It's A Puppy Adventure!

I arrived in Singapore safely after a tedious 12 hour flight which involved watching second rate comedy shows, sleeping uncomfortably and talking to an American who was your stereotypical Deep South white guy. To be fair, he was pleasant enough, he was heading over to Singapore to work on a ship and had spent most of his life working on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. He had a strong Mississippi drawl and as I used to live in neighbouring Louisiana, we had enough things to talk about. He was a die-hard Republican with values to match but he was an intelligent sort and wished he could spend more time in Singapore visiting rather than working. This was his first time out of the States and he was a bit nervous with immigration procedure but I helped him and he managed to find his contacts okay.

Aside from a broken zip on my baggage, which prevented me from locking it, the trip itself was largely uneventful. The food was far from gourmet and the range of shows on the in-flight entertainment far from the best but we got there in the end and thankfully there were quite a few Singaporean furs at the other end to meet me.

Immigration was a breeze, indeed I've never experienced anything quicker, arriving in the middle of the afternoon is clearly the way to go, and soon I was meeting up with the furs, all of whom sees students as they are the only ones not working at 4pm on a Thursday. They took me to a cafe underneath the airport, one of those places with numerous stalls in a periphery around a central seating place. I grabbed so roast chicken and rice, served with a sweet chilli sauce and a soy sauce which was considerably more viscous than that back home.

We chatted a while about the fandom, most of them seemed to be studying economics or social studies, while there was a strong interest in LARP, gaming and airsofting in the community. Sadly the latter is banned by law here but modified NERF guns aren't, so play is still permitted. Furthermore, the Singaporean community has grown significantly since my last visit in 2009, from around 20 members to 75. I was shown a group picture of all of the fursonas in this country of 5.2million people. Dragons and wolves are the most popular while there are some crazy hybrids too, specifically a dragon-husky, not sure how that works.

There are quite a high number of fursuiters here, how they can do it in this oppressive gear is baffling. The heat hits you whenever you go outside and you are a wall of sweat after just five minutes in it, such is the humidity. The evenings are pleasant but during the day it's borderline unbearable and you need to seek respite in one of the air conditioned shopping centres. Their first Fursuit parade will be at month's end attached to a local cosplay event, which are popular here and where the vast majority of furs do their suiting.

There are small cons here too though, there was one last month in a chalet which was attended by FoxAmoore, who was on his way back from Australia. They sound like fun, although a lot smaller than those back home.

The furs guided me to my hotel, the Fragrance Hotel Ruby, one of a chain of cheap hotels in the city. Singaporean prices are similar to the West and hotels are a major expense here. My room resembles something of a shoebox but it's clean and everything works, which is all I really care about. For 10SGD a night, I upgraded to an Executive Shoebox, which gives me free wifi and a kettle. The bed is comfortable but there is that awkward balance between heat and air conditioning when sleeping - the former is too hot and oppressive, the latter too noisy and cold.

Despite the jetlag, my new friends wanted to show me around so we headed off into the Geylang district where my hotel is situated. This is one of the red light areas in Singapore but its far from threatening and indeed not really discernible as a red light area at all. There's a fair bit of neon but mainly it's a tourist and restaurant area, the latter the small local varieties which I love. These tend to be rather ramshackle affairs but with friendly staff who guide you through the meals on offer. I had Wanton noodles with local Tiger beer (the stuff we have on import back home) while we watched a strange Chinese programme with a loud high-pitched kid in it. I think it was a soap opera or something. Ryan, one of the furs, had a can of Kickapoo Joy Juice, a disturbingly named sweet lurid green soft drink.

Singapore is a multi-ethnic country and one which is very harmonious, largely due to strict laws. It's common to see a Chinese temple immediately adjacent to a block of flats and round the corner from a mosque. This is because Singapore is based on immigration from the days of its founding as a British trading post in the 1820s. The vast majority of furs are of Chinese origin though, typically middle class, which is sociologically interesting. I must find out more about why this is.

After our meal, some new furs joined us - I met nine in total, they were arriving and departing throughout the day - and we headed over to Ryan's parents' dessert shop inside one of the shopping malls on Esplanade, which is downtown. We were running late and arrived a little after 9pm, but thankfully they kept the cafe open for us and we were soon tucking into soya been dessert - a gelatinous milky semen like substance - and waffles coated in chocolate and strawberry ice cream. These desserts were on the house, which was very kind of them, and I had an interesting chat with them about their cafe and things like that.

With time pressing, we headed back to the hotel shortly afterwards, with talk turning to global politics, finance and why it's impossible to see stars in Singapore due to the light pollution. It was past 11.30pm when we all split, seven hours later, not bad considering the timezone differences I thought as I headed wearily to bed to catch up on my sleep.