a part of an 'Asian' holiday itinerary.

First off, as usual, book your flights early. I made my bookings in August last year for outward travel in November and return in December, (you can look at the blogs below to see how I got on!), and got some excellent prices on flights with Singapore Air. Of course I am travelling from Europe, and Singapore is something of a hub for many flights from Europe to Down Under so there is plenty of choice of airlines and schedules.

Bear in mind this is a long trip and not something you can leave to chance, so plan ahead!

I flew from London Heathrow on one of SIA's new fleet of A380's not long after Qantas had had an engine failure on one of its new A380's, but hey, life is an adventure.....

Singapore is not a place that is associated with gay or lesbian travel, and in some ways it does have a bit of a bad history with its treatment of LGBT people. But like many other places, things change, and the Singapore scene is quite lively with a number of venues.....Or so it turns out because when I was booking my trip, Google was producing nothing of value in searches for 'gay Singapore', nevertheless, undeterred I asked a few questions on Gay Travellers Network and got back a very useful reply!

I had already found a hotel that was listed on one of the Australian gay travel web sites, and as it also appeared on the Singapore tourism web site, and as I liked the look of it, I had already booked at The Berjaya which is just on the edge of Chinatown, and as luck would have it, this is exactly where most of the gay bars are situated and there is a handy MRT station too.

Although I found the Berjaya listed as gay friendly, it is not a gay hotel. It is however, comfortable, fashionably old fashioned, (not only do they make the room up every morning, but in the evening they come and turn the bed down for you), and from the outside seems to say to me 'Tunbridge Wells'. The staff are delightfully helpful and actually greet you as you walk up to the reception desk, instead of walking off into the back office like they do in Europe.

It is not the cheapest place around, but then visitors to (and residents of), Greece, are spoilt by having some of the cheapest hotel and apartment accommodation in the world! Expect to pay upwards of S$150 per night for a room here (about €90), but the beds are huge, and in my bathroom the shower cubicle stretched the width of the room with enough space to accommodate at least half a football team (and maybe more). Not only that a bit of fruit comes for free and also a daily newspaper and tea and coffee. Breakfast is available as an extra, but to be honest while I was waiting for my room to be prepared for me (I had asked for an early check in which actually took three hours!), I did take a cup of coffee, (which I expected to be free, but actually cost me S$5.85), and it was dire, so for those who need their early morning caffeine fix I recommend the coffee shop across the road.

The room was air-conditioned (no extra charge) so the first thing I did was turn it off and open a window, I had a bit of a struggle with housekeeping for the next 24 hours as they came in and turned it on, I came in and turned it off, but finally they got the point.

On the downside, and this goes for most of Singapore, if you are addicted to your iPhone or Blackberry, then forget accessing free WiFi anywhere... The Berjaya charges S$8 per hour for use of their WiFi, and you have to use the whole hour in one go! If you once log off the network you have to pay for another hour! However I can let you into a small secret, but not just yet.......

So let's get off with the places to go.......

Just around the corner from the Berjaya is Neil Road.......Here, discreetly placed in a porticoed terrace of shops are three gay bars virtually in a row. I am only here for three nights and even I cannot drink that amount especially when I am trying to get over the jet lag, so visits are necessarily brief.

First off is DYMK, which is short for 'Does Your Mother Know', the clientele are mainly in pairs or in groups, so it is very much a place where you go with friends, even at the bar everyone seems to be in couples. The music is not loud so you can hear yourself think, the barman (on the day I was there), has spent a reasonable amount of time in the gym, and has some fascinating tattoos, and a beautiful smile, and a 330ml bottle of beer costs S$10. They were having a promotional night with sparkling rose (cannot remember whether it was Martini or Asti!), which was running out at S$75 a bottle, and literally it was running, they were opening them as fast as they could. They do cocktails and they are not cheap either, at the other end of the bar where two people sharing a cocktails that seemed to have everything in it, was actually on fire at one stage, and then had a few more shots of various spirits thrown in it as they drank through their respective straws.....The 'Mother' in the name could well refer to the guy on the till, who looks at you through a pair of designer spectacle frames and very efficiently relieves you of your cash and seems to know exactly what you have had even though you were right up at the other end of the bar. Pleasantly relaxing place with plenty to watch if you are on your own!

