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Published: March 21st 2011
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Clarke Quay
View from our hotel window Sunday 13th March
We have now reached the last leg of our trip with 4 days in Singapore before our return home. We say our fond farewells to Mike, Sara and Tamsin before boarding our 4.30 pm flight from Melbourne. We fly on the latest A380 plane which has been acquired by Qantas – as some of you will remember these planes had recently been grounded as part of the engine fell off one! – I’m nervous enough without this sort of thing but luckily we are in seats where we can see the engines quite clearly!!. Anyhow the planes are a great improvement being quieter (even with all 4 engines), having more leg room and with upgraded TV monitors. Having secreted one or 2 extra bottles of beverage we arrive in Singapore at about 10.30pm.
Our hotel is on Clarke Quay which is a very lively waterfront area of the city alive with hotels, bars and restaurants. When booking in the receptionist asks us if we would like to try something a ‘little different’ – my eyes perk up – in for a penny in for a dollar – anyhow she explains that recently they have adapted a
Lunchtime refreshment
More than enough Tiger Beer few rooms to be open plan i.e. no dividing walls between bedroom and bathroom – all glass – we say yes (with the proviso we can change our minds) and in addition we get a free upgrade to one of their premier rooms with great views over the quay. The room is great and the saving grace is that there is a pull down blind that can be used to save our modesty if so required!
We spend our 1st day getting to know the place and do a hop on/off bus tour which takes us to many of the places of interest including China Town, Little India, the harbour front and passing some of the amazing skyscraper buildings which seem to be springing up or under construction everywhere. We pass by the Marina Bay Sands hotel which was the most expensive hotel in the world to build - it is an enormous 3 towered building with what looks like a gigantic surf board lying across the top – the open air swimming pool and palm trees are situated on the very top of this building - most bizarre. During one or our hop offs we decided a beer
Marina Bay Sands Hotel
The most expensive hotel in the world to build - check it out on the internet if you get the chance - amazing. Sadly not where we stayed! was in order and stopped at a street food hall offering Tiger beer 3 for $15 when we asked how much 2 would cost we were told $12. Always up for a bargain we went for the 3 only to find it was not 3 or the small bottles but the large, oh well!
On the 2nd day we go on a guided walking tour of China Town which is very interesting and we learn all there is to know about Chinese immigration and how poorly these early immigrants were treated by the Colonials. We get a great insight into Chinese medical remedies including a visit to a shop providing all sorts of weird and wonderful things to cure any ailments you can think of - even mine!! During our walk through the lively market stall areas we passed a stall offering massages and overhear a western ‘gentleman’ very quietly asking the lady on the stall whether she provided any ‘extra’ services to which her very loud reply, making sure all around could hear, was “ no sex or hanky panky here” – the ‘gentleman’ quickly made his exit with amused bystanders looking on.
We later take a
Singapore Flyer
A Long way down ride on the Singapore Flyer which apparently is the largest big wheel in the world (so they say) and on a clear day you can see both Indonesia and Malaya – unfortunately it was not that clear when we went on as a storm was beckoning – still – it was bloody high and the views I guess justified the vertigo! A quick mention here about the weather – well before we arrived the forecasts were for storms every day although the rain would be warm. Luckily the storms were fairly infrequent and whilst we did have a few showers we also had a fair amount of sun – always very hot and humid.
We take a trip to Sentosa on the 3rd day which is a small island to the South of Singapore reached by a monorail/causeway or cable car. The island is a beach resort although the beach itself is man made. Whilst there are some interesting touches we both agreed that it was a bit like a glorified holiday camp aimed more at families and we were not that impressed – the one exception however was a very luxurious hotel on the far corner of the
Cable car to Sentosa
Worried - do I look worried? island. The best part was the cable car journey from the mainland and later on up on to Mount Faber. Once again spectacular views and wobbly knees.
On our last day we take a boat trip along the river and quay which again is an interesting insight into how the city established itself from the river activities over the years. We visit the famous Raffles hotel (no Gin Sling this time as Jude had already had 3 during the last couple of days at cheaper prices) – the museum there is interesting depicting the development of colonialism. Whilst Raffles himself seems to have played a very important part in Singapore’s history with loads of things named after him (a bit like Flinders in Australia) it was interesting to learn that he only spent about 8 months in the country. We then walk to Fort Canning Park which historically housed the military rulers of the country. More recently it was the site of the ‘Battle Box’ which is an underground set of sealed rooms which was used by the British command forces during the defence of the island in WW2 – we went on an unusual tour of the bunkers
Singapore Sling
Jude enjoying one of the three she had! which remain virtually untouched and experienced via actual radio messages/film clips and reconstructed meetings of the last days running up to the British surrender to the Japanese – all very harrowing stuff.
This is our second visit to Singapore and it’s surprising to see how much construction work and development has taken place in such a short time. It is very diverse in culture with the majority of inhabitants being Chinese followed by Indian and Malayans with the remainder being made up of European, American or Australian. It is the food capital of Asia with so many different influences – there are many diverse smells to test your nasal capabilities and we did sample some of the local delicacies although Jude probably enjoyed these a little more than I did (but I am getting a lot braver these days). We still managed a few chips, however, washed down with the odd Tiger beer or 2.
Our plane home from Singapore left at about midnight Thursday and I am finishing this blog at about 33,000 feet – can’t sleep. We have had a great 2 months away and it has been really good to spend some time with Mike,
Raffles Hotel
No Singapore sling here this time! Sara and of course Tamsin but we are no very much looking forward to our return cos we’ve missed you all.
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