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November 8th- November 12th
We've been very busy the last few days in Singapore, we packed our 4 day trip with a lot of activities, so this one will be long.
Day 1- Still with us? Let's begin........The trip from Melaka to Singapore was quite short, the border crossing was easy and we found our way to our hostel via the underground. We were staying in an Australian ran hostel called the Prince of Wales. The dorm room we booked slept 24 people, we were lucky though it barely had 5 people in there, and most came and went after a night. The POW was located on the Singapore equivalent of Brindley Place; the stretch overlooked the Singapore River and was littered with bars and restaurants. Right behind our road and towering into the sky was the stock exchange and banks of Singapore. The area unsurprisingly meant that all the pubs were full of bankers buying pints costing a packet. As we had done so well on our journey we left the hostel and treated ourselves to a drink, the round cost $30 so we only had the 1. While enjoying our tipple we planned out a full scale attack on Singapore and its sights and activities, there's so much more to do than we had time for so we had to prioritise.
As we still had half the day left we decided to head down the river and out towards the bay. Singapore is a huge metropolis that offers amazing views of structures that have been well thought out and designed. As we walked down the river we passed buildings charting the entire history of Singapore. Although the city has been around for many hundreds of years it has had exponential growth since its independence from the British in the 60s, not a year goes by without another skyscraper or cultural development being built. After a short walk past some of the many 60 floor banks we came to Fullerton square. Fullerton square is home to the Fullerton Hotel, a very famous building in Singapore. Originally built as an office block/post office by the British in 1928, it also housed the very secretive Singapore club on the top two floors. During WW2 it was converted into a hospital for British soldiers. It eventually became a hotel and the company also developed the surrounding area to include smaller hotels, bars and a tourist park. Fullerton square is at the end of the river and has marked the end with Merlion Park. The Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot and national symbol of Singapore. It's basically a 10 meter high statue that shoots water out its mouth into the bay. Simple really. (photos)
Singapore decided to dam its largest river and build a reservoir to provide water to the growing city. This has become the Marina bay. The whole bay has been cleverly developed and Fullerton square occupies a small part of this. We continued around the bay past more banks towards the newest area the Marina Bay Sands. The Marina Bay Sands is a gigantic resort made up of a hotel, casino, theatre and shopping mall. The shopping centre is the only one in the world to include a canal running through the middle, gondola rides were available to people who bought things at the high end shops. The Hotel has become the stand out feature of the impressive Singapore skyline.(photos) Three towers climb 60 storeys and are topped off with a sky terrace. The terrace looks like a giant boat has been plonked on the top. On the roof they have clubs and bars, a mini park and an infinity pool that stretches the length of two towers. However pre-booked tickets were required to gain access to the roof, and considering the waiting list was 3 months long we just couldn't squeeze it in.
Behind the hotel is the recently finished 'Gardens by the Bay'. This Cannon Hill sized park is Singapore's newest power station. The park is home to 18 artificial trees, each 15 storey high tree is built from recycled concrete and steel. The structures tower above the abundant trees that grow below and allow for climbing plants to grow high into the air through the steel frames. On the top of each tower is a platform of solar panels and solar water heaters. During the night the whole park is lit up and the 'trees' are used in a light show. We were lucky enough to be walking over a suspended walkway between two 'trees' when the show started and caught the best view. The trees power the whole park, 2 giant bio domes and 1000 houses. Everywhere should have 1!!!
By the time we had explored the whole park and Declan had read every piece of information about the 'trees' he could find it was really late. We had walked for hours and only made it halfway round the bay! We ventured back the same route wearily and took our tired legs to bed.
Day 2-We woke early the next morning to catch the free breakfast. We bought a tube card to aid our journey round the city, and headed to the other side of the city. We were going to the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore's entertainment zone. We could have went to any of the many parks on Sentosa, however none of them had a chance of beating Universal Studios once we realised there was a Jurassic Park Ride!!! As we approached the ticket line we got a photo in front of the huge rotating 'Universal Earth'. We entered the park and regressed into childhood. The park is broken up into 7 different themed zones with a main ride and a few smaller ones for kiddies.
The first zone we entered was Madagascar. The area was full of props and scenes from the movie. The main feature was a titanic sized ship surrounded by crates marked with animal names. The ship had a river ride passing through it. We boarded the ride in no time and entered into the ship in our own little boat. The ride was full of life sized robotic Madagascar characters and recreated the story from the film with a few twists. We were splashed and amused along the way and the Chinese people in our boat seemed to love it to. After a photo with Alex the Lion we moved on to Far Far Away.