Next door is 'Lockerroom', which describes it very well....Most of the furniture seems to be lockers with a couple of shower cubicles thrown in....They were having a 'dark night' the night I visited although whether they were trying to conjure up a 'dark room' atmosphere or just saving on the electric bill was unclear, in fact nothing was clear because it was pitch black and full of smoke from a smoke machine. The music is loud. Reading the menu was impossible, but at this stage I did gather that in Singapore, even if you are sitting at the bar you are expected to order drinks from the waiters not from the barman. A 330ml bottle of beer here is S$9

When my eyes got used to the light I did manage to discern that sitting at the bar were a row of 'expats', and the staff seem to be wearing very skimpy shorts.......

Further along is Taboo, they were having a promotional night as well...Well actually it was a 'as much as you can drink for S$20 night', but the flesh is weak, even if the spirit is willing and Taboo and Tantric (just across the road) are going to have to wait for another time as this bunny is off to bed after 24 hours without a sleep!!

Chinatown is not far from the Berjaya Hotel and here you will find a wide selection of Asian foods day and night, I ate here two nights of my stay, for S$18 including a 500ml bottle of Tiger Beer and three dishes to go with it, don't forget you will have the usual Singapore problem of getting rice if you want it!

But also in Chinatown is The Backstage Bar, now I spotted the rainbow flag easily enough during a shopping trip through the market (Chinese silk cushion covers S$2 each!), finding the door is a little harder but it is there in the portico on the main street....

Wherever I go there is always a bar that makes a mark and this on has got to be it in Singapore......In a way it is quite 'pubby', but you know you are in a different country, the music is there all around you, the surroundings are not too bright, (in fact on reflection it could maybe, do with a coat of paint), the staff are lovely, and although you order a drink at the bar they take you to a seat and bring it too you....Best of all there is a balcony where you can sit outside (in the humid Singapore night!) and look over and see what the poor people are doing down in the street........The clientele is mixed, racewise, with expats from more than one country, along with a good selection of the locals, and if you are on your own they will stop and talk to you as they pass, if only to see what you are doing there. Don't get me wrong the other bars are not un-friendly, but here there is more interest in you!

Needless to say I spent some time in the Backstage Bar, and more than once.......

In fact the LGBT visitor to Singapore can visit a different bar at least 6 times in a week....Not a bad average compared to a lot of holiday destinations.

But what else can the gay traveller do in Singapore? Well really much the same as any other one!

Singapore has always been a good place for shopping and little has changed there, in Chinatown the street markets yield textiles and other decorative items, including some that are far too big for your suitcase, but on the other hand many shops will arrange shipping for you. I found that you get a better deal in the older, smaller, shopping centres such as the People's centre near Chinatown, they tend to be more flexible on prices than the newer centres! Around Chinatown too you can buy very cheaply those items for the more alternative lifestyles such as dried white chrysanthemum flowers at bargain prices. There are also a wide range of textiles in both Chinese and Indian styles for the home decorator.

A small piece of advice if you are continuing your journey from Singapore to Australia, the Australians X-ray your bags on the way into Australia, they do not take kindly to high value items being brought in from Singapore, in fact they will charge you tax on them! If you are buying anything expensive, then buy it on the way back!

At the time of my visit I was having a problem with plantar fasciitis, and after a couple of days walking around Singapore it had certainly not improved, just around the corner from the Berjaya Hotel there is small acupuncture practice, a 30 minute treatment cost only S$15, far less than you would pay in the UK for instance.....Although it didn't cure it, it certainly relieved it!

In general, Singapore can be quite cheap for the LGBT traveller provided you watch where you eat as many places are 'tax free' look for the signs saying 'Nett Prices', elsewhere you will get GST/VAT added on! As ever avoid the tourist traps of which Old Boat Quay is one, although a visit to Harry's Bar is still essential while in Singapore. And if you are going to Raffles for a Singapore Sling, then take your credit card with you.

From zoos, to botanic gardens, to mini cruises, to the Singapore Flyer, to SkyPark, to museums, there are a number of attractions to keep any visitor occupied. You can even go to the beach!

