Singapore Slings - yes please!

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Claire & I got to the hostel about 4.30pm on Wednesday, located in the Muslim area of the city, a beautiful area with a really nice Mosque - Sultan Mosque, (the largest in Singapore), at the end of our street. We checked in & headed out for some food as we hadn't eaten anything since 7am. We went to an amazing Eygptian & Middle Eastern restaurant. We had a walk around the area, surfed the net, had a beer & a relatively early night.

On Thursday we got up & headed out to try & set some dates on our flights for the later part of our trip as STA would only let us confirm dates 11 months in advance. We went from STA in Singapore to Singapore Airlines, to Luthansa to Air New Zealand. No body wanted to help us & STA in Manchester had told us that STA in Singapore would be able to help us, it was so frustrating as we spent so much time going round the various airlines.

We even got told by Air New Zealand that they had stopped flying from the Cook Islands to French Polynesia so we had to decide if we wanted to go to the Cook Islands or French Polynesia & couldn't do both. STA were supposed to have contacted us to inform us but of course they hadn't which was annoying.

We walked along Orchard Road & had a look in lots of the shopping malls, (Claire purcahsed some lovely Gucci sungalsses), I brought a mini tripod for my new camera, we had lunch in a little French cafe. After going on the internet for a while we headed back to the hostel & then headed to the Night Safari place in the North of the Island.

When we arrived we had some dinner at a Bongo Cafe & then got on a tram that took us on a loop of the park in complete darkness, no flash photography was allowed so guess what clever clogs Hayward did, first photo she took, forgot to turn off the flash. Of course the guide humilated me & said "Can I remind everyone that flash photography is forbidden." Everyone gave me looks of disgust.

We got off the tram at the East Lodge Station for a walk along the Leopard Trail. We walked to a an enclosure with some small squirrels in & Claire did my old trick & took a photo with the flash on, she also got looks of disgust. We walked along the trail & it was amazing, we got to see Giant Flying Squirrels, the most beautiful Lions & Leopards, Otters, Slow Loris' & lots more. We decided to walk back to the entrance of the park & got such a treat when one of the rangers fed the Malayan Tiger right in front of us, it was such a beautiful creature.

We got home & went straight to bed as it was just before 1am. We got up the following morning, (Friday), & got the MRT, (metro), to Harbour Front where we got the Monorail over to Sentosa Island, just off the south coast of Singapore. It was great as you paid 3 Singapore Dollars for the Monorail & entry to the park & all transport around the island was included.

We ate lunch on the beach & walked to the Aquarium where we got to touch Blue Spotted Stingrays, (the one's we had seen when diving in the Perenthian Islands), bamboo sharks & Puffer fish. We walked around the aquarium & saw lots of sharks, (including the Black Tip Reef Sharks I had seen when snorkelling), Manta Rays, Turtles, Sea Angels & all sorts.

We had an ice cream in the sun & then made our way to the 4D Cinema, the largest 4D Cinema in Asia. We got seats on the front row & watched a short film on pirates where we got splashed with water, wind blown in our hair, thrown around our seats & hit on the legs by things; it was really good.

Claire & I headed straight to Dolphin Lagoon after the film had finished for the 3.30 show of meet the Dolphins. Again we got front row seats & before the show started went up to the water to look at the Pink Dolphins, they were so lovely & friendly & came right up to us, showing off & splashing around for our photos. The show was great as well & I was really impressed with my new camera & managed to get a great video of them dancing across the water.

As we came out of the show the heavens opened & we ran for cover. We got our very attractive waterproof jackets out, (Claire insists I look like an Egg Head in mine & she looks like a rig bed thing as its far too big for her). The best bit was Claire had her backpack underneath her waterproof on her back & I had mine on my front so she looked like a hunchback & I looked like a big fat git, we did get some looks.

Because of the rain everyone ran for the trams & whenever one went past there was no room for me & Claire, in the end we were that wet that I started jumping in the puddles like a child. We made our way back home by Monorail & MRT, by the time we got back we were almost dry.

