Welcome to The InnCrowd Hostel Singapore!

The Tribe has spoken.

We started running of what we thought to be THE Backpackers Hostel from ground zero. Totally without experience, zilch, nada. Just from our own experiences, ideals and expectations. More than that, we also relied on the feedback and suggestions of our bunkies and thus, we constantly evolve.

The consolation that the buildings belongs to us makes it less of a pain for us to outfit it the way we want, the way we expect it to be. The decision was the easy bit.

The tricky bit was planning for noise control and additional unobtrusive security measures, but that's done now, it's all good.

Little India Historic District

It's great to see an area evolve by itself. The streetscape of Historic Little India has seen changes over the past months. More street stalls, a proliferation of local eateries, pubs. It's just springing up all over!

Right next door, we've got CountrySide, derived from love and comfort food. It's cafe fare with a twist. The usual grill works, nachos, chips and cheese, pastries, cakes and coffee galore. Throw in your daily dose of macchiato, latte, iced mocha and stuff, made with real coffee beans and you shell out less than half the clams you would at the regular coffee chains. Lunch and dinner menus rotate between local stuff, most of which are 'branded'. Twice as good, half as cheap, literally.

Our regular barbys are held together now as they throw in a slight panache to the whole affair with tables, chairs, candlelights and more importantly, they've got beer! We use to rough it out on the floors or wherever we can find a spot to park our ass.30 seconds crawl from us will bring alkys to the myriads of watering holes. But I have to clarify, making your way back through the thick alcoholic haze will take you slightly longer, that is if you can still catch your bearings. It's a drinking hole with a beer garden in Little India. Backpackers with affiliations gets discounts off list, pick up a discount coupon from us if you don't.

We know alcohol isn't the cheap in Singapore and it does crack the budget, but we GURANTEE, it will be here, let's just say it's for the good of mankind.

That my friends, is EXACTLY how seriously we take our feedback.

The Hostel Evolves

Being quite happy with our country club styled showers and toilets in Ver 2.0, we decided to just go ahead with the building works at our Campbell location. Apparently, it scores big time with our girl bunkies. Although it's been only just over a year since we opened our doors to welcome friends from the world over, renovation to The InnCrowd Ver 1.0 @Campbell is along the way.

Friends

You can't help but feel a loss when people who walk in as strangers (Yes, Andy was strange.) leave as friends. Blinking back tears, we bade farewell to Andy (aka Gecko aka DJ Aspec, and more recently aka Babs Her Vajesty) this afternoon.

Having been with us since December, this wee Scottish lad never failed to offer a cheerful smile, a patient ear or sausage and mash. Discounting the fact that I have to wake up earlier than usual, I will miss him, and his bacon sandwich. He happens to be one of the very colourful character that makes running a backpackers' hostel meaningful.

Life is great.

The Plus of Running a Hostel

I kinda like expected something like this to happen sooner or later. When peeps meet, talk, all sortsa things happen. Occasionally, you hear snippets of conversations. I was privy to one last night which went:

Boy: "Wacha doin tamarr" (thick Aussie Accent.)
Girl: "Dunno."
Boy: "Yeah, me neither."
Girl: "Think it will rain?"
Boy: "Dunno."
Girl: "Yeah, me neither."
Boy: "Wattabout if it don't rain, we git married?
Girl: "Ok, if it don't rain."
Boy: "Duh, ok, it's sorted then. Thanks."
Girl: "You're welcome."

My friends, it did not rain today, and yes, we had our first marriage proposal at the InnCrowd, and of course our first acceptance. I was scratching my head over this. Methinks I was more in shock than the person proposed to. But I also think that in any relationship, effort is also necessary to keep the boat afloat. So if the chemistry is sizzling, and you feel that it's probably the way to go, I'd say go for it! Frivolous it is not. If I decide to spend the rest of my life with someone, I'd like the rest of my life with someone special to start as soon as possible.

Our Walking Tour

Ping took the bunkies on a temple walk starting with the very beautiful Abdul Gafoor Mosque two minutes walk away. I recently learned that the land on which it stands on has a 'wakaf' (I think, I'll double check) status. Meaning that it's permanently designated as a religious site of historic significance. The bunkies were treated to an extra long, extra detailed tour courtesy of the vice-chairman himself on the grand premise. The mosque started off as a building by itself. A manager of a law firm took the initiative of building little huts and shops on the land around the mosque, rented them out, and the proceeds then went into the refurbishment of the present day spectacle.

During the walk to the Chinese and Hindu Temples at Waterloo, our bunkies were introduced to chinese 'chow chien' (Fortune Telling), ice cream sandwich in colored bread and also gave offerings of incense to the gods. Muslim Mosque, Hindu and Chinese Temple, let's just call it insurance.

After a bit 'o break back at the hostel, it was my turn to lead them on a culinary quest. We headed through the thriving thieves market to THE coffeeshop. At this point in time, I have to make one thing sure from today onwards, food is meant to be EATEN. Everyone had a field day taking oodles of pix of the double broiled black chicken herbal soup. Tourist.