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Published: January 17th 2010
Singapore Surprise!
Atlast it happened!Our first abroad visit together..Me & Sonu!Its been five trips for me & one for her so far, but on none of them we were together.Its been our wish ever since to travel together on a foreign location & finally it worked out in Oct 2007.I was required to visit SIngapore for official visit.I decided to seize this oppourtunity & take Sonu along. This is what is known to outside world as telling them the truth could have caused some unnessesary discussion in family circles for both of us.And the truth was it was our first personal visit to a global location.
We both used to read the ads by travel agencies operating in the city for many days. One fine day a package by Kuoni Travels caught our attention. We went to their local office & inquired abt the details. Choice was btw Malaysia, Thailand & Singapore.After a detailed discussion among us, the call went in favour of Singapore & that was the deal. A 6 days package for Singapore & Bintan Islands in Indonesia.We opted for Oct r going -24.Exactly a month after I was back from UK & US.We both availed of
our mandatory leaves during this period.The leave was planned in such a way so that we can first couple of days of our leave to prepare for our trip & last couple of days to relax before we resume office.This worked very well & we were ready to fly on thursday Oct 18.Our air tickets were booked on Air Lanka.Route was Mumbai - Colombo - SIngapore & same for return.The Mumbai COlombo flight was scheduled at 4.30 pm.We left home around 11.30 so as to reach airport by 1pm. Idea was to have lunch at the airport & the have fun.We took blessings from Aai Baba & reached airport by 1 pm.Travel agents had their person at the check in counters. But being a seasoned traveller now we did check in on our own.After chck in we had some food at the food counters inside the airport.We were both excited with our first travel together so it was great fun even though the flight was almost 2 hours late. Finally it arrieved at around 6.30 & we left Mumbai airport by 7 pm.It was a small plane & only a handful of passengers.It was nice to have a arial view
of Mumbai towards the eveneing as the sun started to set.We ordered one veg & one non veg snax.The food onborad was fantastic.Flight time was only 90 mins so after light snax soon it was time to land at Bandarnaike Intl Airport of Colombo.At approx.8.30 pm Local time we arrieved in COlombo. And the first impression of the airport was really good.We found it to be better than Mumbai for sure.Its a small airport but very well planned & neat.Next flight was 1.30 am which means that we have almost 5 - 6 hours of waiting period.Srilankan Airways has made some very good arrangements for their travellers. They granted us temp Visas & arranged for our stay during this time at a decent Colombo hotel 40 mins drive from the airport.They have also arranged for our travel to & from the hotel. On arrival at hotel,we were alloted a nice studio room with plush bathroom & free dinner coupons.We checked in & took bath.The dinner was ready. In fact it was time for them to close the kitchen. We had a light dinner there & went strooling around the attached beach. It was night so didnt make sense to go
too near. So instead we relaxed on the pool chairs put up on the sideways.It was a fantastic start to the journey.We never thought that we will get a stay at a Colombo hotel.Nice music being played along the pool chairs, good food..it was like additional bonus.
At around 12.15 the pick up car arrieved at the hotel & dropped us at the airport by 12.45am.Aftre going thru the immigartion we straight marched towards the departure terminal for Singapore.This time the flight arrieved on time & we were quickly onboard.Food again was good but we were feeling sleepy since it was wee hours of morning on Oct 19.When we woke up we were just 45 mins away from Changi airport of Singapore.We landed safely at around 8.30 am.After immigrations & other formalities we came out in the reception area , picked up our baggage & started looking out for our pick up.The person was right there with board of my name in his hand.He took us to his taxi & dropped us the Golden Landmark Hotel in Central SIngapore.Biggest source of income for SIngaporians is tourism related services.Since competition is tough, services are world class & so is infrastructure.We
got a feel of it on our way to hotel.It was superb!
At the hotel,SOTC Co ordinator Mr.Sanjay was waiting for us in the lobby. The official check in time was 1 pm but Sanjay used his contacts to help us checkin immediately.He has got us a plush studio room on the 18th floor of the hotel with some great views of Singapore financial area.We were really tired now by 12 plus hrs of travel, so we decided to get fresh. As Sonu was having bath, I called up Chirag, who was in SIngapore. He is going to play the role of our tour guide for next week.After bath, we ventured out.First stop was money exchange at hotel. We comverted $ 20 to begin with. Exchange rate was 1.45 SGD for 1 USD.It was bright & sunny outside as we walked on the streets of SIngapore towards Mustaffa shopping mall in Little India area.We were pretty excited with the fact that we were actually walking together on foreign location.SOmething that we both dreamt of for quiet some time now.We were starving now so we located a decent Indian joint opposite & had stomuchfull of lunch,consisting of dosas,parathas & tea.It
was noon time now & weather prediction was that of light showers. That prediction turned out to be true & it started raining by the time we came out of hotel.We decided to take shelter inside Mustaffa.Its a big shopping complex with every imaginable shopping item available on its 3 storey building & also at some cheap prices.We felt sad as the SOny camera that we bought in Bombay just before leaving was much cheaper there!!But gone is gone.
Outside it was still raining.We were confused as to where to go next so we called up Chirag.He suggetsed us to keep inside as rains were expected till early evening.He suggested us to go to Orchard Road..the street which is most famous as shopping paradise of SIngapore.It has some of the biggest malls of asia there.We hired a cab from outside Mustaffa which dropped us to Orchard Road outside Singapura mall.It was a huge 6 storey mall.If I was to compare,atleast 3 times bigger than Inorbit with some exclusive brands shops inside.We did some window shopping & thats all.B'use we were not there for shopping but to explore.After getting a feel of that place,we then decided to visit Singpore Zoo
& Night safari.By now, the rain has also stopped.
