Singapore

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(Naomi)

Hello Everyone

We left KL on Monday and caught a bus to Singapore. It was weird saying goodbye to the Atkinson family after staying at their apartment... they had been so friendly and welcoming to us, and it was fabulous to be with people who live in the city at our first stop because they gave us lots of information about what was best to do.

So we left the apartment and immediately went wrong. We couldn't find the LRT to catch the train to the station so we got in a taxi. We thought the bus for Singapore went from Puduraya bus station so the taxi driver took us there. When I said we needed the terminal for Singapore we got just a non-committal grunt which we now realise is because the bus from Singapore doesn't even go from that station! He seemed to think it was ok to dump us off there anyway, so we then had to get the LRT to the right station but we made it.... and the bus was lush! It was the nicest bus I've ever been on; massive recliner seats, tv screens, playstation games!

It takes about 5 and a half hours to Singapore, mainly because we had two 20 minute stops for food and drink. Everyone got off the bus except Alex and I who couldn't understand why they all needed a break so often! At the bottom of Malaysia, you have to get off and get stamped out of Malaysia and then you go over a huge bridge called The Causeway and get off the other side to get stamped into Singapore. The bus dropped us on Beach Road and from there we walked to Little India where there are lots of hostels. We stayed at The InnCrowd in an 11 person mixed dorm. It was pretty clean and there was a chill out area downstairs which was nice. We had some nice Indian food for really cheap down the road.

The next day was my birthday and we went to Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari, with a guy called James from our dorm. The zoo was wicked but soooo hot. We caught the MRT and a bus to get there but it was well worth it. They had every animal imaginable! And some good shows. The zoo doesn't really have cages in a sense. The enclosures are designed to look like there is nothing between you and the animals when in fact the animals (quite obviously) can't get to you. The funniest thing all day was at the 'Splash Show' an American volunteer from the audience jumped into the sea lion water when the lady was only joking about chucking him in. The sea lion went mental, and flew into the water and the trainers looked like they were about to crap themselves! Thankfully, the stupid guy got out pretty quick otherwise they said the sea lion would have attacked him!

There wasn't so much to see at the Night Safari but it was still pretty good. We liked the flying squirrel which we saw jump through the trees. The 'Creatures of the Night' show was really great, but I nearly wet myself when they feigned losing an animal and they made people move aside and then brought out the biggest python you've ever seen from underneath people's seats! Thankfully, we were sat a bit away from there! We had a great day although it was very tiring and we slept well that night.

The next day we took a walk to Fort Canning Park and learnt a bit about the British in Singapore from a war museum. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to look at ferries to Sumatra. The more we looked at Sumatra though, the less we wanted to go there, so we decided to fly straight to Bali. We popped online and booked our tickets for the next day. Afterwards, Alex treated me to a lovely dinner to celebrate my birthday the day before and we all went to Raffles for a Singapore Sling. It wasn't as snobby as we imagined and we had a nice time sat at the bar customarily throwing peanut shells on the floor. The drink was really nice.... we enjoyed every last sip, especially since they cost 15 pounds each! We went back to the hostel and chilled out before catching out flight to Bali the next day.

Singapore was great, but we were ready for a beach. It's hugely built up and has every designer fashion store you could think of. It's fast paced, noisy and tiring. With more time it would have been nice to explore more but the sound of the waves were calling us!

Tune in soon for news about Bali.
Love to all
Naomi and Alex
xxx

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