"The Lion City" - Singapore

Asia » Singapore
January 22nd 2008

Published: January 23rd 2008

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goldentravelers

The Merlion

"Warning, Death for Drug Traffickers Under Singapore Law"... that was the first thing we saw in Singapore. The second, following shortly after the first, were three very serious soldiers armed with automatic rifles, patrolling baggage claim. But Singapore, as many know, is not dangerous or corrupt in the least. It is, in fact, a beautiful, wealthy, clean, and densly populated city of Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, and "other". The "other" only accounts for approximately 2.4% of the population.
We are currently staying with relatives of Evan, Rose and David (aunt and uncle), who live on Holland Road in the West end of Singapore. We met Rose in the Airport and took a cab to their place. We were both incredibly tired, and passed out shortly after arriving. The next morning, Evan was up at 4:30am, I "slept in" and was up nearing 8am. Since Singapore is one of the countries we are spending the least amount of time in, we've decided to try and cram as much of this wonderful country as we can in the little time we have. This, has proven to be not very difficult. Singapore covers only 253 square miles, and they say we could get from one

Hawker Centre - Holland Village

all the food you could ever dream of... and dirt cheap too

end to the other in about 45 minutes. We started at Holland Village, where we found many small shops and our very first Hawker Center experience. Hawker Centres, are usually found near public housing complexes. They are a grouping of very small take-away restaurants that sell incredibly inexpensive, but wonderful, food. Neither Evan nor I spent more than 3 Sing Dollars on our lunches. It was perfect. After Holland Village, we caught a cab and hit Orchard Road. A world famous hot spot for tourists and shopping. It was while walking down Singapore's most popular road when we both realized; "Wow, this is clean". You could eat off the sidewalk. After browsing through some street vender goods and taking many photos, we caught another cab to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The Botanic Gardens were wonderful. We walked along ponds that were filled with turtles, fish, and swans. We also saw hundreds of beautiful flowers, plants, and trees. Once we had seen enough, we caught yet another cab (cabs are reasonably cheap), with plans to go to Chinatown. "No!" said our driver. He refused to take us to Chinatown. "We go to the Zoo." "But we don't want to go to

Chris on Orchard Rd.

trying to figure out where we were and where we were going

the Zoo now, we've made plans to go to the Zoo some other time. We want Chinatown" "No Chinatown, waste of time." He later explained that Chinatown would be very boring given the time of day. The stores would not open for another few hours due to the heat. So he took us to Sentosa Island. "Sentosa" means peace and tranquility in Malay... the island was meant to be a Resort Island getaway, but it turned out to be a little more. Along with beaches, resorts, and hotels, Sentosa also offers a wide range of sports and activities. It is also the home of one of the massive Merlion statues; a statue with a fish body and lion head. The statue represents Singapores simple beginnings as a fishing town. We took a Luge run down to the south end of the island where we roamed the beaches and browsed through shops. We then took a scenic chairlift back to the top of the island. There were nets under the lift just in case. At the top, Evan bargained a snake charmer to let him hold the python for only 3 sing dollars, and then we played a round of mini

ice cream vending machines

put for half the price we were supposed to. After taking several buses and finally hiring a cab we made it back to David and Rose's where we treated ourselves to a swim. It was a jam packed day, and we hope that tomorrow will be just as exciting.
peace and love,
chris and evan.

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