The Shrek zone had lots of characters roaming about and we managed to find Shrek and Fiona for a photo. Donkey on the other hand eluded us all day!! Far Far away was made to look like the film, the fairytale themed shops and restaurants were wittily named and centred around a pink castle. The main ride was a 4D Shrek story. The 4d element simulated different things throughout the film, however being sneezed on by Donkey was a highlight.
The next zone was The Lost World! Oh my god it was amazing. We entered the zone to find a full-scale T-Rex statue fighting a Spinosaurus (the rubbish dino from the last film). Behind the dinosaurs were the iconic gates and the rest of the zone. As we walked through the gates the Jurassic park theme tune could be heard playing out enhancing the joyous mood we were in. We ventured all around the zone finding trinkets from the film. Declan even managed to hatch from his own egg! Rightly so, the queue for the J-Park ride was humongous so we decide to bide our time and return later. Bolted on to the side of Jurassic Park was a 'Waterworld' Show. This wasn't waterworld as in animals performing, it was 'Waterworld' the terrible 90s Kevin Costner flick. The show though was really good. They had recreated the set from the film with jet-skis, boats and zip lines covering the water filled arena. Actors flew in, jumped off and generally shot the hell out of each other for half an hour while soaking the crowd. The show might well be better than the film!!!
The Mummy Zone was up next and looked like Ancient Egypt. Above our heads towered statues of those Anubis things from the film and Pharaohs on stilts walked around the area. The main ride was inside the Mummies Tomb and was a pitch black indoor roller coaster. Mel being a big tit opted out of this ride which wasn't so bad as there wasn't a queue for the Lone Riders. The ride itself wasn't that scary. The thing worrying Declan the most was how scary the rest of his carriage thought it was, they screamed like blazes for about 4 minutes.
The Sci-fi zone was right next door and had two main rides. A pair of duelling rollercoaster's and the Transformers ride. The duelling coasters were based on Battlestar Galactica and had a human side and a robot side. The robot side was the more intense roller coaster as it was a suspended chair with loop de loops, corkscrews, twists and drops. Up steps lone rider and knocks it out the park, windswept and grinning ear to ear it was up there with the likes of 'Air' and 'Nemesis'. The Transformers ride was just god awful, keeping in trend with the films. A 3D motion simulator roller coaster that was trying to be as many different rides it could be apart from a good one. It made Lone Rider feel sick and have a head ache. We moved on after posing with a Prop from the film.
The next zone was a 1920s New York scene. Here we saw street dancing and went on a ride hosted by none other than Spielberg himself. The ride was called Lights, Camera, Action. It was based inside a huge sound stage that was rigged up for a hurricane experience. The action took place in a fake boat house and we watched as the whole thing was torn apart by winds and set ablaze. Upon a huge ship crashing through the wall and scaring the life out of us, a bell rang and a man sounded 'cut'. The whole set then went back to normal as if nothing happened.
The last zone was 1950s Hollywood. Hollywood was slowly evolving into Sesame Street due to a new major ride being built, however the zone was still home to Mel's Diner. Mel's diner was a 'Rock N Roll' burger bar straight from the 50s.Outside it had muscle cars and Cadillac's. Inside it had red leather booths surrounding a jukebox. It would have been plain rude not to enjoy a burger and a shake, so we did just that. Hollywood didn't have a ride per say, it was home to a large theatre that had performances of 'Monster rock'. After some hi-tech introductions we watched as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and others sang and danced to pop songs. It sounds cheesy but it was actually really good and well performed.
As the day closed to an end we headed back to Jurassic Park. We waited in line for quite a while. The JP ride is a river rapids that goes own through the park. It starts off all nice and lovely, we saw full scale robotic friendly dino's then a big siren went off an said the river had broken and the dino's had escaped. It basically put us into peril. Our tranquil river ride suddenly turned into a torrent rapid and we hurtled side to side getting soaked. We passed through a complex covered in blood and general dismemberment. A voice then said beware of the escaped velociraptors just as 1 flew out from behind a bush and suspended halfway over the river, the others on the ride jumped out their skin. The rapids kept getting faster and steeper as we headed towards a tunnel. The tunnel was pitch black and full of T-Rex roars. The flashes of light showed a Rex breaking through a storm drain. We exited the tunnel and came to a set of lifts and a dead end. The boat crashed against the inside of the lift and T-Rex became visible from above as we were slowly forced up towards it. Just before it came into contact, a grill broke open and we went flying down a hill with a huge splash!! As if we weren't wet enough the dino that ate the fat guy in the film popped out right at the end and shot water straight into the boat. With soggy shoes and a well used poncho we headed for the exit.