We had left a note for Rich for when he arrived telling him to meet us at 6pm so we waited for him & then all got ready to go for our last night together, having put the week before behind us as best we could. As we were getting ready we acquired some new friends that wanted to join us for dinner & a Singapore Sling at Raffles. Rich, Claire & I shared a glass of wine whilst we waited for Hassan from Liverpool & Dave from Sydney who joined us for dinner; Hassan took us to this great Chinese Restaurant that was so cheap, no one paid more than 1 pound for their dinner.

After dinner the five of us walked down the road to the famous Raffles Hotel & went to the Long Bar for a legendary Singapore Sling. We were a bit unsure if we would get in as I had flip flops on & the boys all had jeans & t-shirts on, apart from Dave who had a shirt on. Anyway there were no problems & we got in fine. On the table is a big box of Monkey Nuts the shells from which are traditionally thrown on the floor & littering is encouraged as it displays on a poster.

The five of us all had Singapore Slings, got coasters, receipe cards & asked the waiter to take about a million & one photos with five different camera, they were really good. Hassan tried to start a nut fight at which point thought we were going to get thrown out, (we didn't). With the tax the cocktails worked out to be about 8 British Pounds Each.

We went from 8 pound Singapore Slings to one pound thirty mugs of Tiger beer in Little India. At this point we were joined by Gerrard & his girlfriend Angela from The Netherlands & Stevie from Kent. We played lots of drinking games & managed to get free tickets to a club called Baa Baa Black Chic that sold vodka for less than a pound, an absolute steal by Singapore prices!

We got to bed about 2.30am after Hassan insisted on showing Claire & I his life history in pictures on his camera, we had to almost remove him from our area of the dorm so we could get some sleep; he was such a know it all chatterbox, he talked more than Claire & I put together. Stevie had insisted on starting a conversation on wanting to become Prime Minister & that started off a big debate on world politics & global economies!

On Saturday we got up & had the mission of attempting to pack all the rubbish we had acquired into our backpack so they would let us on the plane to Brunei. We both had to sit on our backpacks to close them, but had managed to put all our stuff into one backpack plus our day bag, (which I hadn't managed in a long while & had been carrying three bags around).

We checked out & left our backpacks in the hostel, we had already decided what we were going to do after Hassan had given us a rundown on the best places to see in our day that we hadn't already seen. We got the MRT to Chinatown & had a look around the little stalls which made us realise how much we had loved China. We had a walk past an interesting looking Temple & made our way to Clarke Quay on the Singapore River. We walked through Speakers corner & got lots of great photos.

We had lunch sat by the river under an umbrella as it was a really hot day. Afterwards we walked along the river & headed to Little India to look at another interesting Temple, lots of little stalls & walked back to the hostel. We found Hassan & Stevie playing chess, (they had supposed to be going to KL). We went to use the internet & came back for a drink at the hostel before we mwt Rich for dinner, we found Dave looking a bit ropey & Hassan & Stevie still hadn't moved.

After about another hour Stevie & Hassan got their backpacks on their backs, walked into the street, got me to take some photos & a video for them about going to KL & then turned around & walked back into the hostel, deciding to stay another night! Rich arrived, (he had been to Sentosa Island) & Dave, Rich, Claire & I went for dinner at the great Middle Eastern & Eygptian Restaurant Claire & I had been to the first night.

We got some water & snacks from 7/11, said bye to the boys & got the MRT to the airport, as we were going down the esclator at our station I said to Claire, "I'm sure I have forgotten something." The stop before the airport I realised I had left my trainers at the hostel so when we got inside the terminal, we put our bags in left luggage & I headed back to the hostel to reclaim my trainers, what an idiot I am!

I got back to the airport & we were able to check in our bags, (Claire's weighed 20.7kg's & mine weighed 19.8kg's), luckily the nice lady from Singapore Airlines let us off for being just over the 20kg allowance. We went through Immigration to Departures where there is a free Cinema, free internet, a swimming pool & lots of shops. We took full advantage of the freebies & also saved on a nights accommodation, camping out in the airport, (we are backpackers & every penny counts & Singapore is expensive!)

I am so glad our luck seems to have improved since arriving in Singapore. I have really enjoyed the past four days & have got to see & do some great things, I just wish I could have done some more shopping but I'm sure my Mom will be making up for that in a couple of weeks!!

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Photos

Having our 1 pound dinner
From left - me, Claire, Hassan, Dave & Rich