Singapore Sling

Asia » Singapore
August 6th 2007

Published: August 10th 2007

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Daniel and Lucy

China Town Rickshaw Tour

The guy was so blind that Dan decided to take over!

Hello from Singapore!!

After dragging ourselves away from the Gilli Islands (we were considering staying and setting up a business selling pineapples on the beach), we arrived in Singapore late on Friday afternoon.

We quickly checked into our hotel, spruced ourselves up, put on our glad rags, and headed to the famous Raffles Hotel for cocktails. You aren’t allowed to wear sandals or flip-flops at the hotel and so, for the first time in the four months, my high heels had to come out of the rucksack. I must admit we both scrubbed up pretty well. Although, I didn’t look as sophisticated when I tried to walk in my shoes!

Our “backpacker budget” didn’t quite stretch to dinner at Raffles so we went to a nearby food court where you could pick and choose between a whole host of local dishes. The food was great, but I think that me dressed up to the nines, tottering round in my heels, and attempting to balance plates of food, after a few cocktails certainly confused a few of the locals.

The next morning we set off to investigate the city. We looked at the choice of city tours available

Night scene

The Photo made the swim worth it!

but being the big kids that we are we opted for a giant duck that took us on a tour of the Colonial district by road, and then out on to the harbour. Not only could it go on both land and water but you also got a “quacking whistle”. Needless to say we were the loudest by a mile! We definitely made the right choice!!

We then took in some more of the sights along the river and visited a few of the city’s temples. When we reached Chinatown we decided to get a rickshaw ride of the area. We were really pleased with ourselves when the driver offered us a knocked down bargain price. Quickly we discovered that it was because he was as blind as a bat. He raced along the streets oblivious to any other traffic and nearly killed us a few times in the process. Whenever we stopped at any of the sites he insisted on taking loads of photos of us so that we were also in the shots. Normally this would have been great but, because he couldn’t see, he just ended up cutting our heads off in nearly all of them.

Merlion

Doesn't he know about the huge fines for spitting here?

That evening we had an amazing meal overlooking the river quay and took a Chinese red lantern boat tour of the harbour. Very romantic but not nearly as much fun as our amphibious trip earlier on!

On our final day in Singapore I insisted on going to the zoo. It was fantastic- Dudley Zoo eat your heart out! The zoo is very open, which means you get close contact with a lot of the animals. At feeding times you get the chance to feed elephants, giant tortoise and kangaroos. They also had lots of animals that neither of us had ever seen before, such as, white tigers, tapirs, mandrills and my favourite pygmy hippos (including a one month old baby!!). The highlight, however, was getting to have my picture taken with a group of orangutans. I am beginning to think that I might have an orangutan problem!!

That evening we ate in Chinatown and then took a ride on a hot air balloon which floats up to 150m to give a breath taking view of the city. Apologies for their not being too many pictures of this though, as we were both to scared to let go

Hot Air Balloon

We waved goodbye to Fillious Fog!!

of the railings.

Tomorrow we are off to New Zealand. Everyone we have met has said it is amazing. But I am not looking forward to our 28 hour journey (we have to spend the night in Brisbane airport). Plus when we land we are hiring a car which will be a bit nerve-wracking as neither of us have driven for 17 weeks. Oh and I nearly forgot, when we get there it is winter! We are going to be freezing cold for the first time since we left home. The first thing I am doing is buying the biggest coat going!!

Until then, goodbye and god bless.
Lucy and Dan xx
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