Advertisement
Published: January 16th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Well we arrived and then had to find the Singapore stopover holidays desk. The girls are starting to get good at airports. Well they love the moving escalators and Changi airport has loads of them.
We found the desk and out came all of the electronic toys. We bought another DS lite in Bali. It is supposed to be for Chloe and me to use, read as Chloe to use!!! I have become an electronic games widower.
Ellie was very excited to try the brain age game with two people. That didn’t last long as she is not very good at the games and kept losing.
If you are ever flying through Singapore with Singapore airlines or Silk air they do a deal called the stopover holiday. We stayed in a huge four star hotel for three nights for the grand total of £168. You even get a load of free vouchers to go to the zoo and other stuff. We even got 50% off of the hotel restaurant prices.
We had fun when we arrived as they had put us in a room with three single beds. After a visit to the reception we had our room changed to one
with a double and a single. They were supposed to bring another bed but the single bed was big enough for the girls to share.
Our first day proper we slept in late and did not a lot. Just before lunch we went to a local food market/ food court. It was a very interesting place and it was full of locals. Chloe and I had already come to the conclusion, separately, that Singapore is like Hollywood or Disney land. So this place was a breath of fresh air. We had food at a very cheap rate compared to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel we decided that we should do a few tours as we were only going to be there for 3 days. The first was on what is supposed to be an imperial junk around the harbour, with a brief stop over at a small island that had a very pretty Chinese temple on.
The next day we had arranged to have breakfast with the orang-utans. This involved dragging our very tired bodies out of bed and being in the lobby at 8 am to catch the bus. Given the fact that we are
mostly lazy getting the four of us out of bed at that time was difficult to say the least. Besides which we are supposed to be on holiday. Believe me when I say it was well worth it. The zoo has to be one of the best I have ever been to. Most of the exhibits are well thought out and, mostly, very spacious. Unfortunately we had to catch the bus back to the hotel for 1.
Upon arrival back at the hotel the girls were insistent that they go in the huge swimming pool that is on the roof of the hotel. Chloe want some peace and quite so I took them down and had a swim with them. Aisha is getting quite good at doggy paddle. Ellie wanted to try out her new goggles.
We had to catch another bus at 3.45 pm to go to Sentosa island. This is an island made from reclaimed land off of the south of the main island. It is a resort so is full of people and lots of building works going on. They are part way through building a new Disney land with integrated hotels. We got on to the
Sunset
Sunset over the port.
Taken from the Imperial Junk island with the cable car. This gives a fantastic view of the harbour and all the ships moored up there. Singapore has the busiest shipping port in the world. Our fist stop in Sentosa was the underwater world. We got a grand total of 45 minutes to look around the place. It’s quite good but I thought that the one in Darling Harbour, Sydney, was a lot better. Next was a trip up the Merlion. This is a 37 metre high tower that has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It is based around a legend of the discovery of Singapore. I forget the details but it is something to do with a big lion and a big fish. So the combined them and made a Merlion. I am sure that someone will put me right on my lack of local knowledge!!
Yet again big girls blouse here didn’t go up to the top. I made it to the mouth though and had a picture taken to prove it. Besides Aisha had a tummy ache and didn’t want to go up so I had to take her back to look after her, honest guv.
By
this point it started to spit a little and we were going to watch the sounds of the sea water and light show. Most of the other people in the group rushed in to the gift shop to buy rain coats or umbrellas. I wasn’t going to pay $40 for for rain coats that I would probably never use again and a little bit of rain never hurt anyone. Besides which it was warm, not like that cold rain you get back in the UK!
Both Chloe and I had had enough of being on a package tour and realised that you get herded around like sheep and pay quite a lot of money for the privilege. Oh well it was an easy way to see the place in such a short time. I say all this then we went to the sounds of the sea show. We were blown away by how good the effects and pyrotechnics were. It’s a 25 minute show that is based around a story of a guy that see’s a princess who is a sleep and he want to wake her up because she is beautiful. He has to sing to make this happen.
Fruit bat & Sloth
Battling it out to get the food at Singapore zoo Along the way he helps give some others their powers back. Check the video of it at
youtube The projections are all done on fountains of sea water and the effect is absolutely stunning. All four of us were enthralled through out. Well worth the hassle of the rest of it.
To sum up we felt the place to be a little unreal and fake. Saying that we weren’t really there long enough to see a great deal of it. When we arrived in Phnom Penh it felt like real life again.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.197s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0587s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb