Singapore

---

After being fined at Phuket airport for staying two days over our visa limit we jumped on the plane and landed in Singapore. The airport was one of the best I’ve been to - there was no cueing or waiting around. We found our bags quickly, went through customs and found an information centre. The info centre in Singapore airport was top notch. A member of staff showed us a few hostels on the internet and called to see if they had any vacancies, advised us on how to get around and places to visit.

I know this may seem like a bit of an anorak’s comment but the public transport system was great. We brought a 3 day pass that allowed us to travel all over the city on any bus or train. Their trains are like the London Tube but with no graffiti or vandalism, clean and air conditioned. We thought Singapore was going to be expensive so we decided to save money on our accommodation and headed off to the cheapest hostel in the book called Hawaii Hostel. What a mistake that was! The place was a total shit hole, heroin addicts would even turn down a bed there! The room must have been about 15 x 15 foot, had a skanky bed, bed side table, no windows but friendly cockroaches. This was an improvement on the first option that had a smashed window. We eventually settled for a bunk in a hostel called The Prince Of Wales Backpackers. They had a bar down stairs that showed the football and offered free breakfast and Internet.
As we didn’t have much time in Singapore we jumped in the shower and went for a walk. We decided to head to the Singapore Flyer, which is Singapore’s equivalent to the London Eye. We wanted to go on the Flyer in the evening so we could see the City lit up. To kill some time we headed off to China Town for dinner. China Town is like a market with restaurants, bars and stalls packed in next to each other. We found a restaurant on the side of a busy street and watched people hustle through the crowds as we eat our dinner. As with Thailand, our food was served when it was ready so you don’t eat at the same time. They also cocked Liv’s order up so by the time hers came out, I had finished.

The Singapore Flyer was pretty cool. In the dark you could see if for miles and it looked fantastic. The pods looked a combination of futuristic and space age. Once the doors close, the lights go off and you are left with the glow from the neon lights which looked great. I didn’t realize before we got on but the start finish straight of the Grand Prix circuit is right next to the Singapore Flyer so you get good views of the grandstand and track. The Flyer took around 45 minutes to rotate, which is just about right. The pictures are cool but the camera doesn’t really do the Flyer justice - the City looked amazing and the set up of the pods in the dark is really cool. As we had done a lot of walking we decided to get the tube back to our hostel. As we walked down into the underground we saw a load of teenagers doing various types of free styling. There were skateboarders, bmxers and break dancers all doing their thing. Some of the kids were very good and it was cool to watch as we walked past.

The next day we decided to go to the zoo and night safari. I won’t go on too much about the zoo as you can see all the pictures on Facebook. I was most looking forward to the night safari but the zoo was much better. You basically saw the same again but in the dark! After the safari we watched a show that the zoo put on. It was okay but I would have preferred to watch the first half of Chelsea vs Liverpool. All in all the zoo was a long but good day and Olivia really enjoyed it so it was worth it. On the way home we grabbed a curry in Little India at one of the Hawkers (a Hawker is a large food market that all the locals eat out in.) We just managed to get a chicken biriyani before the place shut. The curry was bloody hot, which I suppose was to be expected. I didn’t mention anything to Liv and waited for her to take a bit. I didn’t really get the reaction I was looking for, she just coughed and laughed and then got stuck in, which surprised me. She said afterward that she put up with it because she was hungry! We got back to the hostel just as the first half was finishing and the score was 0-0. Everything turned out okay as Chelsea scored two goals in the second half so I didn’t miss the good stuff and went to bed a happy boy.

On the last day we headed over to Sentosa Island, which is a manmade Island for holiday makers. They have a few complexes and beaches but are in the process of building a theme park and several huge hotels. We only went to Sentosa to for the Street Luge. Basically you sat in a go kart and bombed down the hill. As we were cueing there were signs saying not to overtake and a picture of a naughty little kid tearing up the track. I took inspiration from the naughty kid and shoot off down the hill over taking anyone in my way. To be fair I was quite well behaved, I slowed down when over taking and didn’t screech the wheels around the corners, which took a lot of self discipline as they had massive banked corners that were screaming out for some sideways action. I should have brought a 2 or 3 run deal at the beginning as I would have loved to have done another run. It’s probably good that I didn’t go again otherwise the pictures of the naughty kid would now be replace with a battered and bruised picture of me. The Luge was amazing and looking back now, was one of the most exciting things I’ve done so far. The good news is that they have the same thing in Queenstown……..I can’t wait!

We decided to get to the airport early instead of hanging around in Singapore. It’s a good job we did as we were in for a shock - we wasn’t allowed to board our flight to Sydney as we didn’t have a visa. We explained we had a connecting flight to New Zealand but the check in staff couldn’t find it on their system. Luckily STA was open so I gave them a call and they explained that we were only flying as far as Sydney. I mentioned that at the top of our itinerary it stated ‘London to Auckland’. The guy told me that that the furthest destination for the entire trip is listed at the top and as we were leaving Auckland to return to London that is why our itinerary said ‘Auckland to London’. He went on to say that people sometimes sort out their own transport from country to country using trains and ferries. Who catches a ferry from OZ to NZ! It turns out that our flight from Sydney to Auckland was cancelled five weeks before we left. In those five weeks no one from STA called us or tried to book us another flight. All we got was an email two weeks before we left stating our itinerary. The email was exactly the same as our first itinerary when we booked the flights, with the exception of our flight to Auckland. Looking back I remember looking at the email, checking the first few flights, thinking it was a duplicate email and paid no more attention. I did notice it when I printed everything off our itinerary just before leaving but thought it was a mistake, what a dickhead.
It turns out that STA send an itinerary email two weeks before departure and it is up to the client to check and make sure everything is correct. At the end of the day it is our fault for not calling and asking what has happened but at the same time I can’t believe STA don’t inform people when flights are cancelled or at least change the email title to notify a flight change. Any way STA paid for our Australian Visas and sorted us out with a cheap flight to Auckland (that we had to pay for) and we was on our way to Sydney.

---

Photos

P1020044
Fish foot massage

P1010863
Liv let loose in a bakery

P1020066
Street Luge

P1020080
Sentosa Island

P1010915
Raing driver impression

P1010963
Monkeying around