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Published: September 18th 2009
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Since Qantas (using their budget subsidiary called JetStar) no longer cover the route from Bali to Singapore, they had booked us onto a Singapore Airlines flight instead. We were very impressed by the moist towels, three choices for lunch, unlimited beverages and in flight movies especially since the flight was only two and a half hours. I was only finishing my tiramisu when we began our descent.
We had heard that Singapore was a very practical, functional and efficiently run city, the first example of this was at the airport. Travellators everywhere, very clear signs, no queue at immigration, and only half an hour to the city by train. We then transferred lines to the one that brought us near to our hostel and 5 minutes later we were stepping out into the Little India area of Singapore. Why stay in Little India, you might ask? Well if there’s one thing that we like almost as much as a Chinese curry (the ones in Ireland, not the stuff the call curry over here) it’s an Indian curry and loads of naan to soak up the sauce. And also because most of the hostels are around this area and it is
easy to get to all the main tourist spots from there. Having arrived in the evening, a walk around little India was all we had time for before hitting the sack.
The next day we had planned to do a bit of sight-seeing so off we went out into the early morning sun. From our air-conditioned room, it seemed to be a lovely bright morning and we got about 5 feet from the door of the hostel before the humidity hit us like a steam train. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, we knew it would be hot and sticky in Singapore, but you can’t quite appreciate what it feels like until you experience it. Needless to say, our plan was adjusted slightly to take in more public transport, walk less, make more stops for cold drinks and visit a few more shopping centres in between for the AC.
Despite the humidity we managed to get around to quite a few tourist spots. We almost wore ourselves out just walking around the huge shopping centres! The highlight of the first day was a ‘flight’ on the Singapore Flyer. It is a huge observation wheel (they claim
it is the largest in the world) with amazing views over the city and you can even see as far as Indonesia on a clear day.
The next day we decided to take it easy, figuring that dehydration would make our trip to the Night Safari that evening a lot less enjoyable. So we hit the shops for a few hours and then it was time to catch a taxi to the zoo. First we caught the tram around which had some really informative commentary and then we walked along three trails which bring you really close to some of the animals. It was also good to see that unlike Dublin Zoo, which is quite frankly a disgrace, the enclosures are huge and really mimic the natural environment. So much so that the commentator on the tram said on numerous occasions ‘oh we only have two of them (which animal we were looking at) here tonight, the others must be up the other end somewhere‘. It made the experience all the more enjoyable knowing that the animals had plenty of space to roam around.
The next day we decided to pack in as much as possible of the
sites we had left to see. We walked via the Arab district (amazing silk scarves!) to Bugis St, which is a huge street market. Then we headed out to Sentosa Island for some Luging. Not quite as good as the tracks in New Zealand but still SO MUCH FUN!!! Then it was off to the other side of the Island to visit Underwater World. It is a very impressive aquarium which even has a touch pool where you can (if you are fast enough) touch the ray and some small sharks. The aquarium also features a travellator which you brings you around under the main tank so you can watch the various species swim around you and over your head. Next we were off to the Pink Dolphin show at the Dolphin Lagoon (very pretty and actually pink) where during a 30 minute show they demonstrate how amazing intelligent they are and how easy it is to exploit this for money (you can guess that I didn’t like how small the enclosure was) but the show itself was quite impressive. Once we were back on the mainland we were off to visit the Merlion which is a big statue of
a half lion half fish and is actually an interesting monument. With the light fading we popped over to Raffles hotel, where the cocktail the Singapore Sling was invented, and then off the Clarke Quay (for an O’Brien’s sandwich!!!) before heading back to pack.
Our next stop is the very interesting little city of Melaka and another new country, Malaysia.
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