Testing our budget in Singapore (Day 144 - 147 by Chris)

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Sunday 7th February 2016

We were excited to be heading to Singapore today having had a great time in Myanmar. Myanmar felt like real travelling again having to work hard to find places to stay, things to eat and generally getting around the city. Having said that, we were also looking forward to an easier time of it in Singapore where all of the aforementioned things should come easily.

Checked out by 8am we were in a taxi with our new Polish friends and after 45 minutes we arrived at the airport. We dropped off our bags and got through security in record breaking time and sat to wait for the plane. We had a comfortable 3 hour flight south to Singapore and landed at 4:30pm Singapore time. We located the MRT (tube) and along with the Poles we were making our way to Little India. They got off 2 stops earlier than us and when we arrived at Bugis station it was only a short 5 minute walk in the humid streets to 'The Inn Crowd Backpacker Hostel' which at £10 per night each is good going for Singapore. When we arrived the lady on reception booked us on to the free scooter tour for Tuesday night. By Scooter we mean a kids scooter, not a motor bike, so that should be fun!

We were hungry so popped into a restaurant called 'Banana Leaf' which is an Indian restaurant, which seemed the right thing to do considering we were in Little India. We ordered some food and it was delivered to our table. Instead of plates we were given a huge banana leaf which we poured our rice and curries onto and like everyone in the restaurant ate with our fingers mixing the rice, bread and curry. We were surprised though when the bill arrived and we used our currency converter app to discover that we'd spent £20 just on food. This might not sound like a lot, but our budget is £47 per day and this was one meal. We got the feeling that Singapore might be quite expensive!

As it was Chinese new Years eve we quickly made our way to China town. After seeing a crowd and therefore making a beeline for it we quickly discovered that we had no idea what we were waiting for. We attempted to ask some other foreigners and they had only guesses at some sort of parade and when we ask a local they said they couldn't speak any English. We then moved down to some of the side streets in china town and found hundreds of people browsing market stalls selling all sorts of red things such as lanterns, good luck charms, money pouches and so on. There was a real buzz of excitement and we were swept up in it. We found a seat next to a street side restaurant and ordered 1 beer. We had to share the beer on account of it costing nearly £5. We made it last and afterwards decided to head to the marina area as at midnight there would be a fire work display.

At the marina we saw people sat down on the floor all looking in different directions. This didn't really help us as we had no idea which direction the fire work display would come from and with a look at everyone else we assumed they didn't either. We walked along the water front getting as close as we could to what looked like a fair ground across the bay. Thankfully that is where the fire works came from and at midnight the sky lit up in a wonderful display of colours. As if by order, as soon as the fireworks stopped hundreds of locals flocked from the fair ground looking place straight towards our direction. We were intrigued as to what this place was so headed against the flow of people in the opposite direction. When we arrived we saw lots of inflatable animals, all representing the Chinese new year. As it is the year of the monkey, inflatable monkeys were everywhere. As too were the other animals of the lunar calendar. We located our animals and a description of what the year had in store for us. For Gemma, an Ox, the description was " A good year ahead, easy to achieve success and a positive attitude will help boost your wealth and an ideal year for getting married and having children, but pay attention to your health and safety when travelling overseas". For Chris, a dog, the description was " A challenging year but you must not lose hope. Surrounded by conniving characters you should not be too trusting. Your determination will get you through and 2017 will be better" - Brilliant!!! :-(

After walking around and finally leaving when an announcement informed us that it was closing, we took the last train back to the hostel and at 2:30am we climbed into our children's bunk beds and fell to sleep having had a hectic first day in Singapore.

Monday 8th February 2016

We had a great sleep as it seems most of the people in the dorm enjoy a lie in. Up, washed and fed with the free breakfast we were out of the door by lunchtime. We had a day of shopping ahead needing to buy some essentials. We popped over to Orchard Road which is Singapore's answer to Oxford Street. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised how clean and wide the street was. There was hardly anyone around either, probably because it was New Years day for the Chinese population of Singapore, which made the experience of browsing the shops much better for the lack of crowds. After a couple of hours of wandering down the street and popping in and out of the malls we headed into a food court for some food. We had finally found somewhere cheap to eat! We had some noodle soup and after our fill left the Orchard Road area.

Leaving the shopping area we decided to pop to China town to see what was happening given it was new years day. When we arrived we noticed that there wasn't the buzz of the previous day as most of the shops were closed. We had intended to eat some cheap street food as this area was teaming with this type of food yesterday, however these stalls were closed. There were restaurants open but outside of our price range. We eventually opted for a McDonald's (don't judge us we are on a tight budget!!) and then thought we'd treat ourselves to a trip to the cinema. It might sound like we visit the cinema quite a lot, but we also do this back home so its perfectly normal behavior for us. We asked a few people where to go and ended up at a large multiplex. With no idea what movies were on show we arrived just as the new Leonardo DiCaprio film (The Revenant) was starting. Apparently he is going to win an Oscar for this so not a bad choice of film. Unlike the cinema in Yangon, this was more like what you see at home so we were able to sink into the comfortable seats with a big box of popcorn and enjoy the movie. We left the cinema at 11:30 pm and headed home for a nice quiet sleep

Tuesday 9th February 2016

The morning was spent attempting to book some bus tickets that would take us from Singapore to Melaka which is a UNESCO World Heritage town just over the boarder in Malaysia. It seemed that we were going to struggle as every bus company we tried to book through was fully booked, probably due to Chinese new year. An hour of swearing later we had 2 seats booked that would take us the 4 hours to our first stop in Malaysia.

