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SINGAPORE! The land of shopping and...more shopping for us!
Our trip to Singapore had one main purpose...to purchase a camera! OUr arrival in Singapore Airport was quick and before we knew it we were on the MRT into the town. Being the travellers that we are we decided to get off at a nearby station and the remaining distance to whgere we wanted to stay. The Inncrowd in Little India. When we finally arrived we discovered that they were full for the night. Never something you want to hear when you have walked for 30 mins carrying 20kg on your back in humid conditions. Anyway we then proceeded to walk for a further 45 mins to find our next location, The Hive. We rang ahead and made a reservation, but they only has one night available, so we booked at the Inncrowd for the remaining 3. Confusing? A little.
Anyway we arrived, we showered and we headed out to find some food. We had a rather lovely curry in one of the corner restaurants and continued our tour of the Indian quarter at a now leisurely pace! We even found Andrew's Mecca...Sim Lim Square! This is the home of gadetry in Singapore...2 whole floors dedicated to cameras of all descriptions (which pleased Emma) and the remaining...6 floors dedicated to computers! Emma eventually managed to drag Andrew away from the computers after getting a few early camera quotes!
The next day after moving all our stuff back to the Inncrowd...we walked again, no public transport for us when we can walk! We headed out to Orchard Road. Orchard Road is THE place to be in Singapore, this is where all the shopping centres are located and everything is at a premium here. We spent the day perusing the shopping centres, getting excited that we saw a Topshop/Topman, a Dorothy Perkins and a GAP for the first time in 7 months and discussing all the things we would buy if we had money to spare!
We contemplated a trip to Raffles for a drink, but decided that since Andrew had thrown his trainers away and the receptionist told us explicitly that you could not wear open toed shoes (Andrew asked is he wore socks and his sandles he would get away with it...the reply...I think you would look silly!) we decided to give it a miss. After all you pay far too much for it anyway! So instead we headed to Chinatown and after wandering around the chaos for a bit grabbed a bite to eat!
The night zoo was our port of call the following evening. We arrived around sunset and went to watch the Creatures of the Night show. It was rather entertaining. The first anaimal did not come out, the owl went AWOL and the otters were...just otters! The highlight was when they pulled a python from the audience that took 5 people to hold and placed it round a rather cocky guys neck. He loved it until it started to tighten its grip...then he jumped back into his seat as soon as it was removed. We found that to be hilarious! We had a walk around the majority of the zoo...and enjoyed listening to the stupid comments. You were not allowed tio use flash photography or tap the glass. One guy warned his family "now No flashing and no Tapping the glass". We spent the rest of the night mock flashing the animals! Another, rather astute lady commented "It is such a shame that you go round in the dark when you cant see much at night"her husband replied "thats kinda the point dear!"
We did take a tram ride around the zoo aswell and managed to see elephants, leopards, giraffes, deer, buffalo...allsorts really. It was a huge place and really worthwhile to see these nocturnal creatures!
OUr last day in Singapore was shopping day. We did not get off to a good start when Emma thought she had lost her ATM card (it was neatly plced inside a book she had been reading!) and when she did we had forgotten a vital fact...you have a withdrawal limit on your card! After a loan from Andrew we were on our way again for Andrew to haggle a bargain!
And a bargain we got, after haggling and arguing with people for around an hour Emma picked up a Nikon D60, 2 lenses, a bag, a tripod, an umbrella, a 4gb card and 2 UV fillters for about the cost of the camera and one lens back home! We were stoked!
That evening the camera went on its first outing to capture images of the War monuments in Singapore and the Fountain of Wealth, the largest fountain in the world. We even watched the light show!
We are heading off to Kuala Lumpur now for a few days. Let you guys know how it goes!
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