Starting off in Singapore

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We landed in Singapore on the night of 3rd June, after a tense build up to saying goodbye to family and friends a mere 24 hours before - that all feel like a distant memory as we buzzed through customs in Singapore airport. Unlike the reaction from the lady in a well known travel advice/booking chain in the UK had prepared us for, her head in hands, 'oh no' remarks were the complete opposite to the experience China Southern airlines had given us on the start of our trip. Food - good. alcohol - yes. entertainment - also good. Space for our little leggys - enough.

We got a shuttle bus from the airport to our hostel - Amrise Hotel in the suburb of Singapore called Geyleng. The only way I describe Gelling is 'Where the locals live' this is just by observation of course and not a genuine fact that any local resident of singapore lives in Geyleng. There were open food courts and street food on every corner and although we had arrived just after midnight the road our hostel/hotel was on was still buzzing.

Geyleng's underground station was called Bugis - this was only a ten minute walked up the road to the train station and once on the tube it was only another 10 min train journey to the centre off Singapore. The tubes like the rest of the city were EXCEPTIONALLY clean and even more safe. The is a a travel card you can buy from a ticket office in City hall station - this allowed us to have 3 days unlimited travel on the underground, overground and buses. it worked out at about £10 per person which is an absolute BARGAIN for the amount of times it was used, a $10 was paid when you get the cards and you have to return the cards by a given time and date to get your deposit back.

Botanic Gardens were beautiful - it is literally one huge garden full of greenery - but something free to do whilst in one of the most expensive Cities in the world.

One thing I had been really looking forward to seeing was 'Marina Bay Sands', once arriving at Marina Bay it was as spectucular as the pictures I had seen on google. I had read you could go up to the top - see the views and get a drink - Perfect, I could be posh for half an hour whilst taking in the Singapore skyline. After an hour of trying to get in Marina Bay Sands hotel (you would have thought such a big hotel would have a Grand entrance) we found the 'Sky park' desk only to be told it was $20 per person to go up (we already knew this) but there were no tables or chairs up there, by this point my feet were in agony form all the walking and having somewhere to sit was more appealing than the view (i sound like I'm 80 i know) and with being on a budget, sacrifices had to be made. We decided to give it a miss for that agreed to go back when we are older and spoil ourselves with not only the view from the top, but room allowing access to the incredible looking infinity pool. Marina Bay Sands - we will be back.



Day 2. We explored China Town - a part of the city that is full of vibrant colours, market stools, places to eat and with a sense of untouched tradition and history. It felt like Singapore will be forever growing and modernising but China Town has kept it charm over the years and will remain to do so.

Being huge animal lovers we had lots about the 'night zoo' apparently the worlds first and only :·. The zoo was good - it is more towards the top of Singapore and our trusty travel enabled us to get there and back (tubes and buses required) or free! Winning. The night zoo was BUSY and although the whole point of the night zoo is to see the nocturnal animals awake and lively seemed pretty pointless as most of them were asleep. A tram ride takes you round and gives you a whistle stop tour of each animal with a over enthusiastic guide. Not only are the animals unactive it is dark so at times a struggle to even see them in all their glory. As we went round I started to feel bad about going to the zoo, the animals were in ungated but small enclosures, sure they weren't shut up in a tiny steel cage. But considering the size of these beautiful creatures and the hundreds of miles of land they would be free to roam if they were free in the wild - their space was tiny. Nowhere could they properly run or sprint or roam. So whats better a place where the animals are safe from hunters and poachers but in a living space a fraction of their natural habitat? Or would they be better off in the wild where they are vunerable to fear and murder... I started wondering- are ALL zoos cruel or are we preserving these animals?



After a comfortbale stay at Amrise hotel we headed over to Little India where we would stay in Central 65 Hostel. Much like Geyleng and Little China it was bustling with locals, food courts and little shops. Central 65 was nice, clean, staff were friendly and they had a cool cafe type area down by reception. We had an 8 man dorm with what I can only be desbribed as 'pods'. in your 'pod' is a bed (obviously) a little light, a mini cupboard and a curtain to draw for privacy. I thought i was going to break my neck every time I got up and down the ladder but once in the ned was comfy, there was a charger in the cupboard to charge my phone and once my ear plugs were in all snorers would be abolished. The only thing I didn't like about Central 65, ok there's 2 things.... The tiny cupboard you are given to put your rucksack is placed under the bed... so getting ready or getting anything in or out your bag was a bit tight - with the added stress of someone being in the room and not wanting to wake them up... And, the bathroom - The toilets were in the shower or the shower was in the toilet, which ever way you want to look at it. The bathroom was SO HOT, so walking in the bathroom you found yourself in a piss stenched steam room and coming sweating from the heat...!



Sentosa Island - Basically a mini island of fun. Sentosa is easy to get onto - cable car, tram or a foot bridge. We arrived on Sentosa with our rucksacks full of each gear. With a universal studios, aquarium, water park, indoor sky diving and much more I was preaparing myself for my 27 year old boyfriend to have a full scale strop. After a few moans that the place wasn't signposted properly, people were in his way and he was thirsty - we arrived on the beach and it was so nice to chill after life in the city for the last couple of days. After what only seemed like 10 minutes, hunger struck and we were off looking for lunch. 'Take US Dollars, don't worry about getting any there currency' our head in hands, sighing Travel expert had previously told us at home. She was wrong (Again) Singapore did accept USD but Sentosa island didn't. So with a wallet full of USD and a prepaid travel master card that was also unusable on the island of fun, it looked like we were going hungry until thankfully 1 restaurant in the whole place accepted our card. If you're going to Sentosa Island - Take Singapore $.

Our last night in Singapore and we returned to Marina Bay sands and saw all its beauty at night. The Bay was lit up by a thousand lights and as we walked along the Bay there was some kind of water/light display be performed.. I don't know why, if this was a daily/weekly/monthly or one off thing - but it was impressive. After Sam and I became professional photographers that evening, comparing pictures and finally working out how to use panasonic mode on our phones we headed back to central 65 ready to be up for our next venture - BALI.

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