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Hmmm...where do I even start! First blog and feeling under pressure to write something funny & informative but I'm seriously sleep deprived so I hope my first attemp will do for now!
(Saturday 1st July 2010 - 10:03am) Were currently on a coach crossing the border, leaving Singapore bound for Melakka which is approx 220 km & 5hrs North on the west coast of Malaysia. Im trying to type whilst being slightly squished in the window seat from the less than considerate guy in front reclining his seat practically in my lap, my IPOD on - listening to my favourite Paul Simons Graceland tunes and taking in all the sights as they go by.... while Noddy here (Scott) is fast asleep catching 40 winks & flies resting his tired head on my shoulder- Men = No Stamina!
So, I'll try and start from the beginning which seems a life-time ago already and yet it's still only day 4 into the trip.
Tuesday 28th & Wednesday 29th June:
The Journey was a pretty standard affair really. First was Manchester to Munich at 9am with a short stop-over, then the loooong 11 hour flight to Singapore arriving at
7am local time on Wed 29th. We both struggled to get any sleep, so in total we watched 6 movies between us, ate enough to feed us for a week and I can safely say my hatred for children on flights has increased ten fold, i'm glad I never was one! So after 2 flights, 1 airport shuttle, 3 tube trains and countless huffs, puffs and sweaty sighs we made it to the hostel early morning! We were physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted!! (I cant think of any more ally' adjectives!) We slept on the hostel sofa for 4 hours whilst not being able to check in until 1pm. As soon as we got our little rabbit hutch room, it was lights out, all out for another 3hrs until Belle & Matt rocked up!
With the hostel situated in Chinatown we thought we would take advantage of the cheaper food & beer to be had in the city and settled down for the evening enjoying a few bottles of chilled Tiger beer for a good ol' catch up on Belle & Matt's trip so far. It was really great to see them both, listening to there fantastic stories so
far and take note of all the top tips!
And this is where all the fun really began... Leaving only 2 days to explore Singapore's offerings - Would we be able to squeeze in everything we wanted in such a short space of time???
Thursday 30th June We woke quite late in the morning - 11am (I L-O-V-E not having an alarm clock!) met in the kitchen and sat down for free breakfast. I managed to find a Lonley Planet Singapore Pocket Guide in the room so we planned out what we fancied ticking off the must see-list for the day. The weather was dull. Raining, hot & humid! With the flip-flops and waterproofs on we bravely soldiered on and hit the road, armed with camera's and a $8SD MRT Tourist Transport Pass to be made full use of. The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) subway system was ultra modern. Clean, fast and cheap...just how I like it! Although no food or drink was to ever be consumed anywhere on the underground or face a $500SD (£250) fine! Harsh, how would I cope with not eating!!
Firstly we managed to accidently bump into the famous Raffles Hotel!
We wasn't dressed for the occasion, we also didnt have the budget for a session of Singapore Slings and monkey nuts so we took a quick snap and continued past towards the War Memorial Park. Noticing in the distance a huge building with what looked like a enormous grey cargo ship planted on the roof of a triple towered building we decided to climb to the roof top of the Esplanade Theatre. Gaining some perspective at the top provided something we wernt quite expecting; fantastic city views round the Marina Bay, even in drizzly, grey misserable weather it was like nothing we had seen before.
With the ship now set in our sights we made our way passing the Singapore Eye, the Science Museum and finally to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel - Hotel with a ship on the roof I hear you say! We decided to save the $10SD hotel roof-top viewing experience for the next evening which would be our last and pray the weather would improve and hold out.
Our next stop was a stroll up Orchard Road. Now anyone who enjoys shopping would be in retail heaven! It felt like it was 5 miles
long but that could well be an exxageration! Designer brands and super cars are the only things littering the curbs - super flashy! Then theres me in my baggy trousers, vest top and bag on back, I thought I fitted in pretty well! Again, as the budget was tight and the backpacks filled to the brim we just wandered around, window shopped and perved on some Singapore style Sailers oh err!
Once the glitz and glam dissapeared we made our way by foot/trotter and will-power to the pretty Botanical Gardens. By this point we are all on our last legs pretty much! So after throwing a cream cracker into a pond at the entrance whereby a bloody 6ft great white shark nearly took off my arm! Again slight exaggeration...think this bus is making me delerious! We think it was a cat fish, not 6ft maybe 3ft but still massive! We strolled round the gardens to Swan Lake, sat down for 10 chilled out and relaxed! Having probably only seen a tiny fraction of the gardens we made our way back to catch the bus/MRT to our next destinaation. I would have loved to have seen more, probably on a
bike but we just didnt have the time, it was getting late and we still wanted to have a curry in Little India.
