Singapore We Love You!

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Singapore, we love you. You have it all, an efficient metro system, very impressive old and modern architecture, a friendly population and mall after mall full of shiny spanking new shops. What more could a city dwelling boy or girl ask for?

There's even a cocktail invented by you, the gin based Singapore Sling. This city could certainly teach others a thing or two. There's nothing really to fault Singapore on, apart from perhaps, the weather, it's a wee bit humid and perhaps the amount of time the traffic lights take to change in order to cross the road (are we starting to sound petty?) And...er, yes perhaps the fact that we both got bitten by mosquitos after looking around Fort Canning park during the day. Is there not something you could spray the pesky bugs with Singapore so that our visit remains absoutely perfect?

What we did: We took a walk down the river from Clarke's Quay all the way to the Singapore Flyer (giant enclosed ferris wheel much like the Millenium Wheel in London) soaking up the skyscapers and landscape. We swerved and avoided eating at one of the many touristy restaurants along Boat Quay (you know the kind, those with the touts inviting you to check out the menu) and instead made our way to the super cheap and tasty Hawker markets. There you can walk along the foodcourt like stalls choosing the most appertising Chinese and Singaporean dishes and sit and enjoy eating with the locals. Certainly beats dining in the overpriced tourist traps.

Talking of tourist traps we knocked back our Singapore Slings at the famous Long Bar in The Raffles Hotel as we'd heard it was a 'must do' when visting the city. Although the hotel grounds are impressive, the cocktail experience was not particularly special. I guess it depends how many cocktails you can knock back and how big your budget is. Our tip would be to take your 60 Singpore dollars (30 pounds!!!!), the cost of two cocktails and have a go instead on the Singapore Flyer for a spectacular view of the harbour. Same cost but more thrilling we think.

Everybody should visit China Town and Little India when here. Lively China Town, home to the impressive Buddha Tooth Temple where the monks don't mind you wandering around as they give readings. More tasty Chinese food can be found in the area. The area of Little India had us believing we'd actually been transported by tuk tuk out of Singapore into India itself. The food is good and spicy and rather than plates you eat off giant banana leaves. Lots of afforable accommodation for backpackers in the area although its probably advisable to book ahead as its really popular. The Sultan Mosque gave us our first ever glimpse inside a mosque where there were volunteers to explain how it all worked. Groups of school children were looking round too and a guide told us that all children in Singapore are educated in various religions and shown around the various places of worship.

To sum things up, Singapore is a great city which sees it's people living in harmony and the tourists marvelling at how it achieves this. Eating and shopping are the country's great pastimes. It's fun, vibrant and clean, and the perfect introduction to South East Asia!

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Comments

[sylvester]

thank you
hey i'm from singapore and i'm so glad you guys enjoyed singapore! beautiful photos!