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Headed to Singapura (Singapore)
Flying on Singapore Arilines and drinking Singapore Slings as we head to the "Lion City" Singapura, known today as Singapore. SINGAPORE
At the end of April, Larry and I were lucky enough to get a week off at our school (most of our students had time off to study for their midterms), and so we decided to get out of Korea for a bit and head to Singapore! Here are some pictures and stories from our fabulous trip...
Day 1: On our first day in Singapore, we decided to get up early and first check out the area around our hotel (The Golden Landmark Hotel) - Arab Street and the famous Masjid Sultan Mosque. Here, I had to wear a lovely forest-green robe because my clothes were apparently too revealing. We next had lunch at one of the most famous arabic restaurants of this area, known as
Zam Zam's. The food was AMAZING and really cheap too!
After lunch, we decided to buy passes for the Hippo City Bus Tours...which ended up not only being great tours, but also, our main source of transportation all around the city for the next few days. In the afternoon we explored some popular sights, such as the Supreme Court buildings (the old and the new - the new resembled a
flying saucer oddly enough), and then we did some shopping on Hill Street. Afterwards, we joined the "Red Lantern Tour" with our Hippo City Bus pass...which not only introduced us to some awesome shopping and food in the area known as "Marine Parade," but we also got to check out the Geylang District - the "red light district" of Singapore. Shopping, eating, and prostitutes...oh my! Quite a fun tour though, actually! Before checking in for the night, we then went to Bugis Street - another trendy area full of outdoor shopping and eating.
Day 2: This day started a little frantically, as we decided to go back to "Marine Parade" to purchase some birthday gifts for our families. We ended up making it there OK and getting everything we needed, but a couple hours later, we were rushing back to our hotel for check-out and we were switching hotels this day as well. We were moving to the King Copthorne Hotel (VERY nice!) and then were meeting a friend that we made through TRAVELBLOG - Patrick - for lunch in Little India. Luckily for us, Patrick is of Indian descent and so he knew of a wonderful restaurant
to take us to - all the while encouraging us to try new dishes and sharing India's glorious food culture with us. It was a lovely lunch which seemed to end too soon...even though we must have been in the restaurant for a few hours. (To Patrick: Thanks for the wonderful food, conversation, and culture...We hope to meet with you again someday soon!)
After lunch, we continued to explore Little India, as well as took a trip to the Mustafa Center - a HUGE 24-hour shopping center that sold everything under the sun and more. My favorite area though, without a doubt, was the international candy floor...rows and rows of sweets and goodies from all over the world! It was here that we even found our favorite jellies from Australia...and bought a bag or 10. 😊
We finished the day with yet another wonderful tour from our Hippo City Bus pass...this time we did the "Moonlight Tour." This tour took us to Sentosa Island (the beach resort island of Singapore only about 20 minutes away) to see a cute light show on the beach called "Songs of the Sea." After the show had ended, we boarded the bus
again and headed back to our hotel.
Day 3: This day was spent on the lovely Sentosa Island. We left early in the morning, to beat the crazy humidity that usually melted our faces off by noon, but ended up spending most of the day there anyway. Here we got to do many fun activities including luge riding, the sky tower, the butterfly & insect park, and a tour of Fort Siloso (where Japan took over Singapore during WWII). We also enjoyed fish and chips on the beach for lunch.
Once returning back to Singapore, we decided to take in a few sights before dinner. We walked over to the very famous Esplanade Theatres on the Bay to take some photos and look around, and then walked over to the city's most famous "Merlion" on the water. There were so many tourists at both of these places, but we still managed to get a few photos of our own. That night, we headed to Clarke Quay - a long strip of eating, shopping and sightseeing along the river - for dinner and a bum-boat ride. Another wonderful day!
Well, that's about half of our trip...but
the next half will be coming soon! Enjoy!
Love,
Larry & Melanie
Singaporean for the Day: Hello! - "Hello!" (Haha...Even though people from many different nations call Singapore "home," English is still the country's national language!)
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