Singpore zoo is located on the outskirts of the city so it took us almost 15-20 mins of drive to reach to the zoo.Singapore zoo has a nice entrance & is adjusent to Night safari park.Zoo was must & we took combo tickets for zoo & night safari.What we learnt there is Night Safari has been awarded best tourist attraction of Singpore ever since its creation in 2006.That made it interesting for us.Inside zoo, it was loads of fun.They have seperate section for each species of animals like tigers, elephant which is like any other zoo, but what makes it interesting is, all these animals are roaming free on their area.There are no cages.Rather what they have is a deep fence btw visitors walking paths & animal section so that they cannnot escape & at the same time feel free & in their natural surroundings.We wandered thruout..some on foot..some distance in their zoo bus.If we have to rate the top 3 sections which we like there, then it would be White Tigers,Snakes & Orang Ottangs.What made them special, is the set up & space allotted with natural surroundings so that
they donot feel away from their habitat.After enjoying the zoo for almost 2-3 hrs, we made a exit from there. On the way out they have the zoo souveniers shop.Very good collection of gifts of all sizes. Sonu picked up the White tiger stuff toys, which now stands on our bedroom shelves.Now it was around 8 pm & time for night safari to open.Its hardly a few mins walk from the zoo. We got refrshed & entered the safari.Inside it was like carnival.Couple of live shows happening on the small podiums that they have erected on the sidelanes.That night the theme was "Hallowen Party".That means lot of scary people walking by on the pathways.They bump onto tourists when they are least expecting it & scare them. We got the experience ourselves couple of times, but then it was ok. We then even clicked a few snaps with couple of them.At night safari, there are two main attractions. One is night safari show with animals & other is night safari ride,which takes you in a open monorail, inside the jungle, to see animals in their natural habitat.But before we start, we thought of having a quick bite.At a cafe near the
entrance we ordered a couple of burgers & coke.Luckily we got a table also which offered good view of the live shows going around.It was a entertaining snax!!From there we moved on to night show first.There was long queue at the entrance with lots of keos, as lot of people were trying to push themeslves thru the queue.It was painful for us to stand there as we were on our feet for long time now.At last after half an wait, the doors finally opened when the previous show ended. All of us rushed to the open air auditorium.In there, people can seat wherever they want so each one tries for the best place.We also ran & got ourselves a good seat at the centre in the 3rd row.Closer the better.The show was anchored by a local lady, who really managed it very well by keeping the audenence involved at every stage thruout.Main hightlight of the show was a surprise discovery (surprise for audience) of 15 feet python from underneath one of the seats in the audience.What followed then even more thrilling. They invited someone from the audience & made him lift the python..ofcourse the show staff helped him, but that
must have been scary!!It was a good entertainment for half an hour.Frm there we moved on to Night safari ride. Again there was ,ong queue & we were dead tired.We at one time also thought of going back, but then we had a few deep breaths & decided against it. Anyways, this was the last thing on the cards for that day.Fortunately the queue moved fast & we boared one of bogies of that ride in quick time.Its simlier to Safari ride at Borivli National Park...open frm both sides.It also had inbuilt speakers thru which we hear all the live commetary.The tram moves slowly thruout the jungle for half an hour before bringing you to the same spot where you boarded.Since its night time, you dont see anything in natural light, but to help your viewing they have light post erected at many placed from where you can animals eating their food.It includes all variety of them from tigers, lions to hyenas.Frankly we didnt like this to the extent to which we liked Zoo, but nonetheless it was a good experience.On our way out, we chcked out the shops.We did some window shopping, before reaching the taxi stand outside the
zoo.The cabs were standing in queue so our turn came quickly.our body felt really nice inside the cabbie as we were really really tired.The complimntary dinner was available till 10.30 pm at the hotel & we reached there by 10.25 pm.That day we also had a big grp of tourist joining us from India so that delayed the dinner timings a bit. Good for us. We grabbed for ourselves some good tasty indian roties, rice,dal fry sabji before jumping into our bed by 11.30 pm.But before that I downloaded all the snaps & clips from our new Sony camera to our laptop so that the chip is free for the next day.
On Day 2 in Singapore, morning we had scheduled half day tour of city of singapore.This was part of the package.After complimentary breakfast we boarded the tour bus from Hotel lobby area.We had a local lady as tour guide.Th mini bus was occupied to it capacity.From Hotel first halt was at the famous Merlion.On our way we passed thru Robinson Road which is Singapore's FInancial district.Merlion is sybol of Singapore & we were very excited to be there.We were given 20 mins to visit Merlion & return
but we took a bit more as we wanted to took snaps of this world renowed place from all angles.Guide was a bit annoyed but she excused us quickly.From Merlion, tour took us to Little India & from there to China Town.Singapore is inhabited in large majority by Indians & Muslims.They form approx.80 % of Singapore population & remaining % is occupied by Europeans.So we see influence of all three cultures in fSingapore.Indian majority is based in Little India.Similarly Chinese reside in China Town.Tour gave us a good hour at second halt in China Town.In this time we visied a beautiful chinease temple & did some shopping in some souvenirs shops.We got a Merlion replica there.The temple had a beautiful Buddha statue inside.Priests there were constantly enchanting some words..must be there holy shlokas.It was a wonderful experience.After an hour we were the first one to reach the pick up point.From China Town tour took us to Singapore Handicraft Centre which was place for all artificial diomonds showpieces.It was good experience for some time but after that we got bore
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