Blogs from Chinatown, Singapore, Asia

Singapore was originally 500 square km but now it occupies a land area of 720 square km. Someone is real estate said buy now they are not making any more land, well in Singapore they do! And they have been doing it for years. Chinatown was once a swampy slum and now it’s a kilometre or so from the sea front (Marina Bay Sands stands between Chinatown and the sea) and it’s now longer a slum as you can’t live there. It’s now restaurants and office space only. Some say the ‘spirit’ has also gone but there’s still a lot of atmosphere in the precinct. That’s information gleaned from our walking tour with a little extrapolation from me. I won’t regurgitate facts and figures about pavement width, building frontage, temple gods etc as it’s a bit ... read more

Well Singapore has been on the list for some time, I mean its a kids paradise when you start researching 'things to do with kids'. Only problem is that the accommodation is expensive, attractions cost an arm and a leg and to eat in a nice restaurant I would have to sell my first born! So we decided to a) only go for a short time and pack a lot in and b) save money where we could - hence the kids first foray into backpacking accommodation and meals in nearby Hawkers Centres (food is best there anyway!) Our journey to reach Singapore was epic. A 5 hour car ride to the airport, a midnight flight with Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur, a small delay at KLIA2 and a lunch time flight to Singapore.... overall we ... read more

I didn't manage to get out particularly quickly and got out of the accommodation, after having had the included breakfast, around 10. I hadn't decided what to do yet for the day, and decided that it was too late by then to go to the zoo or bird park because I'd want to get to those two early, so headed out towards the SEA Aquarium. I've got six full days in Singapore which will be plenty of time so I don't need to rush constantly. In terms of the accommodation in the pods GalaxyPods, they don't feel coffin-like at all because they've got lights and a mirror and air circulation and they're white. The room with the pods is a really high-density dorm, but it works far better than a traditional dorm at such high density ... read more

Today's plan was to use the hop on / hop off buses to get us round to where we wanted to go. We went to the bus stop as directed by the hotel only to find that it was the yellow route where we wanted the red route, which means we had to walk to another bus stop. The C.O. Is flawed. She cannot read a map. However she thinks she can. We had a free and frank exchange of views but I insisted that we went to where I said in order to catch the bus to Chinatown. We found out the correct stop, bought tickets and journeyed to Chinatown which was our planned destination. I tried to remain impartial and keep the smugness off my face. I am not sure I achieved this as, ... read more

Firstly dear readers, I should start by way of a small apology. This second blog entry should have been posted some hours ago, but a combination of losing a whole raft of text just as I was about to 'push the button' and then finding that there was an annoying problem uploading my photos, culminated in what will be forever known, in the annals of Kilby holidaying experiences as, the Totally Traumatic Travel-blogging Temper Tantrum!! But, fear not me hearties, normal service has been resumed and I am proud to introduce Episode Two of The Great Kilboran Antipodean Adventure...........'The Road to Singapore'. So, here it is; the big day has arrived! Thursday 4th January 2018; Christmas and New Year are now a distant, but happy memory and tearful farewells have been said to nearest and dearest. ... read more