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Published: February 5th 2010
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On Saturday morning we made our familiar way to the local monorail station, Chow Kit. We had slept in by about an hour and soon realised the LRT (Light Rail Train) just wouldn’t cut it for time. We pulled up a taxi, negotiated the price and loaded our gear in. We made it to the airport just in time to catch our baby plane to Singapore and even managed to smash down some Maccas!
The descending into Singapore was beautiful, there were literally over 200 various ships in the harbour and the water looked so nice. The airport was fully carpeted and extremely clean, you know you’re definitely not in Malaysia when you arrive there.
Arriving at our hostel we were so happy to get into the air-con and out of the immense heat. Singapore is boiling! However, our room was perfect and the hostel was in a pretty good location, though now looking back we wished we could have stayed in Little India. That night we ventured out of Lavender, towards the city and headed to the famous Raffles Hotel. It took us a little while to find our way once we got off the MRT at City
Hall station, but once we got there we knew it was worth it. It’s really beautiful, at night it’s all lit-up and very classy, so we were glad we made the effort to dress up a little. We were supposed to have dinner there but for some reason all the restaurants close at 10pm and we were too late. We were starving so we ate at an Indian restaurant around the corner. There was a small traditional Indian wedding reception being held there that night and it provided great entertainment to our dining.
The next morning we wanted to catch a tour bus which had two trails, one was the city sights and the other was the heritage trail. Stopping first for lunch at Boat Quay near City Hall, we enjoyed wondering through the strip of harbour side restaurants, which had a real European feel. All the waiters were yelling for our business and offering competitive discounts. Eventually, Brent managed to negotiate a 40% discount and 4 free Tiger beers with a funny little Chinese man at a seafood restaurant. Score! Lunch was really nice but even after the discounts it was still 55 SGD! We soon strolled our
way to the nearest tour bus stop, hopped on and climbed up to the open roof-top. When boarding we tried to pay, but the driver insisted we “Pay later, pay later”... However, nobody ever came around to sell us tickets so we saved 60 SGD!! Singapore is pretty expensive so we were stoked to have more to add to our daily budget, whilst still seeing all the city and heritage sights! The bus drove through some prestigious estates full of nice big homes and past the botanical gardens. We also drove through Orchard Rd, the main city street which is just packed full of people and contains about 50 of the most lavish, massive shopping centres you’ve ever seen and everything is designer! Next it was Little India, which looked amazing, we agreed we would allocate some time to spend there in the next couple of days so we could continue on the tour. China Town was also really cool, it was so colourful and really busy. We had already spent a day at China Town in KL though, so we didn’t mind just passing through in Singapore. The Bus tour was a great way to see the city and
we couldn’t believe how perfectly pruned and clean the streets are EVERYWHERE!
That night we headed back to Orchard Street to explore the shopping centres and because we knew we couldn’t buy anything we treated ourselves to a movie. Before seeing ‘Daybreakers’ (an aussie vampire flick) we had time to leg it back towards City Hall, to fit in a Singapore Sling at The Long Bar at Raffles, something we should have done on the first night. For $28.50, I have to say it was worth it, they are so delicious and I could have sunk another 3! The Long Bar is where the Singapore Sling was first created in 1889, it’s very colonial and you crack peanuts, leaving the shells on the floor.
On our third day in Singapore we decided to stay just one more night, as we felt there was much more to see. We dedicated our morning to chilling at the hostel and then made our way to Singapore Zoo. We caught the MRT to where we thought we were supposed to go, to catch a connecting bus, but we never found the right bus stop. We were pretty stressed at that stage as
it was the last bus to the Zoo. A friendly local asked me if I needed help and guided us in the right direction. When we got back to the MRT station, just before buying our train ticket we thought we better confirm with the staff as to where we were supposed to go. Turns out the friendly local gave us the wrong info and we would have been headed in the completely wrong direction. LESSON: Confirmation is key!
The Zoo was AWESOME! Truly a great zoo, as I had heard so many good things already, it definitely lived up to its reputation! The giraffes were by far my favourite, they are so graceful and unique. There were many many animals there, all sorts of wild cats, jaguars, tigers, leopards, cheeters, panthers, pumas... Every animal under the sun (ok MOST, even a dedicated Australian section!) and they also had a beautiful orchard garden, as well as an extensive fruit and vegetable section. For 25 SGD it was worth it, we loved and we can tell it’ll be hard to find a better Zoo!!
Our last night in Singapore was dedicated to Little India. We had a great night
exploring a clean version, of one of the destinations we’re looking forward to most (the real India!) We ate a great restaurant which was cheap and the food was amazing, their Jalub Gamuns were delicious! We then walked our dinner off by exploring the little stores and Little India Arcade. Can you believe that on our last day we discovered how close we were to Little India? That night we walked back to our hostel (when usually we had caught the MRT everywhere) and it only took 15 minutes, it helped our full tummies and when we got back we packed and crashed!
We went to the Singapore National Museum the next day, which was our final morning before leaving for Melacca that afternoon. The museum is a beautiful big old colonial building, quite similar to the Raffles Hotel. We had seen alot of advertising for an Egyptian exhibit - ‘The Quest for Immortality - The World of Ancient Egypt’ so we were keen to check it out, free for students too!
It was amazing! We saw REAL MUMMIES!! Actual real wrapped up preserved human bodies from thousands and thousands of years ago!! We were allowed to take photos
(without flash) so we captured some amazing artifacts. Afrench tour guide there was so helpful and informative she was telling us so much stuff about this ancient world, it blew our minds and felt so lucky to have seen this, as it is all so priceless and ancient.
Finally, by this time it was time to catch our bus to Melaka to check out some 15th century history. Until then...
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Adam
non-member comment
wow
Early last year I answered a question in the Singapore forum about overnight train from KL... Thats when I subscribed to this blog... now here you are! in Singapore! woohoo! Cant wait to read about your adventures in India