I’ve never stayed in youth hostel and in a dorm for many years and to be honest I have been dreading coming here.

Singapore is so expensive for hotels and so we stayed here because it only cost $20 a night. The cheapest hotel would have been around $120.

So I bit the bullet and booked a night. The dorm had 20 beds but only 3 were occupied by young Malay guys.

The hostel is on the edge of the Little India area in Singapore and so there are plenty of places to eat so of course we had to eat Indian food.

We found a place that looked good and smelled good. We had chicken tikka, butter chicken, mutton something which just looked like spicy mince and some naan breads and of course mango lassie. It was great but you always feel like a beached whale after eating Indian food which s a real pity because I love it. I would be the size of a house if I stayed here,

A walk is needed to shift this lump in the gut. We head back to the hotel and have a beer to wash it down.

Jolene, who was on reception before and checked us in has left for the day and Simmy is here instead. We sit and chat for the next few hours and have a beer finding out about life in Singapore. On the surface it looks like a great place. Great shopping, great food, it’s very clean and there is very little crime. When you dig deeper you realise that to live here being millionaire is the norm and not the exception. In fact you need to be a millionaire to live here comfortably. The average car that might cost you $35,000 in Australia will be closer to $100,000 here. Road tax is very expensive although I don’t know the exact cost.

Some of the younger ones want to leave because they feel trapped and not as free as in the west.

Racism is prevalent due to the influx of the Indians and the locals don’t like it.When you travel to countries like Cambodia a lot of the problems are obvious,in Singapore like may of the western countries the problems are not so obvious. For example Australia which is proud to be a multicultural country is very racist. On the surface this might not be evident and but you only need to spend a short time in Sydney to see it at work.

So here we are at the Backpackers Hotel Society,from left to right Pete,Jolene,Simmy and myself. We had a really good time here and I recommend you stay here when you come to Singapore. If you are like me and you like to have your own room and you are scared to try something different like a youth hostel. Stay at the Backpackers Hotel Society, you will have a great experience and maybe it might change the way you travel.

Jolene and Simmy are reason enough to come here.