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Published: March 8th 2006
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Singapore- a very clean and cosmopolitan city, which is definately best enjoyed at night. We spent 3 days 2 nights here. We had been told that it was a pretty boring city but after KL we were expecting a bit more. We stayed in Hostel Called BetelBox which is on Joo Chait, it was a really lovely, small hostel with free internet and exceptionally helpful members of staff- we would definately reccommend!
The first day we just recovered from our bus journey which was delayed by 1.5hrs and found something to eat. The second day we went to the Botanical Gardens, saw the beautiful flowers and fed Turtles, ducks and the Swans and attempted the long walk up Orchard Road ( we gave up half way!) If we thought KL had lots of shopping malls we were mistaken, Singapore had them lined up right next to each other! It would have been soo fun I we had come away, in like 5 years time, to do our power waldrobe shopping- but basically it is the same stuff that you can get in London- not really that much cheaper at all, which is good as I might have bought something ridiculous!
On the second night we decided to go out and have a nice dinner, and go to Raffles. Tony at the hostel gave us some advice on where to go. So we went to the'Swissotel, The Stamford' to a bar called 'New Asia, which was on the 71st floor of the hotel overlooking the whole city- it was magnificent! We sampled 2 cocktails in there, a 'Stamford Tower and Merlion Cocktail' both were delicious. Get there before 9 pm to benefit from half price cocktails (S$10), the atmosphere was great in there- lots of international clientele who has obviously popped out for a quick one after work- it was like we had walked into scene from 'Sex and the City'. Does London have a bar like this- that is free to get into with 3 pound cocktails??? I don't think so ( If there is, please let me know and I'll be sure to visit when I get back). So rest assured, if my new employers offer up a secondment in Singapore I will be saying "Yes Please!" We then went to the infamous 'Raffles', which is round the corner and had 'that' cocktail, the 'Singapore Sling' that the
city made famous and a Strawberry Daqauri- which were both as delicious as the previous ones but the atmosphere in there was somewhat, more, shall we say 'mature'- we drank our cocktails and left for dinner (It wasn't perhaps the smartest idea for us to drink before we had eaten- we began to regret this as we made our way to the restaurant!) . We went to a restaurant called 'Forbidden City" in Clake Quay, which is owend by the Indochine chain- had a fantastic meal outside this gorgeous restaurant and then went on to the Ministry of Sound- which was round the corner too (soo convienient!), which was unfortunately closed : ( But we had a great night anyway and it changed our view of Singapore as being boring and uninteresting!
On the Third day we went to the Singapore Art Gallery, more Kay's thing than mine, I am not really into art but I did really try! Went to China town, had a look around ( I didn't buy anything!) and then went to 'The Esplanade', 2 squashed hedgehogs, enclosed are a Singapore main Theatre and Concert hall, gift shops and really nice and expensive restaurants. We
went up to the roof, the view again was amazing. Again all of this for free!!!! We then came back to the hostel and got ready for the airport- Our flight wasn't until 10am the next day but we had heard about how fantastic it was, free cinema, internet, swimming pool, foot massage chairs we couldn't wait! So we then we got there and the Cathay Pacific counter was not open till the morning, the BA counter (BA who we booked out tickets with), said that they couldn't fit us on an earlier flight, couldn't check us in- basicially said go away and come back tomorrow and speak to Cathay. So as we couldn't check in we were stuck outside the departure lounge with limited facilites i.e. NONE !!! So we hunted for somewhere so we set up camp for the night upstairs, pulled some seats together and placed my pashmina over my head! We woke up at 6.15 and went down to see if they could let us on the earlier flight or just check us in so that we could go through the gates, and she managed to move us forward! Of course by this time it was
@ the Botanical Gardens
The centre stage-unfortunately it was closed to visitors 07.10, the flight left at 8.05- get the picture? We didn't even have time to explore the amazing departure lounge, or use any of the free facilities- that will teach us to get our hopes up! We didn't even have time to grab breakfast- but at least we were through the gates- only a 5hr wait in Hong Kong now to get to Beijing but at least we were inside with the free internet. The irony of it all - now we are here the 'free' internet doesn't even work properly and half the places we wanted to eat are Outside the restricted area!!! Hey, I guess you get what you ask for!!!
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