By the time we arrived in Little India it was 7pm-ish. Hungry, in-decisive and to be honest feeling a bit uncomfortable in the surroundings, we found a side street restaurant/cafe, ate as much as we could stomach and headed back home to Chinatown. We just didn't feel right. I couldn't put my finger on it but it just didn't seem the safest and friendliest of places. Back to the same place as the previous night for a run-down on the days events we enjoyed a few more refreshing beers and then hit the sack for an early start.
Friday 31st June With this day being Belle & Matt's last in South East Asia and ours all together before they jet set it to Oz and we head off oooop north, we had roughly planned out the day to try and make the most of time. So it was an early start - up at 8am, 16 rounds of jam on toast later and we made our way to Singapore Zoo...Belle & Matt suprisingly exciting
- Chanting the odd zoo zoo zoo rhmye on the way...GEEKS! After I think 6 subways changes and a bus later we made it by luchtime! Weather was lovely today, hot, dry and sunny! Hot Hot Hot, dare i say it....TOO HOT! We made our way round viewing the usual suspects and half way round gave our legs a rest for 10mins to watch a cringy Animal show! To Scotts horror though as the show was about to begin, the Zulu Warrior Men plucked him from the crowed at the back and dragged him to the stage below! What followed was just a chain of embarrassing events for Scott i'm sure he wants to forget. In the spirit of things he got involved, top off, hairy chest on show and new guns out! A bit of Zulu warrior dancing proceeded follwed by some form of macho muscle comparrsion... Needless to say when he finally escaped and shook off the stage fright he uttered those 5 words....Dont ever mention this again! He was great though, rather him than me! Mwahahah!
The Zoo was fab, lots to see and we had loads of fun... We was lucky enough to witness our
own Giant Toitoisse Sex Show too, noisy beggers! We managed 3/4 round and decided we would set off back to base to freshen up and try and get out before sunset to visit the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.
Missed the sunset but from the moment we stepped up from the underground and into the Marina Bay itself we were all a little giddy to say the least. Myself and Matt have been designated photographers and couldn't contain our trigger fingers. Only to be scorned by the others to save the battery for later...Okay Mum/Dad! And we are so glad we did! We made our way up 57 Floors to the viewing deck of the actual boat ontop of Marina Sands. It was dark in the city by this point and the city was lit up like a Christmas Tree only 1 million times more jaw droppping. I'm not even going to begin to explain how absolutley amazing the next few hours were, we took so many pictures, you can see for yourself. We spent an hour at the top chilling having a few quiet moments trying to take everything in and capture a few precious pictures that we would
hope could resemble an ounce of the true concrete jungle beauty. Matt was blown away that much he went in the ladies loo!
We made our way back down and headed for another part of the Marina Bay what was meant to be a stroll back to the train home for tea and refreshments. Only we decided to sit down on some wooden platforms amonst a crowd looking out over the bay with the glowing skyscrapers towering over each other in the background. As we were about to get up, loud relaxing oriental music started to play and busrst of mist with video's being played on the droplets in the forground. Before we knew it we were about to witness probably one of the most fantastic shows we had ever seen (I dont even know what to call it but I managed to get a few video's so will upload for you all to see). Totally awe-inspiring! Hair stand up stuff and we all admitted at one point a little tear formed in the corners of our eyes. We aren't even sure what it was all about and why we just so happended to be in the right place
at the right time! Finally some luck!
This topped off our little Singapore stay and Bellle & Matt both agreed they couldn't had even planned a more fantastic way to end the trip in South East Asia. I think I speak for us all when I say I'm sure we will remember these few days for a long time coming.
So to top it off, back to the local for the best Chinese Food we've had yet and to swill it down....yep you guessed it...more Tiger beer!
All the best to Belle & Matt on the future travels to Oz/NZ & Fiji, hope you have an amazing time and we'll see you Christmas time. Take Carem safe travels and time to lay of the beer you monsters! x
So that's it pretty much, I've written too much already, more than I thought so I'll apologise in advance if you've dropped off to sleep! We are both well, enjoying ourselves and still thinking of you all!
Love To You All :-P
P.S Sorry about the order of photo's I'll re-arrange another time as it's already taken me 6 hours to complete....slow is not the word!
x
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Jess
non-member comment
Great blog post
Hi.. Just want to say, my partner and I are setting off to Singapore for four days to start our trip in 2 weeks and your blog was soooo thorough and informative. I really enjoyed ready all about your Singapore experiences and you have given us some great pointers for our short stay aswell.. Thank-you :)