Day 18: Madeira

Gonçalo couldn't show us around the island since he had to work on this day. So we had to do some explorations ourselves.

Funchal is a compact city, which holds lots of fascinating charm and surprises. The locals were extremely warm and friendly. I thought nobody could beat the Australians in terms of friendliness but the Portuguese on this island, without a doubt, won hands down. Somebody would approach us whenever we seemed lost with a map.

Madeira is the 2nd safest place in Europe after Azores, which belongs to Portugal too. This is the only place during my trip where I could sling my bag on my back without fearing being pick-pocketed.

Although Madeira seems very isolated from the rest of Europe, the quality of living is excellent in Funchal. Wireless internet connections are abundant. There is an even free internet kiosk right in the heart of the city! Roads are well-paved and bus transportations services are well connected. The people are well-dressed, reflecting their comfortable standard of living. The type of cars that they drove meant that they were pretty well-to-do.


The town centre. Near this area, there's a free internet kiosk which is opened for everyone. Each person is entitled to access for an hour. Since it's free, 不用白不用。 After being absent from the connected world for such a long period, it was nice to be back online again.

It was raining the whole morning. So basically, we spent most of the time seeking shelter.

We took a bus to the other side of the city where most hotels are located. As soon as we boarded the bus, once again, we felt like animals in an exhibition. They must be intrigued to see us. You can imagine the rarity of Asians on this island.




The hotels offered excellent views of the sea.

The skies cleared a bit and it was refreshing to see the sunlight streaming in streaks through the clouds. It was even shioker to feel the warmth of the sun after living in freezing Swedish weather for such a long time.

The hotels along the sea front are usually for tourists who can afford the high prices. For its prime location, I don't mind paying extra if I can afford.

Then the idea of renting a car struck us. In order to fully enjoy Madeira, having a car is essential. We had 2 more full days in Madeira and we didn't want to be stuck in Funchal. With so much time at hand, we began our serach for the best bargains.

Although I learnt to drive a manual car, our family car is an automatic car. Hence, I'm not exactly very confident with the former. To make things worse, Madeira is so mountainous that driving a manual car is out of the question. Most cars come with manual transmission since they save fuel and are cheaper as well. This is the same case throughout Europe.

Automatic cars are very limited but we managed to get the cheapest deal for a Daihatsu (I thought it's already extinct!!) at 60 euros including taxes for a 24hr rental. Overall, we spent 4hrs in the afternoon car hunting!

As night fall beckoned, we proceeded to the biggest shopping mall in Funchal. The good thing is that it closes at midnight. In fact, a lot of shopping centres in Portugal closes at midnight. I thought that Singapore should do that too.

Shopping is a girl's forte. So with the 2 girls with me, I had to tag along and unofficially became the "fashion adviser".

All shops were having post Christmas sale but the girls didn't engage in a shopping frenzy, partly due to the fact that they had already done so in Spain. Both Mango and Zara slashed their prices and the temptation was just too great for the girls. In the end, they meekliy surrendered and bought a few clothes.

Ah! Another classic example of Impulsive buying.

We headed back to the hostel at around 10pm. Although the streets were empty, we felt absolutely safe and comfortable. After all, this is the 2nd safest place in Europe.

Being a police in Madeira must be very boring.