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Published: February 12th 2008
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So our final port of call was Singapore. We had spent the past 108 days travelling around 5 different countries and we'd enjoyed every minute of it (ok, maybe apart from the time when Nik got bitten by a spider but definately the rest!). As it was our last 5 days before going back to the 'real world', we shelled out for a decent place to stay as a reward or all of the dodgy accomodations that we had stayed in over our time away.
It was the first time that we had actually been to stay in Singapore. We'd stopped at the airport on numerous occasions as we were going back and forth to different places, but we'd never ventured outside of the airport. But on each stop it was always raining when we looked out of the window - and it was no different when we turned up. We managed to book a nice hotel with an outdoor swimming pool thinking that we could get up and go for a nice relaxing swin in the morning before heading off on a day on exploring but it didn't turn out ot be quite like that. The day we arrived
it was about 15C (thats pretty cold considering the temperature for the last 4 months!) and drizzling. Nowhere on our travels has really felt like England but this was the first! Around 3pm each day the clouds would come and it would rain, not like KL and the sudden monsoon, but just like England with the drizzly rain that slowly soak you to death! We didn't let this ruin our time there anyway. The hotel provided us with some umbrellas to keep us dry and we had a nice four whole days seeing what Singapore had to offer.
By this point Chinese New Year was only about a week away and it very evident with all of the decorations that were up. We had been to several Chinatowns in various places while we have been away, but Singapores Chinatown was one of the best. Right in the centre were lots of small lanes packed with market stalls selling everything from traditional chinese sweets and cakes to the latest absorbant mops - a bit like Delboy but Chinese! It was a brilliant place to spend the evening just wandering around and trying to take in the mayhem!
We did
consider doing some of the 'touristy' sights while we were there, the cable car and zoo were just two, but considering what we had been lucky enough to do over the past month we decided to give it a miss. The shopping again was really good with large shopping malls everywhere but we managed to hold ourselves back which was probably partly down to the fact that we had bought so much stuff in KL! We headed for Orchard Road most of the time as this is the main shopping area in Singapore and where most of the restaurants were located.
Then it came down to the final evening. Nik had planned in her mind what she wanted to do fom day one. Singapore is the location of the hotel where the Singapore Sling was invented. In the early 1900's, a barman at Raffles Hotel, concocted a cocktail that has become world renound and, even though she didn't know what was in it, Nik had decided that she wanted to have one. It was slightly more than we have paid for drinks recently but it was our last night so we loosened the purse strings a little. I'm not
a fan of cocktails really so I stuck with a jug of Tiger beer! Then after the drinks we headed out for a nice meal of burgers, ribs and chips before heaing back to our hotel for the final time. Singapore seemed realy nice while we were there. Even though the weather wasn't brilliant it was nice not to be in really humid conditions which made a change.
Overall we've had a brilliant time. We left home in October and the time has absolutely flown by and everywhere that we went the people were really nice. Thaliand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore have all come and gone so quickly and we've now got to go back to the real world (although thats in Adelaide where its very hot!) and get jobs.
Thanks to everyone who has left us messages over the time we've been away, its been good to hear from you all and make sure that you stay in touch.
Craig & Nik x
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