Last day in Singapore

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Got up early ready for a another big day of sightseeing. Made my way to Suntec City to catch the sightseeing bus. First stop was the Victoria Theatre and from there walked around to Raffles Landing (where Sir Raffles - the founder of Singapore) first landed, and past the Fullerton Hotel. Found a really nice irish cafe where i picked up breakfast on the go. Made my way to Boat Quay past all the brightly coloured restored shophouses, which is set against the dramatic backdrop of the office towers in Raffles Place (known as the financial district). Walked to the pier from where the river cruise departed from. The river boat is similar to the original boats used to cargo goods up and down the singapore river. Thankfully it had a canopy to screen out the sun, by this stage it was really hot and humid so was quite refreshing crusing up the river past all the cafes and coloured shophouses. Went up to the mouth of the Singapore river which had great views with the Esplanade on one side and Merlion Park on the other, with the towering financial district behind.

The architecture in Singapore is amazing with these modern skyscrapers towering over these brightly coloured converted warehouses. It is a reflection of the past and the present. After the cruise i walked down Clarke Quay among all the cafes and restaurants, it was a row of neverending restaurants one after the other. Was getting quite hungry and finally settled on 'Hooters' apparently only one of two in all of Asia. Only difference being, if you wanted to see hooters, this definitely wasn't the place to come!! Was very relaxing sitting alongside the river watching all the goings-on over a few tiger beers!

After lunch went back to Raffles Landing and went to the Asian Civilisations Muesum for a free one hour guided tour. Was pretty interesting, with many artifacts originating from either a chinese or indian influence, which reflects the diversity of culture in Singapore's early days. There was an exhibition on of the emperors robes, which looked amazing, but they were so large, you could probably fit two or three people into them.

Just down the road from here was the original town hall building which housed the art muesum. The muesum was a great deal smaller then i had expected with only one room displaying a photography exhibition....of about 12 life-sized pictures of various models in a variety of shots that didn't seem to make any sense at all. I guess thats art for ya!

Went to Fort Canning Park, made my way up through the Spice Garden, past the gravestones of people (which were cemented into the garden walls) up to the bunker. I got there just at the right time as they were about to conduct the last tour of the day through the bunkers. After watching a short video we went in to the various rooms where they had reconstructed what it would have looked like and what each room was used for. The bunker is of great significance as it is where the British surrendered to the Japanese during World War 2. It was only years later that Singapore gained independence. Walked around the park and came across an archeological dig. The park was believed to have contained the palace where the first settlers of Singapore lived in the 14th century. Over the years they had uncovered various artifacts believed to be from that era.

By this stage i was absolutely exhausted so before making my way back to the hotel, decided to stop in at Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel to try their world famous Sling Shot cocktail. The bar inside was on two different levels and was pretty packed, so sat out on the balcony with my complimentary bucket of peanuts. This bought my 3 days in Singapore to an end. I felt like i had a pretty good overview on the sights, the history and diversity of the culture and the people.

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