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Published: September 14th 2006
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Tuesday 5th September Laura - First of all, Happy Birthday to big bro, aka pompom, aka Thomas!! Hope you had a nice day.
We had an early start today to catch our bus to Singapore. We were up before dawn. Frequent readers will know this doesn't agree too well with us! Anyway, bus caught, we arrived into Singapore shortly after midday and made our way to a hostel in Bugis, Little India, recommended by Lara. We passed a few impressive looking mosques on the way. The hostel didn't quite meet up to our high expectations, with the woman on reception being very unhelpful and miserable, and the dorm cramped full of beds. But, we don't have long to explore Singapore so we reluctantly plonked our bags then headed out to explore.
We took a walk around the Colonial area, where there are a few nice buildings, including the famous Raffles hotel. I was amused that the doormen let me in to take photos of the lobby but asked Paul to leave! They can obviously tell that I'm a classy bird. Other buildings of interest included Parliament House, the Asian Culture museum, and St Andrews Cathedral. We also took
a look at the controversial Esplanade theatres, which really are a bit of an eye sore. But, to be fair, the grey skyscrapres surrounding them were nothing to look at either! Nearby, the view from Raffle's landing point over the river was quite cool. There are a mishmash of colourful, narrow buildings lining the river and they look very quirky and pretty. But the skyscrapers that surround them kind of spoil it all. Paul decided that the time was right for an ice cream sandwich (a Singapore speciality!) and apparently enjoyed it! Urgh!
Singapore seems to be a very clean, modern city. And it's very Western, so you can hardly tell you're in Asia. I'm sure it would be a very nice city to live in, but doesn't really have much to offer us. I'm glad we only ended up with one night here, because I think we may have got a bit bored if we stayed much longer. I think we managed to see most of the sights this afternoon.
Paul - Well, virtually all the sights as we were heading to the Night Safari this evening. It's consistently voted the top attraction in Singapore and so
expectations were, naturally, very high.
Caught the bus over and had a bite to eat in the hilarious safari themed cafe before heading out into the safari itself. It's basically a zoo at night time, but I don't think that really does it justice. They have done an excellent job of setting out the animal enclosures to make it look like there are no barriers between you and the animals.
The best "experience" for me was definately the "walk-through bat sanctuary" although not sure Laura will echo my comment. Readers will be disappointed to note that there were no bat/hair related incidents during the walk through. However, shrieks/screams were DEFINATELY present.
A quick watch of the "Creatures of the Night Show" resulted in a fool being made out of me! Now, how was I supposed to know that the crazy guy at the back with the snake was part of the show and wasn't about to be escorted out by security as I exclaimed to Laura!?!?
After we'd "awh" and "ahh" 'd over the animals great and small we were ushered out of the park as it was midnight and to bed.
Wednesday 6th September Paul - Second and last day in Singapore and that's more than enough. The city is very clean and pleasant but far too sterile for my liking. It'd be a nice place to live but there's basically not a lot to see at all. I get the feeling that we have seen all it has to offer in the 36 hours we've been here. People who don't appreciate any sort of culture, however, will obviously see it as a highlight of Asia.
So we would be heading over to Sentosa Island today, via the cablecar, and going to Underwater World. Cable car wasn't great as the views of Singapore are horrible - ugly buildings and a huge port and that's it! Sentosa Island, I gathered, is supposed to resemble Disney World but really it's not a patch on good old Walt's magical land.
Underwater World was good fun for the hour that it lasted but it could really have done with more exhibits. The 90 meter escalator under the ocean is a really cool and well done exhibit but some of the others are a little shabby. Overall I was disapointed with it as it's supposedly one
of the top things "to do" in Singapore.
After taking a swift peak at Dolphin Lagoon we headed back over on the cable car and back to our hostel. Laura and I got packed and we headed over to the airport!
Amusingly we had a great time at the airport waiting for our plane and received a nice surprise when we boarded the plane that there was hardly anyone on it! So reclining would be no problem at all! Watched 'Nacho Libre' (which is terribly rubbish) before playing a bit of Super Mario (ah the wonders of modern airplanes) and then falling slowly asleep.
Not sad to be leaving Singapore although glad we saw the sights for a day as we enjoyed it but that really is long enough! Can't believe Asia is over (for now - we'll be back no doubt about it) although Thailand (especially Thailand, completely overrated) and Malaysia were a huge letdown after the highs of Cambodia, Vietnam and China. Malaysia was a lot more enjoyable than Thailand but anyway tomorrow we would be waking up to the sights and sounds of Syndey, Australia!
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KT
non-member comment
Call that a shark? It's a FISH!
Are you sure that's an ice cream sandwich? looks like a rather large spam sandwich to me, surely much more up your street Paul, being northern and everything (although, worryingly, Mark's mum used to make him fried spam and chips for his tea. It WAS the 80s, but still). It's friday afternoon and i'm sat with a glass of wine at my desk - apparently this is what being in fashion is all about. Off to a London Fashion Week show next week though! Beat that you globe wondering hippies! mwah mwah darlings