South East Asia Bound


Advertisement
Singapore's flag
Asia » Singapore » Boat Quay
July 20th 2013
Published: July 23rd 2013
Edit Blog Post

After we said our goodbyes at Chicago Airport with my brother and his girlfriend Brittany, we boarded our plane for what turned out to be the longest flight either of us had ever done......it ended up being around 20 hours (15 hours and 50 minutes from Chicago to Hong Kong and then another shorter flight of around 4 hours from Hong Kong to Singapore) and the secound part was spent with a screaming toddler sat just in front of us, thank god he wasn't like that on the first plane!

The last couple of days in North America were spent with family and friends as we probably won't be seeing them for another year or so. The second to last day some news came through that a friend from my old regiment had died 4 years after he had lost his leg and sustained other injuries in Afghanistan, so that was pretty shocking especially as you don't expect to here that so long after we've come back from tour!

But anyway we eventually arrived in Singapore and the heat just hit us straight away, the humidity there was crazey! even so late at night which is when we turned up. We had chosen Singapore to be our first stop, not only because it was the cheapest flight we could get, but because aswel we knew that we would be suffering from jetlag atleast a bit, and we definately did feal it, as by the time we got there we had missed a full day and were ahead by a good few hours. So the next few days were spent trying to get back into another ruitine.

Singapore itself is just like another city really, but a cool one at that, it's not that big really but there was still plenty for us to do during the 5 days that we were there. Our hostel (The Prince Of Wales Backpackers Hostel) was right along the water at Boat Quay, and right in the middle of where everything is happening, it's on a little street where no vehicles can go and there are bars and restaurants all the way along and this is where it seems to be that every Expat in Singapore comes to, so them along with backpackers and holliday makers, it makes quite a crowd and the place is heaving with people in the evenings.

The
Sentosa IslandSentosa IslandSentosa Island

The most southern point of mainland Asia
first two days were spent just us being lazey pretty much, we still went out for a few hours exploring the nearby streets but the jetlag and the heat just made us feal knackered quite quickly, and it seemed to rain a fair bit those first few days so it didnt matter as much that we wasnt out and about constantly. We did manage to visit a couple of different Hawker markets though, which are basically a large food court full of different food vendors and they are deffinately worth a visit if you are coming over this way........it certainly makes a new experience aswel, as some of them seem to be primarily for the locals, and it seems that the people that own the food stalls at these speak very little English unlike the rest of the people who live in Singapore, so the time is spent trying to work out from pictures what you are ordering......as all the writing on the signs is also not english, which is nice in a way as it's nice to be somewhere thats different and doesn't cator mainly for us westerners. However even by looking at the pictures of food can be
Jack, Grant, Jade and BrittanyJack, Grant, Jade and BrittanyJack, Grant, Jade and Brittany

Leaving for Singapore
pretty tricky so you could just end up geting anything, as i found out on 2 occasions, in the end at one point not even pointing to a picture could help me order food and a local ended up ordering for me! I ended up with pork ribs and noodles (or mainly bone with a little meat on depending which way you looked at it) which turned out to be pretty good, and this seems to be the cheapest places to get food at aswel as i ended up paying around £1 for a fairly big meal.

The hostel we stayed at is a nice basic little place situated above it's own bar, and the people here are so friendly, we got to know a few of them quite well (as well as you can in 4 to 5 days) and spent the next few days with some of them. We ended up spending one of the days on Sentosa Island, which wasn't very far from where we were staying. It's so easy and really really cheap to get around by metro and other means, so we got there in no time, we even managed to get the sky
ride across to the island, which was pretty much just a Gondolla, so we did manage to get some good views of Singapore aswel of the island from above. Sentosa Island is really small in comparison, but it has so much there, even a Universal Studios! we didn't go in though just because it would have worked out too expensive and there was loads of other things we wanted to do so we wouldn't of had the time anyway.

So we spent a very hot sweaty day exploring the beaches and surrounding area, this is also where the most southern point of mainland Asia is, so it was pretty cool to go there. Theres loads of beach bars and other activities you can do here aswel, they have an old fort at one end of the island which was held by the British, and where we surrendered to the Japanese in the Second World War but we didn't get that far along the Island as the heat had just killed us.......so we got a few beers and had a drink in the shade on the beach instead! Not bad really.

That evening was spent again with some of the other guys from the hostel, we got something to eat and drank yet some more on the edge of the Sigapore River just by the hostel so it turned out to be a good night......even though i think we all suffered the next morning, just because drinking alcohol and sleaping in an oven of a room just don't really go together too well.......however me and Jade still made ourselves get up at a reasonable time and we spent our last day trying to find a bus that could take us to our next location....which we found eventually! and so then the remainder of the day was spent in the Arab Quarter of the city and then on to Little India, both of these areas are really strange as you walk into them as both really feal like you are in those places, surrounded with Mosques and Temples and plenty of small quirky shops along with streets amongst food stalls aswel. That evening we had decided not to drink as we were catching an 8:30 am coach, so instead we headed to nearby Marina Bay to have a look around as we hadn't been there as of yet, and thought we would watch the light and laser show from Marina Bay Sounds......but once we got down there we found what seemed to be a massive show, which mainly had their armed forces taking part in, which ended with one of the bigest fireworks displays i've seen. So it was definately worth the walk down there.

Sunday, the moving day, seemed to just jump up on us, and once again we were checked out of our hostel and heading to the coach station to be taken to Melaka in Malaysia, which was supposed to be around a four hour drive, or so we were told, but the driver seemed to want to get there very quickly so were were here in no time at all.....he even decided we were leaving 45 minutes early so it was a good thing we had turned up early! There ended up being only 4 of us on the coach, so im guessing, to the driver, anyone else who was booked on this coach was late and so we left!

We had no problem geting through the boarder crossing and were into malaysia in no time......even though i think the Malaysian boarder guard would have liked it if jade had stayed as he seemed to really like her name (Jade Lee Francis) i think he called her Jet Lee at the passport control at one point and pulled a few kung fu posses before letting her through......so it seems there will never be a dull moment in Asia! haha.

So we arrived at Melaka coach station a lot earlier than we had thought.......and the first thing we saw when we arrived was.....Tescos!! Now Melaka is a UNESCO world heritage site so before we got here we thought we were coming to a small old town and so were pretty suprised when we turned up by a Tescos superstore, but anyway as we got off the coach we were met by a very little old Malaysian guy who seemed to be very excited that we were letting him take us in his taxi to our new home for the next few days.....this journey was eventful in itself as i thought on more than one occasion as we were driving along that the taxi was about to fall apart around us as we made it along the busy streets of Melaka, but we got there in one peice and are now in a nice little hostel right next to Chinatown which is a really cool place, we're surrounded by so many Chinese Temples all full with people giving offerings to their Gods, so that has been interesting to see. The humidity here in Melaka has definately droped, but it's still hot enough! But i'm sure we will survive the next few days here and hopefully find plenty to do while we're here!


Additional photos below
Photos: 27, Displayed: 27


Advertisement

The Sky RideThe Sky Ride
The Sky Ride

Between Singapore mainland and Sentosa Island


Marina BayMarina Bay
Marina Bay

Part of the armed forces show


Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 16; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0601s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb