Singapore

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Once we had finally booked our accommodation for Singapore (2 different hostels) we went on a walking tour of Little India (the district we were staying in). There wasn’t that much to see there but we had a little booklet telling us about the area and its history. It was quite interesting and it always helps to get your bearings and scout out some good places to eat! We had quite an early night, although both of us had trouble getting to sleep with other people in the room. The room itself was pretty good with comfy bunk beds and a locker each for your bags.
The next day we woke up early (8am) and walked to the Colonial district. This is where you can see the Merlion (fish with lion head, spouting water) on the quayside, the Esplanade (which looks kind of like a shiny hedgehog) and Raffles Hotel. It’s a strange area with a mix of old and new buildings (we prefer the old), and it’s also packed full of tourists! While we were walking around we noticed that Singapore didn’t seem as clean as everyone makes out it is, I mean it was a lot cleaner than Bangkok but Hong Kong and Shanghai seemed just as clean. On the way back to our hostel we stopped off at Raffles again, the hotel itself looked beautiful but we just went to the museum. It was pretty interesting, full of old newspaper articles and pictures, but we had to rush through as we had to check out of one hostel and into another. The accommodation in Singapore is very expensive, it was about £12 for a dorm room when we would usually only pay £5 for our own double room. The second hostel we stayed in did have wifi and included breakfast though which made us feel a bit happier.
Once we’d moved our bags and locked the valuables away we headed off to Singapore Zoo. It took about an hour and a half on the MRT/bus and by the time we arrived it was about 2pm. It was about £10 for the both of us, which is more than we’d usually spend on attractions, but when we got in there is seemed worth it. A lot of the animals weren’t caged in and the monkeys were free to roam around the trees, although they seemed to stay in their little areas. It was so strange just seeing them hanging around above you, and in the Australia section the kangaroos were just hopping around all over the place with no restrictions at all. There was also a really good Elephants of Asia show where they got the elephants doing all sorts of tricks. The highlight of the whole trip however had to be the 2 polar bears; they were so cool and a lot bigger than I thought they’d be! Unfortunately we didn’t get to look at all of the animals though as at about 5:30 it started chucking it down! We got absolutely soaked running to the bus stop and it didn’t stop raining until we got back to town (nearly 2hrs later!), so it’s a good job we left when we did!
On our last day in Singapore we decided to go to Sentosa, even though it’s the biggest tourist trap in the area! You can buy packages that get you into a certain amount of attractions on the island but we decided to just turn up and go to the places that looked interesting, our first stop was Fort Siloso, a fort from WWII. It was a really interesting place with lots of films, pictures, exhibits and underground tunnels. It was only meant to take an hour to look around but we spent a good 2hrs there, taking our time in each of the different sections. We then made our way toward the beaches as they were one of the only things on the island that were free (along with the buses and animal shows). When we arrived there was an animal show about to start and they had a pig tailed macaque (pink bottomed monkey) that you could have your picture taken with. The funniest thing was that because she was ready to mate she had a really swollen red bum and would only go near men, so Nick had her on his shoulder! I on the other hand opted for the Parrot which was actually really heavy. We both watched the multi-animal show in which they brought out a bird of prey, a parrot, a monkey, a husky dog and a massive yellow snake. At the end of the show they let you go over and have your pictures taken with all the animals, Nick and I waited until the end and then asked to hold the snake, she said yes and on it went, Nick reckons it was constricting on him but I didn’t feel anything!

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