In the afternoon we popped over to the Marina where we had watched the fireworks a few days before. We wanted to visit 'Gardens by the bay' which is meant to be similar to Kew Gardens in London with some outdoor gardens and some big domes housing other big plants. We got to the ticket counter and immediately decided to turn around. For £28 each we could visit only one of the domes and if we did that we would have blown our budget for the next 2 days. Its unusual for us to turn things down as the rest of Asia so far has been relatively inexpensive, however Singapore is crazy! As much as we are enjoying ourselves here, our wallet will be happy when we leave. Whilst in the area we walked into the Marina Bay Hotel which is Singapore's new (well, its between 5-10 years old) flagship hotel. Its possibly the most recognisable hotel in the world at the moment. There are 3 huge sloping pillars which act as foundations (and the main hotel area) for a huge boat shaped structure on the top which has infinity pools and bars. Needless to say its on the expensive side with some rooms costing more that £1000 per night! We walked in to take a look and without sounding bitter, its one of those places that's better to look at than look out from. Still better than our hostel though!

We headed back to the hostel for 5:30pm as we were booked onto a scooter tour of the city. We chose this hostel based on the fact it offered this free tour. The idea is for guests, in our case approx 15 of us to spend 4 hours being shown around Singapore by night visiting some iconic sights and watching some of the firework and light displays they put on. We all set off at 6pm, all of us a little shaky at first adapting to standing on one leg. Gemma was a little nervous on account of her twisted ankle and still aching knees but soon got into the swing of things. As we all set off in convoy around the city we passed though shopping malls, underground stations and hotel foyers whilst still scooting (or do you say scootering?). We were like Ninja scooter's (or at least I thought we were) and received lots of odd looks from the older generation but also "wow that looks cool" from young kids as we all weaved in and out of people traffic. We stopped at various places to rest and watch some of the light shows which were all really good. Gemma and I both said its a shame that we'd already been to see most of the city in the previous days as this tour took us to every place we'd been so far and more. Its a perfect thing to do if you only have 1 day in Singapore. As well as the tour itself, the rest of the group were really good fun. We got chatting and later shared a beer with a couple from Australia over here on holiday (she was Aussie and he was English). We all returned to the hostel dripping in sweat around 10:30pm having had an amazing experience. We cooled down with a beer before showering and falling into a deep sleep.

Wednesday 10th February 2016

Our final full day in Singapore started with Gemma feeling quite tender in one leg on account of the scooter tour the previous night. We took it easy in the morning making the most of the free breakfast and coffee before setting off to see the Botanical Gardens of Singapore in the early afternoon. We didn't realise until we left the Botanical Gardens that this was another UNESCO World Heritage site. We've been to quite a few of these on our trip and have decided to compile a list of the places we've seen. Google 'UNESCO' for info on who they are, but we know we're pretty much guaranteed to enjoy somewhere with a UNESCO tag. The Gardens themselves were really pretty and even better than that they were free!! We spent only half an hour wandering around as the place isn't huge and today was incredibly humid. By the time we'd left the gardens my t shirt was soaked.

After the garden's we decided to locate a cup cake shop which was recommended by someone Gemma works with. We were helped by a local women who explained how to catch the bus (turns out its the same process as at home, however in many other countries catching buses can be really confusing!) she also took the same bus and was getting off where we intended to and she also knew where the cup cake shop was so took us to the door. What a lovely lady! we popped inside and took a box away with us which we intend to eat with a coffee later in the day. We then grabbed a late lunch in a food court that offered rice with duck for a reasonable £5 each.

We stopped into a coffee shop for a rest and to make use of the free WIFI before jumping onto the MRT (Tube) to locate the place where we need to catch the bus from the next day. Bus stop located we flagged down a taxi who took us a mile down the road (Gemma was really struggling to walk because of her scooter leg aching, which she didn't think was funny - I did though!) and we found ourselves at another food court similar to where we ate lunch. We opted for this place as its the same food court that the Polish couple we flew to Singapore with had recommended and they eat here every time they visit. However, with it being Chinese new year still, many of the stalls were closed including the one that sells noodles. Instead we ate what we had for lunch for the same price. We washed it down with a beer and then walked (very slowly) 500m back to the hostel where Gemma collapsed into bed.

This brings our time in Singapore to a close. It somewhere

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