At the beginning of April I was back in Singapore for a company conference, which ideally should have worked out well for me because I had a couple of second hand cameras to pick up from the office (I don't have anything delivered to the Philippines for two reasons: firstly, I don't think I'll ever get it because anything of any value will probably go 'missing' or secondly, it's is likely to held to ransom pending the payment of outrageous, punitive and exorbitant customs and duty charges (see Coffee Chaos) that bear no resemblance to the real world. The reason for the disproportionate charges, as I believe, is for either those nice chaps holding on to your goods to make some easy cash or if you don't pay, then the crooks nice guys in customs get to keep your goodies.
Unfortunately, one of the cameras I was hoping to pick up was stuck in a warehouse in Singapore. The Singapore post office has a service called Vpost which facilitates buying items in Europe (including the UK although I steadfastly refuse to accept that the UK is in Europe), the US, China and Japan, having them delivered to an forwarding depot in the relevant county whereby Vpost then ships your goods to Singapore for less money than regular courier/postal services. And they do all the customs nonsense as well, rather than having to deal with a separate entity.
Up until now this has worked out rather well for me with no problems and an excellent, efficient service such that you'd expect from Singapore. On this occasion I'd bought two items in the UK. By some eBay or PayPal quirk (don't get me started on PayPal) one item ended up being delivered to my UK address, which was relatively easy to resolve.
The other was correctly delivered the forwarding depot in Warrington. It was even shipped to Singapore within a couple of days but then it all went wrong. Once Vpost receive the item they send you an invoice to pay. Once you've paid, the goods get sent to your address. However, the camera they were invoicing me for wasn't the camera I'd purchased, it was one I'd bought last year and had already taken delivery of. Now, you'd think it would have been relatively simple to just explain to Vpost where this had gone wrong and for them to correct it? Wrong: it took me over 4 months and countless e-mails to get my camera (which I still don't have and won't have until I visit Singapore again).
I've often wondered what the V in Vpost stands for. Now I think I know:
The upshot of this was that I wasn't able to get my sticky mitts on the camera (a Nikonos V if you must know - with V standing not for 5 but for Very nice underwater camera) when I went to Singapore, which was rather disappointing and so had to rely on my phone (crappy shots on a HTC Wildfire) and a Yashica Dental Eye III, whose furthest focussing distance is around 2ft (don't ask why I have a Yashica Dental Eye III) so is limited to macro photography.
I also picked up (and nearly strained my back as it's a behemoth of a camera) a Fuji GX680 II. Now that was something I was looking forward to playing with but, like a kid at Christmas with a new toy and no batteries, this came with no battery pack. I was convinced I'd be able to source one in Singapore but to no avail, despite checking all the second hand camera shops and even Sim Lim for an alternative type.
Hence, most of my weekend was taken up with looking for batteries for the GX680 and very little in the way of actual photography.
On Sunday morning I was up very early and went for a walk around the Singapore Botanic Gardens, something I'd been wanting to do for ages. Going early was definitely the right thing to do because as the morning progressed the place just became increasingly mobbed, which is hardly surprising considering Singapore is the world's third most densely populated country (it used to be second but it's relegation to third place hasn't been because of a reduction in population, in fact far from it as it's looking to increase the population numbers, but it's slip to 3rd place is probably due to a large influx of mainland Chinese into Macau).
The gardens were fantastic, immaculately kept and tended, as you'd expect from Singapore. In one section there were sprinklers emitting a fine spray creating a mist to water the plants and with the low morning sun creating a dapple light through the trees the whole place looked enchanting and just like you'd imagine a rain forest to look like.
Here are some photos - apologies for the poor quality but don't blame me, blame HTC and Vpost.
For lunch, as is now par for the course, Sunday was spent having champagne brunch in the Prego Café at the Fairmont Hotel. As usual it involved too much food and too much champagne and so a lazy sleepy day was had for what remained of the day.
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| Mmmmm! Any room for dessert? |
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