Blogs from Chinatown, Singapore, Asia - page 13

Hello there! Currently writing this from Melacca in Malaysia but we loved Singapore so much we thought we had to include a blog entry there. We left India on the 23rd and landed in the evening in Singapore (7.5 hours ahead of you guys). We were staying at quite a swanky hotel that we booled before we came out here. Singapore is a perfect city with no litter, horns, wild dogs etc. We were sad to be leaving today but its too expensive to be staying. During our short stay, we visited the zoo (amazing, better then any other on the planet i expect) and the bird wildlfie sanctuary (also very nice indeed). This morning we took a coach from Singapore into Malaysia which took about 5 hours and we have found a chinese style guest ... read more

I love this city...wait it's a country. In any case, it's an awesome place to be. We last left off with Steph's accurate description of my fainting act on the plane and our subsequent arrival in Singapore. I thank everyone for their concern / teasing, and you can rest assured that I'm fine. Steph has done nothing nearly as embarrassing yet, so my entry may not be as humorous. Singapore make Ottawa look like a small village in the Himalayas. It's a fascinating place with tradition and modernity colliding to form a city that is both old and new. The highest skyscrapers intertwine with temples and markets, while people hurry about their daily activities.The Chinese, Indians, Malay populations along with a large number of foreigners from all over the world, make it hard to know who ... read more

On Monday we met Mia and Cynthia from RBS Singapore at Chinatown where they very kindly treated us to lunch at one of the hawker centres. It was good to have some resident Singaporean advice about the food and they recommended various dishes to us. Particularly tasty was the Laksa, a Malay-Chinese dish with cocount, chili, chicken, cockles and noodles which we will definitely be buying again. After lunch Cynthia and Mia had to head to work so we had a wander around Chinatown, through some of the markets and the OG shopping centre. I saw a really nice set of silk chinese robes that I really wanted to buy and send home but we reasoned that they will probably be cheaper elsewhere. Chinatown is very cool, friendly and extremely colourful but you do get the ... read more

We were little bit late to see Singaporean Chinese New Year Celebrations at Chinatown since Chinese new year 2009 falls on 26th of January, 2009 and we were delayed because of our Bintan's trip. Luckily the decorations and other things were still there. The Chinese New Year is celebrated as the symbol of spring's celebration and as Singapore is said to be a place largely influenced by the tradition and culture of China and Chinese people, The Chinese New Year holds a special significance in here. We were strongly recommended to go there and see that area. Actually whole the January there has been signs here and there that the Chinese new lunar year is coming closer and closer. Shopping malls have turned to be places full of flowers and pink and red colors. At school ... read more

When l was in the UK with 6 weeks to plan for my trip l had sorted out my visa for India, Vietnam and Australia. For some reason l had it in my head that l was in Thailand for a month’s so no visa was needed as you are granted a 30 day visitor’s visa on arrival. But l was to be in Thailand for two months not one so once l had arrived in Bangkok after a fantastic Christmas and New Year l had to work out how l was to extend my visa to stay in this great Kingdom. Just like the UK over the holiday period trying to find out from immigration what to do was a no win situation so instead l booked a day trip to Singapore and hoped that ... read more