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Published: June 26th 2007
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Singapura meaning Lion City is right at the bottom of South-East Asia and a good place to start as it's an East meets West type of place. We'd decided to treat ourselves to a hotel (at 55 GBP a night) so we were expecting quite a lot as this was 2-3 times the price of hostels in Oz. We weren't disappointed, the room was really nice with a king or even maybe a super king bed. The location was great, just near a hawker centre (like a food court for locals) and about 5-10 minutes walk from Raffles Hotel.
Our first night we ate out for about $8 (about 2.50GBP) for BBQ duck with noodles and chicken with noodles. Other than that we had a quick walk around the area but were quite tired so didn't stray too far. The next day we sorted out transport to Kuala Lumpur and then went for a walk around the colonial area. In the daytime the heat is even more noticeable and eventually it got the better of us, So it was as much for the A/C as for the exhibits we went to the Asian Civilisations Museum. We were surprised to
pay to get in having got used to free admission in Oz. Admission did include a tour though and the museum was impressive with exhibits on Singapore, China, India, Indonesia, Borneo and other. After a few hours there we walked around the river (Quay Bank) where restaurant prices are more inflated to get the tourists.
We then went to Raffles Hotel - it was and is world famous for prestige and the place that attracts the rich and famous. The hotel now only has suites, the rest of it has designer shops housed around it and there is a small museum telling the history if the place.
That evening we visited a hawker centre for food. It is indoor but with no A/C and a lot of cooking so it does get quite hot. There's a lot of choice and we went for a vegetarian place where the food is really nice (hard to tell it wasn't meat at times) and even cheaper than other places 1.20GBP for both of us to eat. Later that night we visited Raffles Hotel Long Bar- the birth place of the cocktail- Singapore Slings everyone orders a Singapore Sling - we did
too. It' also the only place in Singapore where you can litter without being fined. You are actually encouraged to throw the shells from the bowls of monkey nuts that are put on each table. We took our time with our drinks and left at the right time as a tour bus of people came to the bar.
The following day we decide to be lazy and buy a hop on- hop off tourist bus pass instead of trying to work out which bus to get where. It also included a river cruise which felt a little tacky with a pre-recorded American commentary but was fun anyway. After a curry we had a few hours free before going to the nigh safari. We missed the first express bus (my fault) but we made it there eventually. We were surprised how busy it was and we went first to see the animal show before jumping on a tram around the place. It was interesting to see what animals were awake at night, though it was hard to spot some of them.
The next day we went to Sentosa (an Island off the Island_ We'd not read much about the
place so we were surprised to find it was a resort/ theme park. After a couple of hours ewe made our way back to get ready for the Red Lantern Tour. This tour took us through some of areas of Singapore that tourists don't normally see. We stopped at another Hawker centre (there are quite a few in the city) This time we were recommended a stand by our guide and she helped us understand what food was what. It was really nice food and again cheap (1.50 GBP for both of us) We then visited the red light district where we got out to visit a fruit stall. We got to try lots of local fruits. After that we had a little bit of time to explore Little India.
The next morning we struggled to get a Taxi but finally made it to bus for the 6 hour journey all the way up to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
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