Singapore Flyer

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Late last night we arrived into Singapore and got ourselves to the Tresor Tavern hostel just around the Little India are in the town. The hostel was busy but provided clean and comfortable beds. We will most likely only stay in Singapore for 3 nights so we had two full days to see the sights that Singapore has to offer.

With this in mind we were out and about early today. Even at 9am the heat is still very much unbearable. We set about walking along the busy roads and made our way into the South Marina area. Downtown Singapore appears an extrmely convenient area to sight see as the majority of the attractions are all within a 3km radius from the mouth of the river.. The Marina South is an area right on the mouth, the first sight that caught our eye was the Suntec City mall. This compromises of 5 tower blocks which were all connected in some way or another. Outside the mall is the huge fountain of wealth. This structure is in the guiness book ofrecords as it is in fact the largest water fountain in the world. It was not at all impressive yet as it was not switched on. The shows start from 8pm, so im sure we will be back later to catch the show.

From the fountain of wealth we ventured into the war memorial park, whereby we stared at the different statues within the park. We then made our way across Raffles Boulevard to see the Singapore Flyer, this is the biggest ferris wheel in the world. There is starting to be a trend here with all the biggest things in the world. The wheel offers a 360 degree view of everything from the bustling business district to surrounding Indonesian and Malaysian islands. We didnt go in the wheel though we thought we had a good enough view down on the ground.

Whilst in the marina bay area we witnessed the Formula one circuit that runs through the city, well , part of it. Further along the bay we saw the esplanade theatre. This is a brand new area which was made to add some more culture and entertainment to the city. We got a good view across the marina bay here and in the distance we saw all the high rise buildings and in front of them was the Merlion Park which is a random stone statue of a big fish/lion with water firing out of its mouth. This statue was a massive hit with the tourists for some reason.

From the Merlion park we entered Singapore river area which was a very nice and clean area. Along the river we passed some attractions like the boat quay, parliament house and also the Sir Stamford leaning statue. The river area is linked to chinatown. It was here that we stopped for some lunch and our first taste of Asian food whilst in the continent. We stopped ina remote food court and after a little inspection we tried some rice with duck. It was really nice and we both went the whole 9 yards and ate the whole meal with chopsticks.

After lunch we continued round the slummy chinatown area. It wasnt the best and the only real major attraction was the Sri Mariammah temple. It was a fantastically designed temple that made the whole walk around chinatown worthwhile. From chinatown we walked across the city centre through Fort Canning and arrived to Orchard Road. Orchard Road is synonymous with shopping, huge malls line the strees and everything and anything is sold. Also on the street is Istana Negara Singapura, this is the official residence of the president of Singapore. Orchard road is a big road and there are so many shopes, after a couple of hours looking around our feet began to hurt as we had walked so far.

We finally got back to the hostel around 6pm. We were so so tired our energy had been drained from all the walking and also the heat. We recharged our batteries and got a shower to freshen up. We went out to find a typical local side stall for our dinner. We thouroughly enjoyed our lunch and so we wanted something similar for our dinner. We found a good local place whereby we ate chicken, vegetables and rice. It was raelly nice food and really cheap.

We had plans this evening to go back to the Central district again. We noticed whilst at the fountain of wealth earlier in the day they had shows on later, so we walked here after dinner and we got to witness the amazing spectical of the worlds largest waterfountain in action. It was awesome watching the waterfountain with the lights n different shapes.

After the show we walked 5 minutes to the marina bay area, here we got the postcard picture of Singapores skyscrapers all lit up in the distance across the mouth of the river. This was our last moment of sightseeing before we cale for a taxi to take us home back for a well earned nights sleep.

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