Advertisement
Published: September 8th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Sentosa
Who's a pretty boy then? After an event free flight (we departed from gate 13!) we arrived in Singapore around lunchtime on Monday 18th August. After a worrying gap between the appearance of Lisa's bag and then mine we were promptly stopped to have our bags x-rayed. It seemed that if you had a suitcase you were not searched, but backpacks definitely were! After proving that my pocket knife (packed in my checked luggage) was not a switch blade, we got a taxi to Little India due to the pouring rain rather than catch the MRT.
Little India
Our hostel was very different to the website photos which was a little disappointing. For a start the shared toilets were very poorly designed because there was not enough room to sit on the toilet and shut the door which proved awkward at times! The discovery of 2 cockroaches in one of the showers did not phase us too much - they got to taste what the bottom of a detergent bottle was like!
On our first day we followed a walking tour in our guide book and bought a few essentials. Little India was the most disorderly of the Singapore districts that we went
to and reminded us a little of Bangkok with lots of street sellers minus the abundance of good food found in the Thai capital.
Shopping
The second day featured a visit to the shopper's paradise of Orchard Road which was crammed full of malls selling everything. Lisa was delighted to find an M&S whilst I trailed in her wake. Even though we had only been shopping for a few hours, we were in need of a rest in the afternoon so went to the local cinema to see The Dark Knight. In the evening we thought we would try some of the local Indian food. We must have picked a duff establishment because it was dreadful - not a patch on our local in Redditch!
Sentosa
Wednesday was a trip to the harbour front where we caught a cable car to the resort island of Sentosa. On the journey there you were able to see the land reclamation in progress - desperately needed because the country is so small with 87%!o(MISSING)f the population living in high rise buildings. Apparently there are vending machines in the high rises which do not get vandalised -
amazing!
On Sentosa we purchased our attraction tickets and then went on a 'luge', akin to a downhill go kart. We visited an old British Fort called Siloso which was over 100 years old, last used to direct fire inwards to provide cover for retreating British and Allied troops from Malaysia and when Singapore was under threat during WWII. Its perceived impregnability as a coastal defence was never actually tested.
We then visited the butterfly and insect exhibit which included handling some of the parrots. Lisa got to see some spiders, but they were dead so it was ok.
The last attraction we visited was 'Images of Singapore' which was a self-guided tour amongst life-sized models depicting the history of Singapore and the melting pot of cultures that inhabit the city. This was fairly interesting, but rather cheesy - all cultures treated each other with love and respect and Singapore was portrayed as a model for the world (just don't mention the floggings, firing squad and the state controlled press).
That evening we got to experience a 'Hawker Food Centre' in Chinatown. We had tried to go to the one in Little India the previous evening,
but it had been temporarily closed. Inside the centre there were lots of tables and chairs in the middle of a hall surrounded by many vendors selling different types of cuisine (mainly Chinese as we were in Chinatown!). Each vendor specialised in one type of food whether it be egg fried rice or a noodle dish and once you had found a seat you could then eat from however many vendors you liked. Our meal that evening was probably our best in Singapore.
The Singapore Flyer
This particular attraction was recommeded to us by several of the locals. It was very similar to the London Eye, but bigger and a bit cheaper. We got as close as we could using the MRT, but had to complete the last 2km on foot in the heat and humidity. However the walk enabled us to get a good look at the flyer from the ground as well as the theatre, a similar shape to the Selfridges building in Birmingham, but with angled glass which gave the appearance of scales.
The flyer presented great views of the city. The weather was fine so the tall buidlings of the CBD were
clearly visible. We were able to have a pod all to ourselves and were amused when the recorded voice said that the inspiration for the flyer came from the Eifel Tower - yeah right!
In the afternoon we headed to the colonial district where we walked around the Quay and enjoyed a pint at a victorian style pub which had been built in England and shipped over. My pint of Speckled Hen tasted so good after 9 weeks of local beer. We also walked to the Raffles Hotel, took some pictures and went back to the Chinatown for dinner.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.111s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0524s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb