Singapore

Greetings. We finally have left Geelong/Yarram and completed our five days in Singapore. We managed to fit in most tourist attractions while there and did our fair share of sweating in the stupid humidity. We went to:

DAY 1 - Got in at 5:30am after being in transit for about 12hrs so we took a taxi to Mark and Tracey's house, met Mark, then crashed until about 12pm. Then we went out to Sentosa (an island underneath the mainland of Singapore) which had a kind of theme park mainly aimed at tourists. We went super fast down a massive hill on a Luge (as seen on Getaway) and took a high chair lift. We didnt realise how high it was going to be up until we were up the top of it and got scared. Python holding was available for $5 but they were too massive for us to try. That night we went to Geylang where it was a nice contrast to the richer area of Singapore that we were staying in. Andrew's freind Tex was staying there so we went to check it out. Mark (who we were staying with) warned me to keep close of Andrew at all times and we realised why when our taxi pulled up. Andrew was getting female (and lady-boy) attention from left right and centre (geylang being known for its prostitutes etc). Tex was single so he got many more offers than Andrew. So naturally we sat down there and had dinner to observe the sights and all that was going on. After a local dinner of food we hadnt seen before (eating huge amounts for about $5 each) we took a taxi to a tourist strip along one of the citys Quay's. It was lit up with fairy lights and full of white people so we found the least touristy thing there and enjoyed the atmosphere of a very quiet karaoke bar. Then we went home and slept.

DAY 2 - Started the day off with breakfast cooked for us by the house "helper" Becky, who was also responsible for making our bed, tidying our room, and washing and ironing our dirty clothes. Awesome!! Then choofed off downstairs and watched Disneys 'Enchanted' on DVD (cop it Ash) as it isnt out in australia yet. They had a big pond down near the tv room that was home to massive fish and about 4 turtles who kept trying to escape. Afterwards we tested out the public transport which turned out to be incredibly reliable and efficient. Awesome!! we went to the main drag called Orchard Road and checked out the shops along there for a couple of hours. All the big brand named stuff was there so things were pretty expensive. We bought 1 thing and that was hair ties for Jess in a shop with about 14 shop assistance and 3 customers. After that we went to China Town which wasnt bad. Crazy bunches of stalls, great food and juice stalls and some nice buildings. I (andrew) got sick with a head cold so we went home after that.

DAY 3 - Today we went to Jurong Bird Park. It was awesome and we had way too much fun. Halfway through the day it started pouring with rain and we had no umbrella so we were running between exhibts and getting drenched on the way. We paid our $2 to get a cup of bird food and got attacked by a heap of parrots which was a lot of fun, and we got to go through a lot of walk-through enclosures. One bird kept trying to eat my leg and shoe. There was a great 'Birds of Prey' show at the end of the day featuring both australia and americas largest eagles, vultures, hawks and owls, all of which flew amongst the audience watching. The Bird Park took about 4 hours to do so we were pretty spent and went home. and slept.

DAY 4 - Another big day, we started at the Singapore National Museum and had a head-set audio tour of the exhibits which contained so much information there was no way we were going to hear it all. We learnt a bit about Singapores fashion, film industry, and history. Then on to an Indian run mall called Mustafas in the heart of Little India that apparently began as a few stalls and has grown to take up about three blocks. Its a bizarre place that takes you through every item under the sun all in the one shop. One minute gold watches the next toiletries, the next a tv, then food, then a car? all paid for at the same checkout. Not sure about the car though, we didnt buy one. After that we went to Raffles Hotel. Great building, bad prices and diners. Too many old tourists being boring and too Westernised. We did smash a Singapore Sling each (3 including our friend Tex) and 2 beers for a grand total of $115. Awesome!! we split pretty soon after that, and threw a few extra nutshells on the floor to get our moneys worth (the floor is coated in nutshells from the diners). Then back to Orchard Road where we checked out some big shopping malls, ate some good food and went to a couple more over priced pubs including Muddy Murphy's, full of boring white people so we went home. and slept.

DAY 5 - Last day so we had to get in the Singapore Zoo. Probably one of our main highlights we got very close to lots of animals including the elephants, monkeys, lions etc. Great enclosures for the animals and fun to walk around in except the humidity. Again it poured down and still no umberella so we stared at snakes for about 45mins. The elephant show and the underwater shows were cool.
So before we made our way to the airport we went out one last time with Mark and his family at a local food place to have tea, which left both Jess and I feeling terrible on the plane.

So thats all Singapore, we are now in Dubai airport. We just watched Spiderman 3 on our ipod and have a measly 14 hours til our plane leaves! yipee. It was nice to get onto emirates and have some inflight entertainment (100+ movies) but the food stunk. We might try and get out and see the city now if they let us.

Bye Bye

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