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Published: February 3rd 2010
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Even after many trips to Asia, I had not been to Singapore, except for a stopover on Changi Airport, but that doesn't count, so I was quite eager to explore this city that has prospered in the last 50 years and has left all other South East Asian countries and its capitals behind.
My hotel (and later also my hostel) were in the centre of all the action.
I spent some time wondering Orchard road, which is a broad street (about 3x2 lanes) lined with shopping malls. The big brand names are all there, and not once, but in multiple malls. It seems that none of the big names want to be left out of the premium shopping locations in Singapore so they rent all the space they can get. One of Orchard Road's side roads was a beautiful lane with some old colonial style houses.
Another trip I made was to Sentosa. Sentosa is an island just off the coast of Singapore and is one big entertainment place. It has a huge man made beach and all sorts of attractions, like an Ocean World, Skytower, etc. They're building some new hotels and casinos there as well.
When I
was having an icecream there a German guy approached me. His name is Andreas and he had just arrived in Singapore but was going to stay a little longer because he found a job there. We were both heading back to the city and agreed to have dinner later.
We had dinner in Kampong Glam, which is the Arabian quarter of Singapore. After dinner, we went to the famous Raffles hotel, named after Singapore's founder Sir Thomas Raffles, and built in 1887 and now completely restored. We went to the Long Bar to be precise, famous for the Singapore Sling cocktail that was invented there. It tasted pretty good and we had some more drinks at Clark Quay after that.
The next day, I invited Andreas to a game of pool. He accepted and we were both on for a Germany-Netherlands sports thriller. Unfortunately for him he only got one game out of 13, so he returned home a disappointed man :-)
I also did a walk around Chinatown. I've seen many Chinatowns already, but this must be one of the best. Easy to walk around in and some beautiful old houses. In one street (Club street) many
houses are beautifully restored and converted into trendy bars. In preparation for the Chinese New Year half February, there was a huge market set up. It was at the market where I visited the Chinese Heritage Museum, about Chinese settlers coming to Singapore and their lifestyle. Peeking through one of the windows, there was this girl sitting there, selling stuff on the market, and she didn't have a clue I took this picture of her...
It's a good thing I brought my camera tripod, because I was eager to take some shots of Singapore's skyline by night. Singapore certainly has a nice skyline. There's a great viewing platform in the marina from where you can make the perfect skyline shots. Hope you like the results!
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