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Published: December 10th 2010
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Crossing into Singapore was definitely the most thorough border we have experienced yet, Laura even got her bag searched! We arrived into Singapore in the late afternoon and made our way over to the ‘Beary Good Hostel’ in, you guessed it... Chinatown! We checked into a 12 bed dorm at a cost of £10 a night each, ouch! This was a really nice hostel, which gave us the best shower we have had in months, an air conditioned room complete with a duvet to cover us in our bunk beds and a free breakfast where cereal was on offer – our first bowl since leaving the UK! It felt good to be back in western civilisation (well apart from the prices!)
Our first night was spent on Sentosa Island, which is home to a number of amusements, bars and beaches and was a Mecca it seems, for both locals and Chinese tourists. Rather than catch the sky train or cable car over there, we obviously went for the much cheaper bus, which took us to Universal Studios Singapore. We had found that on weekends they put on an evening pyrotechnics event to keep the hoards of paying customers in
the theme park, so in we went. After rejecting a number of restaurants in there on the basis of price, we found ourselves a good pizza deal and Laura managed to fight her way to a table for us to dine at. We reserved our spot around the lake an hour early to watch the fireworks and spent the wait doing some route planning for the forthcoming weeks. The fireworks were a reasonable display, although they could have lasted longer if we’re honest, but the crowd surrounding us seemed to love them with very loud ‘ooohhhhs’ and ‘aahhhs’ more than we’ve ever experienced! On our way back, we stopped at an amazing sweet shop called ‘candilicious’ with the most different types of Cadburys chocolate we have ever seen! We went back to China Town and had a beer to round of our first evening in Singapore.
Unfortunately we shared our dorm with a chronic snorer who manages to keep Laura awake for a large part of the night; Dan somehow managed to sleep through it and was none the wiser! We left the hostel and found ourselves within minutes, in a camera shop thanks to the excellent sales skills
of the shop owner. After some tactical lines about how great spurs are doing and how Laura could be a mascara model (!!?!) we found ourselves parting with more money than we really wanted to pay for the camera we had been after for some time. We left the shop as proud owners of a Panasonic Lumix TZ10 but a little dazed as to how easily we had been convinced into buying it there and then! After discarding the old camera and the new box back in the hostel, we set off again to test out our new toy. First stop was Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple. We then walked towards the Singapore River into the heart of the CBD where we stopped to look at Old Parliament House, City Hall, the Old Supreme Court and Singapore cricket club. The heat was starting to get to us so we made a stop at one of the hundreds (literally!) of shopping malls. We found a Starbucks and ordered 2 white chocolate frappucinos , one of the best drinks we have ever had (so good it got a photo on the new camera!) We continued our walking tour of the
city by heading to War Memorial Park, past the Singapore version of the London Eye and past the amazing sight of 3 tall buildings with a boat on top of them all – we’re not sure why or how!! At this point, the rains descended once more so we took shelter in another shopping centre next to the ‘fountain of wealth’ which is supposedly the world’s biggest fountain, we can only presume it was turned off when we were there as it looked tiny to us (see the photo!) Not being able to afford to buy anything made the mall pretty boring pretty quickly so we caught the Singapore tube (MRT) back to China town. We had a late lunch/early dinner at the hawker stalls which thankfully cost a fraction of the price of dinner the night before but tasted much better! Each stall gets a grading of A-D based on their hygiene and luckily we found one of the few grade A’s! After a quick shower we donned our most smart clothes and headed back out into the city. Some of the museums are free after 6pm, so we walked to the National Museum of Singapore which was housed
in a very impressive building. Unfortunately the history gallery (the bit we would actually find interesting) shut at 6pm, but the 4 ‘living galleries’ were open so in we went. We think it was here that we realised we should stop going to every museum on offer to us unless we actually think they sound interesting! As Dan put is “I’m all musuemed and templed out!” (Good job we’re heading to the beach for a while after this!)
Next stop was Raffles Hotel which our lonely planet told us ‘is a Singaporean icon that should not be missed’. We sat at the bar in the very pretty courtyard of the hotel and ordered a drink each (Singapore sling for Dan and glass of rosé for Laura, something she had been missing not having!) which cost the same as our daily budget in Vietnam!!! After savouring each last drop, we had a quick nosey around before deciding we looked a bit out of place even in our best backpackers clobber so we left. We walked towards Orchard Road and were impressed by the amazing display of Christmas lights and blaring carols! Shopping mall number 3 of the day found us
a real treat! When we had travelled with Katie she had been raving about this ice cream shop in Australia called ‘Cold Rock’, where they mix in literally any sweets, biscuits, chocolate, sauces etc into whatever flavours of ice cream you want, and we found one, right there in Singapore! We ordered cheesecake flavoured ice cream with cookie dough and fudge pieces mixed in – it was amazing! Feeling slightly sick from the sugar rush and with legs exhausted from walking around all day, we strolled back to our hostel, stopping for a while in Clark Quay to watch the boats pass down the river. Needless to say, no snorer could stop us from sleeping that night, we were shattered!
The next morning we once more set off on foot and went to Fort Canning Park which was really peaceful right in the heart of the city. We continued on to Little India and were just looking around the Little India Arcade when the rain once more reared its head and drove us into the nearest restaurant for an early lunch. We let the waiter suggest what we should order and 5 minutes later we were presented with a
tray of about 12 silver bowls each full with a different vegetarian dish. It was really tasty and nice to try some more new grub. Even after sitting and playing a few games of cards, the rain wasn’t letting up, so we braved it and got soaked running to the nearest MRT station to take us back to China Town. We showered and collected our bags before boarding the MRT one last time to take us to Changi Airport. We had a moments panic when we arrived and realised we hadn’t confirmed our booking which was made 6 months ago and couldn’t see the flight on the departures board. On further inspection we discovered our flight did exist but was disguised as a stop off on route to Perth. At 18.25 we took off for our next destination – Bali, taking a slightly longer route than usual to avoid the erupting volcano on Java.
We really like Singapore as a city although it didn’t feel like Asia. It was a bit like London but a lot cleaner and hotter! We would like to return one day but with a budget that allows us to make the most of the
amazing shopping malls and expensive attractions!
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