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Published: December 23rd 2007
7th December - 10th December 2007
Singapore
We were sad to leave Sri Lanka but looking forward to a few days of western style civilisation in Singapore. After a four hour flight we arrived at Changi airport or should I say shopping mall and like all good shopping malls it took us ages to leave. We took the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) into the city which is like the underground in London (i.e. goes overground too!). The MRT is efficient, clean, shiny and orderly - a pretty good description of Singapore itself! Hostel we stayed at was also many of these characteristics and as mentioned in the previous blog we were staying in dormitories - the first time so far on our travels. We were sharing with a German couple who spoke Australian English and a very Irish couple. They talked a lot but we could have had worse room mates!
First thing we did was head to the shopping mall that specialises in electronical equipment as our zoom lense was knackered. We bought a replacement lense, two UV filters, a polarised filter, a camera bag and spare battery - well, it was cheap! We then purchased The
Roughguide to SE Asia as we had no idea where we were going after Singapore. I could sense it was going to be expensive here and Claire hadn't even hit the clothes shops yet! Before going to bed that night Claire counted a record 42 mosquito bites on her legs!!
The following day we walked for hours and visited Raffles Hotel and the free museum inside which was quite interesting. We saw a brilliant art display in an underpass near the theatre district which was done by schoolchildren. It was sponsored by these 'Croc' shoes and so they were incorporated into many of the designs. From there we saw the mythical Merlion statue spewing water back into the river. Chinatown was as you would expect it to be and Clarke Quay is a trendy part of town with expensive bars and restaurants - we didn't stay there long. Finally a walk through Fort Canning Park and we returned to our hostel for a quick clean. We headed back out for a free Xmas lights open bus tour along Orchard Road and its ridiculous number of shopping malls. The lights were ok but the bus ride was fun with Xmas
music blaring out from under our seat - we felt very festive but it is still quite hard to believe it is Christmas most of the time!
The next day was great. We had the most enjoyable Whopper Meal each at Burger King (first taste of fast food in over three months - although KFC, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Subway quickly followed over the next few days), followed by shopping at TopShop for Claire and a movie at the cinema (The Golden Compass). We could have been back home, especially as it was raining all day. I even got to watch West Ham beat Blackburn 1-0 although it was a 12am kick off here and I was struggling to stay awake - not a great game.
An early start the next morning as we had booked a bus to Mersing on the East coast of Malaysia. Tiring ourselves out walking the length and breadth of Singapore, not being able to relax properly in our dorm and three nights of interrupted sleep was possibly a contribution to the reason behind this choice of destination as five minutes before boarding we discovered a piece of information that would have been useful
the day before when purchasing the ticket. November to February is monsoon season on the East coast! Oh well, how bad could it be?
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Jimbo
non-member comment
Crikey!
Fun! Fun! Fun! Not jealous one jot...OK a little bit. Have a great time.