As we left the park we had just enough time to grab a photo with Woody Woodpecker and buy a Jurassic Park T-shirt. We headed back across the city in high spirits after an action packed day.
Day 3- Up early again, we really are taking advantage of the breakfasts, in particular the unlimited pots of tea. We have another jam packed day so headed off on the tube towards the science centre. The science centre was simply brilliant. The perfect place for young minds to be inspired. The whole place was interactive and hands on. We started our trip inside the omnimax. The Omnimax is an IMAX cinema but with a spherical roof screen. When it started the sound and picture filled the whole room and everywhere you looked was part of the film. The film we watched was a tale about a polar bears struggle in the arctic. The main focus was on a mother and her two cubs, it was a touching and inspiring film. One fact that was said was that they tracked a mother and cub on the longest nonstop ocean swim ever recorded by a land animal. The mother had to swim continuously for 9 days to find ice, the cub died along the way. Sad but true. Anyway after our IMAX experience we headed off to play with science. The centre had a lot of areas to explore and Declan was like a kid in a candy shop. There was even a candy zone with a giant tongue and teeth to show what parts taste what. Mel was very happy playing with all the interactive machines and was engrossed with the optical illusions. Part of the centre also had a space zone. In the middle of the room was a colossal floating ping pong ball. After wrestling the controls off a child we found that the ball was linked to a projector. At the push of a button it would display a 360° view of any of the planets. The fact that it floated was enough to amaze Dec. There was enough to do there for the entire day but with regret we had to leave.
Back on the other side of the city we met up with a friend from home. Having travelled through Cambodia Dec's friend Mark was only in Singapore for the day and we all met up to see as many of the sights as possible. We booked a combo package from the Duck Tour people. We had a bus, boat and flyer ticket, we consulted the map for the routes and headed off. We had a bit of a mare at first as we couldn't find the bus stop on the less than accurate map. As the bus we wanted flew past we rechecked the map to find another stop. We then had to run through the city as if we were on 'Challenge Anneka' or some show like that. We made it to another bus stop only to find out it had just left!! We thought: "f*#k it, we'll just wait for the next one". The bus took us all over the city, through Chinatown, around the bay and over the bridge to the other side of the city. We changed buses and headed into the hills. The hills are where the many multi-millionaires live. Singapore has the most millionaires per head in the whole world. Tiny apartments in the city cost millions, the houses in the 'burbs' cost ten times that. We kept a look out for any famous types, but they're not that sort of rich person, sadly they're all merchant bankers. After the hills the bus took us along the longest road in Singapore. This road has a countless number of malls and shops each one packed full of people. That wasn't that interesting, however that Christmas lights they were putting up were very nice and the area seemed to be getting into Christmas mode. We hopped off the bus before it went back to the station and went in search of Raffles Hotel. Raffles Hotel is another world famous hotel that is extremely high end. We went here to have a very famous cocktail. The cocktail we were after was the 'Singapore Sling'. Even though it's sold all over Singapore and the world, Raffles is the Hotel it was created in many moons ago. We sipped down our cocktail and then paid the waiter in gold nuggets.
Our next stop was the Singapore Flyer. It was now quite dark in Singapore and we had perfectly timed our ride of the Flyer. The Singapore flyer is like the London eye. In fact it's exactly the same, the 1 slight difference is that this one is bigger; in fact it's the biggest in the world. The Flyer is positioned on the tip of the marina and has an unobstructed view of the whole city. On a clear day it is said you can see as far as Malaysia. However we were on it at night and from the top we saw the city and harbour lit up in all directions. We had even timed it to show Mark the light show from the eco trees. After our 30 minutes rotation on the glorified Ferris wheel we asked about our boat ride.
The man told us the only place we could board was a pier at the top of the river. The bearer of bad news also told us the last boat would leave in half an hour and that we would need to get a taxi to make it!! Oh dear, decision time: billion pound taxi ride across the city, or, take a chance to make it on the tube? We opted for the tube and so began our second dash across the conurbation. The tube was the easiest part, we got there with about 10 minutes to spare, the only downside was that we were the wrong side of the river! We dashed for the nearest bridge as we saw the boat approaching. We made it with seconds to spare and breathed a sigh of relief. The boat ride took us down to where we had just dashed from and then back up the river, the views were great and the city at night is totally different to the day. We headed for a very late dinner and then had a few beers while watching the football. We waved goodbye to Mark who sadly wouldn't get much sleep before his early morning flight. We too had another long day ahead of us, so we hit the hay.
Day 4- Yep you guessed it; we rose early for free breakfast. We then got the tube out to the far north of the city. From there we jumped on a bus for a while before we finally arrived at Singapore zoo. Let's get the sad part out of the way. For about 2 months the thought of one particular animal inhabiting this zoo drove us on. However the zoo had to relocate this animal due to it being sad and hot. Yes Singapore Zoo used to have a Polar bear. Now it's gone. Anyway, moving on to animals it did have. As we entered the zoo we were greeted by a large family of free roaming orang-utans. A big section of the forest had been specifically design to allow the orang-utans to roam about overhead as people walk by underneath, they can't make it down to the floor, although they probably wouldn't want to. We journeyed on through the zoo and headed into Africa. This area had all the animals you would expect to see on a safari. Most of the zoo doesn't have any cages, the animals are sectioned off by small fences and the more dangerous ones are separated by platforms and moats. In Africa we got up close with some Rhinos, who have surprisingly massive heads. The zoo made an effort to place certain animals together as well, the warthog being enclosed with the meerkats, their very own Timone and Pumba. After Africa, we entered an Asian rainforest dome. All the animals in here can do what they like. We encountered monkeys and bats close enough to touch, Declan also pooed his pants when a butterfly came from behind him. In his defence it was close to the bat. Moving on we saw a pygmy hippo splashing about in a river, some kangaroos and obviously chimps. During the afternoon we went to watch a Rainforest revenge show where they had trained monkeys and birds to 'attack' people dressed as land developers. We saw some komodo dragons, although sadly they weren't big enough for Daniel Craig to jump on. We also met the oldest member of the zoo, the giant land tortoise. The zoo also had three white tigers in a big pen that didn't seem that bothered about kids screaming at them. Before we left for the evening we watched a sea lion show that soaked most of the front 2 rows, luckily for us we were the third row!! There were hundreds more animals there that we saw over the course of the day but too many to mention. We left the zoo and had some dinner.
Just down the road from the zoo was our second stop of the day, this one we had to wait for. Our second visit was to the Singapore Night Safari. After battling through some seriously rude crowds we managed to out queue them all and made it on to the second car. By the time it left the station it was completely dark and the animals were on the prowl. All the enclosures were built into the forest and had very little fencing. The jeep we were in was painted like a giant tiger and that seemed to keep everything at bay. The sound of the tour guide shouting at the front of the carriage might also have helped. We drove on through the trails and started to see the animals. Parts of each section were dimly lit to allow us to see the beasts. We saw some animals we had seen earlier at the zoo however on the safari they were awake and milling about. A lot of the animals we saw though were different and the safari focussed obviously on nocturnal critters. The hyenas were bustling around their pen and the pack of wolves even gave us a chorus of howls. The drive around was fun but we enjoyed that we could go back and walk a different, closer route. On the walking routes we came face to face with some leopards and jaguars. After the experience earlier at the zoo we even braved the bat cave. The Bat cave housed the world's largest bats the flying fox. Thankfully most of these were busy eating melon and didn't swoop down to pick us off. We continued our walk and saw even more nocturnal animals, again like the zoo, too many to mention. Before we left we caught a show. The 'creatures of the night show' showcased lots of little nocturnal animals like racoons and snakes. At one point during the show a crew member shouted and flashed his torch, he appeared from behind a tree and shouted to the host that an animal had just got free. To put this in perspective, they had just had a hyena on the stage looking mean. Upon shouting this, the bush on the near side of the stage shook frantically. It was at this point that a Korean guy grabbed his wife and darted off up the amphitheatres stairs. Seriously he ran like Usian Bolt. The host started shouting it was a joke and he was safe but before she could finish he was gone. It made us chuckle. The show continued and so did the jokes, one woman was left on stage with a snake wrapped round her shoulders and an American boy had to play hide the grape with a ferret. The show ended with some highly trained otters sorting out rubbish into different bins to be recycled, a suedo message saying if an otter can do it so should you. After the show ended we headed back to the hostel. Our four packed days were over and many miles had been walked.
Asia is now finished, we had 2 excellent and enjoyable months and are fully(ish) prepared and invigorated for our time in Australia.
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