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Published: February 4th 2009
Singapore
Siloso Beach on Sentosa Island1st February 2009
We woke at 0430 to get our taxi to the airport, for our 5 hour flight to Singapore. Hayley was loving the flight, as it had the original (and still the best) Super Mario Bros. game! The most amusing part though was that it was evidently half the passengers first time on a plane, so there was lots of "oooing" and "ahhhing"!! We landed at 1545 - losing 1.5 hours, meaning an 8 hour time difference to back home now. We feel we need to mention Changi Airport in Singapore; it was such a surreal experience. No queue at passport control or customs, indoor gardens and waterfalls and an all round aura of calm.
We bought a travel card for the Metro System, and jumped aboard to......Little India (we were weaning ourselves off slowly...!) Singapore's metro system is easily the cleanest we've ever experienced, which we're sure is 'partly' down to the extremely heavy fines for pretty much anything other than sitting/standing!! Arriving in Little India was hilarious to us as, unsurprisingly perhaps, it was just like a little India!! The only difference was that there were street signs for us to follow, which made finding our hostel
Singapore
Hayley enjoying her Singapore Sling at a cool $23... very easy - a new experience on this trip! We freshened up a bit, and jumped straight back on the metro to grab some food in Chinatown, which was great because it gave us a chance to practice some of our Mandarin (appallingly), and sample the cuisine i.e chicken noodles and sugar cane juice. After filling our bellies, we walked to the famous Raffles Hotel to enjoy the even more famous cocktail - a Singapore Sling (google it!). An added perk in here was that they feed you unlimited amounts of monkey nuts - the shells of which you simply throw on the floor, so it sounds as though you are walking on eggshells. A cool place, and a nice first day.
2nd February 2009
We were now having our first taste of dorm life and sharing a room with 8 other people leaves you more tired than usual, but we were ready for a day of life here in Singapore. After a busy 5 weeks in India we decided that we would work at a slower pace here and so whiled the day away booking onward tickets and posting our chunky India book back to England (by sea
Singapore
Daniel at the Southerm most point. - should be there in about 2 months!). Walking around during the day really hit home how different this country is to India, high-rise, modern, clean streets and personal space. We don't think we could have chosen two more different countries!
In the evening we caught the bus to Singapore's Night Safari where we saw a number of animal/cultural shows. It's bizarre that more zoos don't do this as many animals are nocturnal and it was great to see hippos, lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes etc up and about rather than sleeping.
3rd February 2009
Still feeling the effects of India and our 8 new 'friends' we slept in till 10 today and chilled in the reception area, updating ourselves on English gossip (through OK magazine) and transfer deadline day (on BBC sport). Guess who was who?! We then caught the metro to the Harbourfront in order to catch the monorail over to Sentosa Island. A man-made beach resort where we could relax and work on our newly acquired t-shirt tans! We sunbathed for a while and swam in the sea before heading for the Luge (a downhill go-cart trail) and then walking to the Southern-most point in Continental Asia.
Singapore
Dinner at Clarke Quay Despite it being overcast, it was around 30 degrees and very, very humid. We also had our first taste of rain in over 5 weeks which was actually really refreshing! On making our way back towards our hostel we stopped in Clarke Quay - the 'hip and happening' area of Singapore for dinner before grabbing some watermelon and pineapple in Chinatown for pudding. We then headed back to try to get some sleep as tomorrow we would be on the move once more.
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Carol Coles
non-member comment
Can we swap?
Hi both Can see you are still loving it but wouldn't you rather come home and deal with getting to work through the snow and ice and not forgetting the freezing temperatures? No didn't think so. Love Mum and Dad