Singapore Sling

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Similar to Hong Kong, Singapore is a vibrant city with a blend of modern and different Asian cultures. Singapore is home to about 4.8M people, and the island itself is only 48 km long by 25 km wide but it doesn’t feel quite as congested to us as Hong Kong.

We think Singapore is trying to acclimatise us both to the weather we can expect back home as when we arrived it was absolutely pouring down (thank goodness for my first holiday buy in Hong Kong - the umbrella!). Apparently though this weather is only the beginning of the Monsoon period, which doesn’t finish until February. Although we have been lucky to have at least a few dry interludes.

We have tried to explore and discover Singapore in a very short period of time but as with many of the places we have visited throughout our holiday, we have only scratched the surface.

We have roamed the streets of Singapore trying to get a feel for its colonial past of yesteryear while also visiting the key sights. One of the must visits is the Merlion. This is Singapore’s official symbol and is a statue of a mythical creature which has a lion’s head and the body of a fish. We also toured Thian Hock Keng, a temple that encompasses Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The Orchid Garden located in the heart of the Botanic Gardens was also a must see. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to spot Singapore’s national flower ‘Vanda Miss Joaquim’ (apparently this is a light/pale purple orchid) but the other colourful orchids more than made up for its absence.

The Straits of Malacca (just outside of Singapore) are one of the busiest in the world with over 750+ ships lying just outside Singapore Harbour at any one time - apparently this is due to the high port costs in Singapore. We took a tour along the Singapore River, which provided us with an insight into Singapore’s history where we saw buildings old and new and listened to commentary covering fact and we think some fiction of Singapore’s history and traditions. Some of these stories were also brought to life when we visited Sentosa Island (a type of play park for all ages) as they were played out through water, music and pyrotechnics in spectacular fashion.

As with Hong Kong, Singapore is a mecca for foodies and shopaholics - there are more shopping malls than I have ever seen. You could literally spend more than one whole day just exploring shopping malls alone, although your wallet or credit card would take a hammering. We attempted to see how the locals do things and blend in when we visited Bugis Street (one of Singapore’s largest shopping streets). Aside from selling all the normal items you would expect it also has a number of what is known as ‘hawker food’ with local food delights such as deep fried octopus, curried fish heads and such like! (yuk!)

Of course, ‘if you have not been to Raffles, you have not been to Singapore’, or so the saying goes. We could not exclude this icon of colonialism and Raffles has retained its charm despite being surrounded by tall, modern buildings. We embraced Raffles as fully as we could, including ‘Tiffin Time’ or ‘high tea’ experience and it was delicious! What’s more, we rounded off a hard day’s sightseeing by returning to Raffles in the evening to taste the concoction ‘the Singapore Sling’ - in our opinion it is made of pretty strong stuff, so one each was enough for us!

As the festive season is soon to come upon us, just like at home, Singapore has also decorated its main streets with Xmas lights against the backdrop of the twinkling lights from the skyscrapers, but without the cold/chill factor of home.

Naturally all good things must come to an end and sadly our adventure ends here with Singapore bringing us to a memorable close.

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