A little hint for the Internet....Many places will give you the access code for their WiFi if you are a customer.....Find a coffee shop with a convenient place to sit outside but not in the cafe or restaurant, as they never seem to change the pass code you can continue to use it during your stay. While I was staying at the Berjaya, I discovered that you could pick up the network from the Uluru Steakhouse behind the hotel, for a few dollars I bought a glass of wine and also got the code for the WiFi.

Getting around Singapore is easy and can be cheap too. The MRT goes from the airport into the city, there is also what they call the 'Ground Transport Bus' which will take you to your hotel door from Changi Airport for S$9, although it will stops in the road outside Raffles, presumably because it makes too much of a mess on the gravel drive! And you can do a lot of walking!

For information on gay venues try www.utopia-asia.com there are now a number of hotels/homestays listed, more than there were last year. More information on Singapore generally go to www.visitingsingapore.com

Villa Ralfa Goes ‘On Tour’ Down Under - Part Two.....More Flights, and The Knotty Problem of Finding ‘Real’ LGBT Accommodation.

Having booked the main flights, and trains, for my gay travels down under, your intrepid traveller finds that there can be a problem booking exclusively LGBT accommodation, and that Greece is still a cheap place to stay!

A couple of my fans have mentioned that there are a couple more things which you should have to hand when doing this sort of thing, these are your passport as many airlines want your passport or ID card number when you book, and more importantly lots of ink and paper in your printer! The airlines must save a lot of money not having to provide you with an expensive multipart ticket these days, and do make sure that you actually print out your ‘e-ticket’ and not just the receipt for the booking!

Of course I am well aware how big Australia really is, as I lived there for a number of years, but having booked the train journey from Perth to Adelaide, and then on to Alice Springs where I pick up a two day bus tour to King’s Canyon and Ayer’s Rock, there is the problem of getting on to Melbourne to leave enough time there to see friends and my partner’s mother.

About the only airline that comes up on Google is Virgin Blue and at A$600 one way from Alice to Melbourne it is hardly cheap, (and takes forever because they fly via Sydney), as usual with these airlines everything seems to be an extra!

After a look at my favourite airline site Attitude Travel (http://www.attitudetravel.com/), I discover Tiger Airways. What starts out at A$47 for a one way flight soon turns into A$154 by the time I add my luggage, pay A$8 for a seat, and they add on a ‘Convenience Fee’ whatever that is!

And finally I have to get flights from Melbourne to Auckland, and from Wellington to Auckland to pick up my return flight to Singapore. Air New Zealand proved to be the cheapest choice for Melbourne to Auckland, Jetstar the cheapest and most convenient for Wellington to Auckland. It is amazing how trouble free things can be when you have a credit card that actually works!!

And then we come to accommodation....For much of my journey I am staying with friends and family which is the cheapest way!

But to be honest I also want to do a bit of a ‘consumer survey’ during my trip and see what other LGBT hotels have to offer and whether there is anything I can do better (or worse!). And there are a couple of places where I do not have friends (yet!), like Singapore, Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Auckland.

Now when I say LGBT, I mean LGBT owned and GLBT run, not one of the enormous international chains, or even a national chain, where you could actually be in any hotel in any city in the world and not know where, and where your money goes to head office wherever that is! Let’s face it we are gay and we want a proper gay establishment, not one where the staff have had special training as if we are people with ‘special needs’.

My priorities here are in this order,

1. LGBT owned and run
2. Location
3. Price.

As you know I can be a bit mean so it might seem odd to put price last, but many ‘gay’ hotels are very much boutique style which always tend to be more expensive, although I think some places still believe that there is a ‘pink’ dollar, or pound, or euro, so tend to be more pricey, (I don’t know why they think we have more money as recent surveys suggest that the 6% of the population that are ‘gay’ are responsible for 6% of spending, so they don’t spend any more or less than any other sector of the population).

As for location, there are some very nice GLBT places around but some of them are way out of town which is a bit inconvenient when the bars and local attractions are miles away, unless you have your own transport of course, which I don’t. And a couple of times I have to get up early to get to airports and railway stations!

Searching gay and lesbian directories, and the various sites dealing with ‘gay’ accommodation proved very disappointing for the locations where I wanted it most. For instance, Google produced only one result for Singapore, which on closer inspection looked like the rooms were for rent by the hour, and were sparsely furnished at that, although since then I have seen a review from somebody who stayed there and said it was fine......Fine if you like staying in a bathhouse that is, but when you get to a certain age you need somewhere with a few creature comforts!

Below are links to some of the sites that proved useful although I ended up in going to ‘gay friendly’ places which happened to be located just where I wanted them to be.

Australia proved to be the most difficult, and I don’t think anyone will be surprised when I say that Adelaide and Alice Springs proved to be the worst, New Zealand on the other hand proved very easy!

Trying to book LGBT accommodations in Adelaide did have it’s amusing side, as after the Qguide site proved fruitless (the one place listed came back and said ‘We do not have accommodation’), I tried the old favourite ploy of sending messages to people on line on Gaydar. Out of six messages sent, two didn’t reply, one said ‘I do not know of such things as I am not gay’, (I didn’t understand that one either), two came up with logical suggestions, and the last sent me the following message, and I quote verbatim...... “Hey Tim! Thanks for your message. God! You poor bugger! Adelaide is a complete gay desert! An inbred cesspool of cheating 'happily married' queers and mental retards! Not a normal gay bloke to be found!”. Which probably explains the ‘I’m not gay’ response! In the end I chose a hotel listed as gay friendly, but just happening to be in a convenient place.

I did make contact with someone in Alice Springs who proved very helpful with advice about tours, but as both nights that I would be spending in The Alice were late to bed and early to rise days, I didn’t worry too much and just booked something convenient.

For Melbourne there were a number of listings on various web sites, strangely these proved to be gay-friendly only, when in fact Melbourne has a couple of quite good gay owned/run places the names of which I got from a friend who lives there.

And what about prices?

I deliberately avoided ‘budget’ accommodation as in many cases this is going to be youth hostels or back-packers accommodation, not that I have anything against backpackers, I have met some very nice ones in my time, so I took the lower end of mid-price accommodation. Strangely accommodation in Australia and New Zealand seemed to be the same price in both dollar currencies which for us Europeans means that New Zealand was the cheapest place! Working on this basis a room for two costs around $120 per night in both A$ and NZ$, and in Singapore, S$175 per night for two. As a rough guide NZ$120 is £60 or €70, A$120 is £80 or £90, and S$175 is £90 or €100 respectively. Note that these prices are for two, no reduction for single travellers like we do at Villa Ralfa, (and quite common in Greece and Europe generally!)

For more about where I stayed and what I got up to you will have to wait until I write up all my notes and do some more blogs, but for now I will give you the web sites I found most useful.

http://www.topgayhotels.com/, http://www.qguide.com.au/, http://www.gaystay.co.nz/, proved most useful for accommodation, the Gaystay NZ web site lists a lot of gay accommodation, probably more than there is in the UK, especially useful for those touring around. The Qguide web site is very strange as sometimes it is there and another time not. I didn’t look to see where it is hosted but there seems to be problems with web sites in Australia generally. When I was planning my trip I took this problem to be at my end, only when I got there did I realise this was not the case.

http://www.utopia-asia.com/, is an excellent site for things to do in Singapore and Asia generally, there was a bit of a shortage of accommodation in Singapore so I used http://www.rainbowtourism.com/ , which also gave me useful accommodation in Adelaide.

http://www.galta.com.au, is a generally useful site, it has many listings around Adelaide too but as these were not central and I had a train to catch they were generally too far away!

http://www.starobserver.com.au/ and http://blaze.gaynewsnetwork.com.au/ are both news sites, they are also the home of some free gay newspapers and mags which have a lot of info in them, plus there are some classifieds on the web site. Good for looking at current affairs and events.

http://www.pinkboard.com.au also provides some accurate information and maps on various locations in Australia, while http://www.outinperth.com/ provides information specifically on Perth WA.

This sounds just like the Oscars doesn’t it!!??

And finally my thanks to a long time friend in Melbourne who suggested I stay at The Laird in Melbourne, an Australian pub in the true tradition, http://www.lairdhotel.com/, and also to the fellow members of the Gay Travellers Network, who came up trumps with things to do in Singapore http://www.gaytravellersnetwork.com !!