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Hi Guys,
This might be a little bit of lengthy blog so sorry, mainly because I'm in writing mood (I'm bored in Singapore airport). But we have also packed loads into the last 2 days.
We arrived in Singapore at around midday and luckily for us the bus drop off was really near our hostel so we were all checked in and sorted in no time, meaning we had most of the day to set off exploring. Singapore is a place I was quite looking forward to visiting and I was keen to look around.
Before we set off exploring we decided we would grab some food and went to the local food market near the hostel. We had some lovely Wonton Mee (this is basically a noodle dish served with pork and a few Chinese dumplings that can either be a soup or dry dish), we were both stuffed and it was really cheap too. As seems to be the case with most of the places we visited we started off our walk by visiting a couple of temples. This wasn't completely intentional but our hostel is in an area of town known as Little India and these were on the way into the city. The first 2 we saw were Chinese temples much like the ones we had seen in Hong Kong and Penang and the other was and Indian temple (this is the one with the big elephants in the pictures). One of the Chinese temples was known as the temple of a thousand lights had a massive Buddha statute inside which we later discovered had a hidden prayer room underneath.
Once we had looked around the temples we took a walk around Little India. This area is starkly different to the rest of Singapore, which is generally shinny clean and new, were as this area is much older and packed full of small shops and restaurants that end up spilling on to the street. There is a large Indian population in Singapore unlike most of the places we had seen so far so we were keen to explore their end of town especially as we were staying in it. We had a wander around all the shops selling almost every kind of knock of jeans, T-shirts etc you can think of as well as some lovely traditional saris and other fabulous looking Indian fabrics. We also came across a huge food court much like the Chinese one we had eaten in earlier in the day, but just selling Indian food at cheap cheap prices. Unsurprisingly it was packed full of people eating their lunch. There was every kind of curry you could imagine and some you probably don't want too. From here we carried on down into town towards the river passing by the museums and various other attractive looking colonial buildings.
The river front was as I thought it would be, very developed in very modern fashion. The river is divided up into several quays and we had come to the middle section called Clarke Quay. This was full of modern bars and restaurants lining the river front. We took a walk along admiring all the food and wine we couldn't afford and taking in the sights. There wasn't much of a buzz for an Easter Sunday afternoon but we decide it would defiantly be worth a visit later in the evening when we assumed it would be much livelier. So we jumped on the tube (which unsurprisingly was immaculately clean and smooth) to get back to hostel for a shower and to get changed.
In the evening we took on a similar sort of route but this time the feel was entirely different. We walked through the same streets in little India as we had done before in the day but this time they were packed full of people out for the evening (and I mean really packed). None of them seemed to be going anywhere they were just out on the street for a chat like it was a social occasion, but there were so many of them they filled the streets causing cars to come to crawl. Katie and I just walked around in a kind of awe watching them. Eventually we found ourselves back at the food court and found a relatively safe looking stand to eat from selling curry. We must have seemed pretty out of place and it took us while to order what we wanted but when we sat down to eat it was clear we had made a good choice. We had tandoori chicken, vegetable curry, butter chicken and loads of roti bread. It was fantastic food and some of the best curry I think I've ever had. We did manage to hit a new low in terms of serving though; our roti bread was served on paper, a bit like fish and chips with the accompanying curry in a food bag. We had got used to eating of plastic plates but this really was a new low!
After dinner we decided to try to walk off the food and headed back down to Clarke quay, it was quite a bit busier than before and looked lovely all lit up at night. We walked up and down admiring all the bars we could not afford to drink in before settling down on the steps of the river with some apple juice from the corner shop just watching the world go by. It had a lovely feel and made for a nice chilled evening.
I should probably explain now that we are not in fact poor we are just poor in relation to the price of things in Singapore on our current budget. In the rest of Asia we are quite frankly rich but not here. Singapore is a very westernised place and therefore has very westernised prices. This, coupled with a really poor exchange rate of less than 2 to 1 meant no shopping for us. It has however, meant that we have eaten and explored areas we might not have done otherwise and had a great time doing it.
On the second day we treated ourselves to a bit of lie-in before setting out to the Botanical gardens via the infamous Orchard Road (Singapore's equivalent to Oxford Street). There is every possible brand shop you can think of along here and we wandered in and out of quite a few of the malls to have a look and take advantage of the AC along the way and found a fantastic roof garden with great views at the top of one of them. We also had a very disappointing Easter egg hunt; they just don't seem to sell them here, so Katie had to make do with some 'extremely chocolatey rounds' from Marks and Spencer's. We eventually arrived at the gardens feeling very hot and took a slow walk around them. They are quite pretty and worth a trip if you are ever in Singapore. It was much quilter here and a nice escape from the bustling city.
After our explore in the gardens we headed on the bus over to Singapore's Chinatown. We have seen so many Chinatowns now they are starting to look the same, however we did manage to have a another lovely lunch of Wonton Mee from a market stall. From Chinatown we walked up to the city and parts of the river we had not seen on the first day. Once we got up there we stopped at a strip of bars known as Boat Quay (similar to the others but much more aimed at tourists and city workers) and treated ourselves to a well earned jug of beer before walking over to marina bay at the south of Singapore. Marina bay is where a lot of the really posh hotels, the Singapore flyer and the new huge Marina Bay Sands casino/resort are. This casino is the strange building in the pictures that looks like a huge ship on top of 3 buildings; a bizarre building but one you couldn't help look at. Apparently there is even a swimming pool the size of three football pitches at the top.
By this time the fact we had walked so much was starting to get to both of us so we decide to head home via Raffles, the world renowned hotel, on the other side of the river. This is where the 'Singapore Sling' cocktail was invented at looked very nice. But think a trip inside will have to wait till another time when we have a few more pennies.
In the evening we took another short walk out in to Little India and found ourselves another nice little curry house. That had tables literally in the middle of the road outside but the place served up some lovely dhal (lentil curry), aloo gobi (veg), chicken masala and naan bread; much more like we are used to at home.
I have been taken with Singapore and would like to come back but with more money to see the other richer side of the city, and at least be able to afford more than half a jug of beer in 2 days!
We are off to Malaysian Borneo today flying to Kota Kinablu this afternoon. This was the last time we are going to be in a westernised city for 2 months but very much looking forward to the adventure.
Will let you know how we get on, will probably have internet for the first few days then after that it might go quite for a while as we are off diving. Get to see the orang-utans on Friday though so possibly another polar bear sized photo album to come!!!!
Lots of love Martin and Katie
- comments
Mum S Singapore looks a nice place - a real mix of cultures and a modern city. Not sure about the ship-like thing on the Sands Casino - looks more like a bullet train. Can't believe they've got a Hooters! Mxxx