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Published: November 24th 2008
S 1
Loads of high rise.So, the last stop on the way home. Janet has wanted to see Singapore since watching a pretty grim film of the POWs in Changi prison. It’s a bit of history that lots of people don’t seem to know about. Paul didn’t until he was dragged around all the places Janet kept on about. Singapore is very densely populated. High rise buildings & not much space between them in places.
Probably the first thing we noticed was that our taxi driver & all the others as well as bus drivers use their mobile phones when driving. Not a place to hire a car & feel safe.
The hotel we stayed in is quite amazing. Hotel Re! Yes it even has the ! in its name. It’s Retro & has 60s music playing all the time. It’s just outside Chinatown & it’s very Chinese in many ways. The staff are nearly all Chinese or Malay & they are almost bowing to our every request. They are all so polite & friendly. The surroundings, well, to see is to believe. The rooms & corridors are shocking pink, as is the reception, the wine bar & the lifts. One reception room is
S 2
Hotel Re ! very comfortable to sit in but it changes colour about every minute. The food in the restaurant is wonderful (also mainly Chinese).
As we walked out of our hotel the heat hit us. It is permanently too hot. Well over 30, dropping at night to about 25. Thank goodness for air conditioning.
Well, we mastered the public transport system & it works really well. We walked 5 mins to the railway station & went anywhere linking up with buses when necessary.
First trip: Changi Museum & chapel. It was all very moving. On the way back we looked around a Malay village.
A day on Sentosa Island via cable car was beautiful. One mistake, we didn’t take swimming kit. The island is so fresh, with trees & flowers & lovely beaches. It’s such a contrast to the city just across the water. Buses are free all over the island. Peacocks roam around the bus station. While there we went up the Sentosa Sky Tower, a 2.5m diameter column with large rotating cabin that rises up to131 metres above sea level. The Island is a must for visitors.
In Singapore there is the new Singapore Flyer.
S 3
Re! It’s just like the London Eye but possibly a bit bigger. We found the time (& energy in this heat) to go there & ride on it. Some very good views especially as it was not too hazy.
The next ‘have to go there’ is The Raffles Hotel. It is the oldest hotel in Singapore & it features in several films. We walked there from the Flyer & called in for a fruit juice. We needed it by then even though it wasn’t really very far. The whole place is just glorious. It has been preserved with as near to its original appearance as possible. Certainly worth a visit.
Another visit was to the Night Safari. It’s a bit like a zoo but the animals are seen at night in their very pleasant surroundings. Unfortunately we chose the wrong night to go there. It was Hallowe’en & the whole place was heaving with people. It was all set up for the special night & everyone was so noisy that the animals were not at ease. Nibby & Matt had been there on their visit to Singapore & I believe they’d had a better deal than us.
On
S 4
Pink reception. our last day we went to an orchid garden where we were bitten too much by mosquitoes. We didn’t stay long. Instead we walked through an area called Little India. It was beautiful as the Diwali decorations were everywhere.
That night we checked in at Changi Airport by 9 o’clock, discovered that our flight was to be an hour later than expected & settled down for a 4 hour wait followed by the final 13 hour flight home.
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