Singapore Slingers

A lot of fellow travellers have advised us to spend only a little time in Singapore since it is very expensive for south-east asia. That was enough info for us to reduce our time there to 1 full day. But I think we covered more than anyone would have expected. We caught a bus from KL to the Singapore border crossing and we were supposed to be picked up by the same bus on the other side to take us to central. Although the fat bastard of a bus driver had other plans and left without us. Maj got his usual terrorist suspicions at the passport counter and had to be frisked in back room for TNT, good work boys, he is a dodgy looking geeza. He had the same issue as before where his name was too identical to someone who has been blacklisted. He got checked out and everything was fine, except our transport to the city. We asked another driver where abouts our bus should be located and he was unsure. We explained our problem and asked if we could jump on his bus, he was cool with it and didn't even charge us. He let us use his i-phone to find out where our friends were staying and he even dropped us at a money exchange spot, real stand up guy.

First impressions of Singapore.....it was so clean and green even in the heart of the city, great looking place. The road system was really efficient also, not a pothole anywhere! We caught the MRT metro the remainder of our journey to yet another little India. This lil' India especially on this night was like downtown Delhi, swarmed with Indians and hardly any room for cars on the roads. We found the Incrowd hostel where we were knocked aback with the $20 dorm bed charge (about £10). We did get a free breakfast, even if it was just toast and tea. We met our friends there, grabbed a late night curry (obviously) and turned in for the night. Tomorrow was gonna be a long ass day!




So, June 14th. The previous evening I flicked through a singapore guide and picked out all the sights we needed to see, let's just say there were a few. We got up at the crack of dawn, grabbed some brekky and made moves. First off we transitioned from lil' India to the Muslim quarter. Here we saw the Sultan Masjid and also took a walk down Arab street. The area suprisingly had a very European feel to it, with an exotic Singapore twist. There were cafe's lining the paved streets, and cars having no access to the area. But palm trees and other beautiful plants had the finishing touch that was needed. From here we walked to the Suntec city (shopping centre, nothing Aztec or anything) and we got a chance to make a wish at the fountain of wealth, which just so happens to be the worlds biggest fountain. Another tick off the list.


Next up was the Singapore flyer, a complete copyright effort of the London Eye. We never went on because I had better (and cheaper) idea. We crossed the bridge over to the newly developed Sands on the Bay hotel and shopping centre. This was my favourite area in Singapore and wasn't even fully developed. We went inside the hotel and tried to make our way to the rooftop but unfortunately it wasn't opening for another week. Instead we got as high as the 22nd floor, more than high enough and a great view over the harbour of Singapore's skyline.





We crossed the double helix bridge on the way back which was a interesting piece of construction. Then visited the war memorial monument of the victims of World War II, St. Andrews Cathedral, the Esplanade theatres on the bay and then over to Merilion park, that's where the lion/fish fountain is located. After going to see the Stamford Raffles landing statue (a Brit, who founded Singapore in 1819 and had a great effect on the success of the country) me and Maj parted ways, he needed to sleep.

I continued down to Chinatown and visited a Buddhist temple. Inside on the 3rs floor they had a museum with loads of blown up photographs of important Buddhist sites from around the world. It was unbelievable how many of them we had visited during our trek of Asia. After, I headed back to find Maj and get some lunch, Subway seemed the right choice at that moment in time.

We continued the days stroll along Orchard Rd, which is more than comparable to 5th Avenue in New York City for the amount of top end stores located there. On the plus side it also had an onslaught of shopping outlets which had lower range shops, so you can imagine how busy this road can get.




The main attraction for us in Singapore was our visit to the Night Safari. We saw loads of nocturnal animals doing there thing (especially in the mouse-deers case) that you would not normally see in a day zoo. We saw an animal show too that was really fun. And got to travel around the park on a tram seeing loads of activity.

It finally looks like we reached the tip of the mainland. What now you ask? A flight to Indonesia of course. Let the journey continue.

Singapore Photo Link:
http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5871099011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/