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Published: April 27th 2008
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The flight only took 3 hours but we slept most of the way. The bus journey through Manila and the countryside in the Philippines wore us out. We arrived at the Changi International Budget terminal late at night but surrounded in festive cheer. Trees lined the walkways, adorned with brightly coloured baubels. The next shuttle bus to the city was departing in nearly hours so we opted for the taxi option. This turned out to be cheap enough and brought us direct to the door of our hostel.
Over the past 8 months or so we’ve always landed in a town and found a room on spec. Thinking it a good idea to book ahead for a big city like Singapore, we checked out rooms online. Apparently the night before was not enough though unless we planned on paying 10 times our normal budget room rate. Finding a bed at all became a worry so we ended up staying in a 12 bed mixed dorm in the Little India district.
The hostel, The Inn Crowd, was in a great location and seemed a really nice place to kick back and chill out or stop for a night or two.
The rate included breakfast in the morning so Ade got to work in the kitchen for the first time since our cooking course in Chang Mai, Thailand, whipping us up some peppered scrambled eggs and toast.
With one day to explore Singapore we had a serious day of jam packed sightseeing ahead of us. Having done our research we decided on a few highlights; Sentosa Island and the aquarium, Clarke Quay, junk boat trip down the river and a Singapore Sling at the famous Raffles Hotel Long Bar. We found our way to the MRT (mass rapid transit) Little India station nearby taking in the Indian eateries and shops lining the way.
Ultra modern looking, tiles and LCD screened timetables, the station lived up to its reputation. The tickets were plastic cards and a dollar was returned when the journey complete. Harbour Front was our stop where we boarded the skytrain ticket booth. Decided on a combo $40 ticket, including return on the cable car, underwater world, dolphin lagoon and park entrance fee, we sat back and watched the huge dockland drift past below us on one side and the impressive skyline touched the clouds on the other.
Different coloured buses took different routes through the Island and came regularly enough. Overhearing a conductor telling some tourists a dolphin show was starting in half an hour saved us a lot of time so we hit that first. The crowds were big and shade was small but the show was entertaining. Especially the commentator announcing Our Big Boy Jumbo any time the star performed a trick. He was just as good as the other dolphins but bigger and pink.
Underwater World was our next stop and it was brilliant! It had so many attractions. We watched little bamboo shark embryos nearly hatched, pet baby blue spotted sting rays and porcupine fish in the petting pool, Ade caused a feeding frenzy in the ray pool with little fish chunks he bought for $5 and we saw all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures. Except of course the giant crabs, they were disgusting! They reminded us of Starship Troopers or Star Wars.
Best of all though, Ade donned a scuba unit and entered the main display tank to feed Gracie, the rescued Sea Cow. After the crowds dispersed Ash was called back stage through an emergency exit to
meet Gracie up in the pool where she comes to play. We stayed back there for nearly half an hour talking to her keeper and playing with her. She is so friendly and her skin is so smooth although her whiskers are not so attractive on a lady. Although, how attractive does a lady who’s known as a Sea Cow have to be?
Leaving Gracie behind finally, we took our return cable car back into the city in search of Clarke Quay. It was no problem to find at all. We walked through several shopping centres all decorated in festive cheer and playing Christmas tunes. It was dark by now and the Quay was all lit up creating a lovely, almost magical atmosphere.
Bars and restaurants lined the water so we chose one and had a few scoops admiring the view and pondering relocating to work here. We decided to keep it in mind for the future and continued on to jetty to catch a junk boat trip up the river to Marina Bay. The view of the CBD as we rounded the bend was awesome as was cruising around Raffles Place and the Fullerton Building. Boat Quay
is lined with Chinese shophouses which have been carefully conserved. They are not all the same height which dates back to the days when a man wealth was displayed by the height of his roof. Today they’re filled with trendy nightclubs, bars and more restaurants.
Our boat was helmed by and ancient but really friendly man who hardly spoke a word of English but offered to take out photo at every point of interest with an eagerness to be envious of. He was especially invigorated when we arrived at the Merlion statue, the mascot of Singapore.
Back on land we had one final mission; to drink a Singapore Sling from the most prestigious of bars in town, The Long Bar at Raffles Hotel. Arriving at the wrong side of the hotel, we had to find our way through courtyards and halls of finely bedecked ex pats in our baggy pants and t-shirts to the bar. Luckily we teamed up with an English lady on a similar mission but who seemed to know where she was going. The bar was very long as you may have imagined from such a name and provided peanuts on each table whose shells
were destined for the floor. Trays of Singapore Slings were carried by ladies and men in long black outfits while fans moved slowly backwards and forwards on the ceiling. The seats were made out of wicker and patrons either obviously tourists or in black tie.
After gorging ourselves on nuts and not wanting to pay for anymore $20 drinks we headed home on foot. 7 Eleven kindly supplied us with some beer and we perched on the high stools outside our hostel watching the people coming and going from the nightclubs across the street. A day isn’t enough to see Singapore but it’s enough to know we want to see more.
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