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Published: September 20th 2007
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Sightseeing in Singapore
Imogen's Dad Iain joined us... The flight from Cairns to Singapore made a short stop off in Darwin which gave the captain of our plane two opportunities to demonstrate the art of 'flying into the ground at speed and surviving'.
Once we'd picked up our teeth and belongings and made our way out of Singapore airport we encountered a strange man who seemed to want to talk to us. After several minutes we recognised the man beneath the beard - it was Imogen's dad Iain! He was joining us in Singapore and Malaysia for the next two weeks and had booked us into a hostel called Sleepy Sams to the North of Singapore city.
We dumped our bags and went off in search of a nice cold beer so we could have a catch up together. However it soon became clear that this was not going to be possible in the immediate vicinity of Sleepy Sam's as the hostel is in the shadow of the city's largest mosque and the whole area is therefore Muslim and DRY!
Eventually we found somewhere a few blocks away which looked suspiciously like a strip club but turned out to be a Japanese Karaoke club, much to Paul's disappointment.
There's nothing more pleasant than trying to have a catch-up chinwag while a never ending stream of Japanese girls wearing what look like wedding dresses belt out Japanese pop classics, and badly at that. Bed soon beckoned.
Next morning we jumped on the Singapore sightseeing bus to get ourselves orientated. You could hop-on and off as much as you liked. Sights included interesting sculptures in Boat Quay; Chinatown for a Dim sum lunch and men selling second-hand underpants on the streets of Little India. The evening plan was to take cocktails at Raffles which called for appropriate attire (i.e. no flip-flops). We managed to down 6 Singapore Slings between us and ate our own body weight in monkey nuts. According to the rules of the Raffles 'Long Bar', you are allowed to throw your empty nut shells on the floor. Our interpretation of the rules meant that throwing them at each others heads was allowed too - much hilarity ensued. The cleaner must have had a coronary after seeing the mess we left. Our bill for a couple of hours of entertainment was about 50 quid for the drinks - thanks Iain!
Having seen a restaurant advertising curry
fondue earlier that day, we couldn't resist a little experimentation. The meal involved sitting on the floor barefoot, dipping chunks of naan bread into a vat of very spicy curry - the kind of spice that burns twice if you know what we mean?! It was absolutely amazing but extremely filling. We waddled back to the hostel to sleep it off.
The following day we headed over to Mount Faber to catch a cable car to the leisure island of Sentosa. This is a tiny Island a bit like Thorpe Park but a lot hotter and without so many rides. Paul and Iain raced down the luge; we had a leisurely lunch and visited Underwater World. Sticking with the Steve Irwin theme, we stroked some stingrays, although we found them to be a lot friendlier than he did. You know us - we can't stay away from God's creatures, so in the evening we took a bus to the Singapore Zoo night safari. After a couple of jugs of Chang beer (proud sponsor of Everton this season) whilst sheltering from a torrential downpour we hopped on a tram which gave us a tour of the zoo in the dark.
Flash photography was banned to prevent people from blinding the nocturnal animals, although Imogen may have accidentally damaged the rhino's eyes for life - she really needs to read her camera instruction manual. At 9pm there was a live nocturnal animal show which included wolves, owls, birds and snakes wandering onto the stage in front of an audience of about 1,000 people. A volunteer was needed to hold Maggie, a 10ft long python. Try as we might to volunteer Iain, Iain decided to volunteer Paul instead. Assisted by the keepers, Paul had Maggie lovingly draped around his neck for several minutes on stage. Not only was she 10ft long but her body was much thicker than a normal human thigh. Maggie was most interested in Paul's wedding vegetables much to the amusement of the crowd - but not Paul. Imogen comforted him afterwards by saying,
you took one for the blog
. This has since been adopted as the saying of our trip; it is used to force each other to do things we'd really rather not.
Wanting to experience all of Singapore's culinary delights, we finished the day off with a meal at one of the many street cafes. We would have eaten at the
place opposite, but it was unfortunately named 'Yukees' restaurant which put us off. Only in Asia can you eat such great food at such a bargain price.
But it's not all eating and wildlife. The next morning we wanted to get a better understanding of how such an incredibly diverse place came into existence, so we headed to the National Museum. In typical Singapore style, it was ultra-modern. Each visitor is given what looks like a big iPod to hang round their necks and as you wander around it tells you what you're looking at. The museum covered Singapore's early years as a trading hub, its ownership by the Dutch and then English empires, occupation by the Japanese during the 2nd World War through to modern day independence and the success of the 'paternal dictatorship' government which has paid such dividends in terms of economic prosperity.
On the way home we stopped off at the DHL air balloon in the centre of the city. This is basically a tethered hot air balloon which floats you up about 250m for a bird’s eye view of town. It was 2 hot-air balloons in the space of a week for Paul and
Imogen!
That evening we headed back to Boat Quay which we had walked around on our first day. All along the banks of the river are restaurants and bars and we thought it would be a good place to spend our final evening in Singapore. Unfortunately each restaurant has several of those annoying 'touters' trying to convince you in to eat at their restaurant. To avoid them we escaped onto a river taxi for a bit of a cruise out into the harbour and back. Then we had to face the touters again to find somewhere to eat. How did one of them eventually tempt us into his restaurant? Simple - the promise of cheap 'towers' of Chang lager (holds about 8 pints!) and a big screen showing the Rugby World Cup! Actually the food was excellent too - a sort of Thai/Chinese fusion. During our meal a group of Australians at the next table recognised Paul from the previous evening's snake show at the zoo. He handled his public very well. When it was time to leave the restaurant, we came up with a plan to avoid the restaurant touters on the way home. We made a sign on a sheet of paper saying
WE HAVE EATEN and Paul hung it round his neck, whilst Imogen and Iain formed a conga behind him. The touters thought it was hilarious and left us well alone.
In summary Singapore is an amazing and almost futuristic place - all of us love the way that traditional 2 storey chinese/indian/malay buildings co-exist with 21st century skyscrapers and Iain was particularly taken by the wide-ranging architectural styles that have been used over the generations. Put it on your list - a place definitely worth visiting for a few days!
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Farran
non-member comment
After all those those hot countries, you are still milky bloody white!!!!