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Published: February 21st 2012
Singapore – Possibly the most relaxed, easiest going and quietest city I’ve been to – Only one way to ensure I get to see the cities dark side I guess, that’s right I booked my accommodation slap bang in the middle of the most bizarre red light district I’ve ever stumbled across.
As you will have hopefully seen from my last blog I had a very quick stay on arrival in Singapore before I went back to Malaysia, after Malaysia I headed back to Singapore for four days before my flight to Australia. Whilst in Singapore I stayed in a couple of hostels and a hotel and it was the first signs that things are starting to get more expensive, It’s fair to say everything here is in the region of two to three times more expensive than what I’ve been used to for the past six months. It was a bit of a shock to the system having to pay the equivalent of 50p for a bottle of water or £7 for a pasta dish but I guess it’s a means of gently breaking me into the prices that are about to follow shortly in Australia.
With these
Singapore - Chiina Town
There were no cars anywhere, ok there's one before you say it!increased prices came the other perks and familiarities that I know from back home. Singapore is a very modern city with super cool buildings and amazing services such as the subway that is incredible and the streets are so clean and quiet with so few cars compared to home and certainly not a million mopeds flying around everywhere you walk like Vietnam and Cambodia. It appears to be a very wealthy city with no end of Ferraris, Lamborghini’s and Bentleys driving around, of course I didn’t go to all the areas in Singapore but it was difficult to see any signs of poverty so I’m not sure where they are hiding it.
For my last two days in Singapore Maam flew over to see me meaning we got to hang out together and do all the touristy things which was really nice. As you will see from some of the photos we went to many different areas but in reality it’s such a compact place you can get to all the key sights very quickly and easily. The highlights had to be Marina Bay Sands complete with its evening light show, Clarke Key with its vibrant riverside night life
and incredible ice cream from a local street vendor and just generally walking around Orchard Road and its vast shopping streets along with China town and Little India thrown in for good measure as well.
As mentioned in the title of the blog, the hostel and hotel I stayed in were both located in the red light district of Singapore, basically it was the only area I could afford. However it made for an interesting walk in the evenings. It was very strange, it’s just like any other normal residential road and most of the girls are inside their pimps houses and apart from a slightly glitzy front façade to the house and a purple glow on the inside it just appears there are a load of old men sitting around having a chat. This again seemed so typical of Singapore, no one hassles you about anything, you couldn’t really see the girls but they are there if you want them. It was clearly an area for the wealthy business man because the front of each house had a steady turnover of incredibly nice top end sports cars every time I walked past.
In reality we didn’t really
do too much here in Singapore because basically there isn’t that much to do and what there is to do is quite costly. There is an area called Sentosa Island with a Universal Studios and various other theme park related attractions, I visited the island to walk around but I didn’t really fancy the attractions having done something similar in the US a few years back. It was a good night and I got to see the end of the firework display and some people attempting the indoor free fall experience but that was about my lot.
After a very nice four days in Singapore where I got to see Maam, eat some great Indian food and take in a very modern city with beautiful buildings and many interesting sights it was time to say goodbye and get ready for my flight to Oz. I had a twenty hour day ahead of me because of the waiting around between my connecting flight so I’m sure it’s going to be a slow and boring few hours ahead, bring on Australia where my starting destination is Melbourne. I have been very lazy at this point, the lonely planet has not even
been opened so I’m doing something I’ve yet to do on this trip so far and turning up blind, let’s see how this new approach goes????
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