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Singaporeans are going to rule the world one day, that is a fact. They are hard-working and intelligent and, quite frankly, no one else stands a chance. Singapore itself is fantastic. The architecture is incredible, it's spotlessly clean almost everywhere and it works like a swiss clock. Even the designer shops can't decide which is the swankiest part of the city so they just decided to set up everywhere. It's hard to believe that they only gained independence from Britain in 1963 (and we kept Wales!!)
The flight in took just an hour and a half from Phuket. Despite the captain being female, the flight was going fine until a sudden bubble of turbulence caused a big drop on approach to land. Half the plane screamed which meant an embarassing giggle shortly afterwards. We had been given the emergency exit seats so there was loads of leg room (ker-ching!).
Our hostel, 'The Little Red Dot' is a great little place with a lovely atmosphere but they're in the process of replacing the metal beds with wooden bunks which means we can't move around the dorm very easily.
Getting around is easy enough, we bought a 2 day metro pass for about 8 pounds each and although they can get quite full, they run like clockwork, are clean and people actually let you get off before trying to get on themselves (are you listening Londoners!?).
After arriving on our first day, we went for our standard exploration. We hadn't really researched Singapore that much as we knew we would only be here a couple of days, so we were pretty amazed when we exited the tube station into a nest of sky-scrapers and walked round the corner to find what seems to be a cruise liner stuck on top of three other sky-scrapers. Turns out the architect meant this and it's called the Marina Bay Sands (go on, Google it). We're struggling to see why Singapore's 'Lion shooting water out of its mouth' is such a landmark amongst such breathtaking buildings.
Noticing that the poshest hotel in Singapore had some pretty nice Christmas decorations inside, we tried sneaking across the entrance to take some stealthy pictures. We were caught by just about the nicest guy ever and he told us we could just go inside and snap away to our heart's content. When we came out again he was happy to chat for about ten minutes, telling us all the best places to visit in the city.
Today, we started off by going to Orchard Road, Singapore's main shopping street. Luxury shopping mall, followed by designer shopping mall, followed by deluxe shopping mall... we can see how visiting Singapore can be an expensive experience for those with money. Pip wanted something from just about every one of the hundred thousand shops we passed today.
You'd think that the heat here and the mixture of religions means Christmas is sort of a dull affair - you'd be wrong! Singapore goes mental for Christmas, but in a really classy way. The different shops compete against each other, the different malls compete against each other and the different streets compete against each other to have the most impressive decorations. Short of paying the real Santa to come here and sit in their shop, they couldn't really get more Christmassy.
Side note: respective families, do not expect designer goods from Singapore as gifts upon our return, think more along the lines of Thai market stalls :P
When we'd had enough of shopping (finally!!), we headed over to the Cruise ship on legs again and paid a tenner each to go to the top and look out over the city. God knows how much they spent building the place but in front of it is another luxury mall with a river inside that you can take a boat trip down. The view from the top is amazing and shows you almost all of the city's best landmarks, including: The Singapore Flyer (think London Eye but 30m taller), the F1 circuit, the world's largest floating stage and grandstand, the amazing cityscape, one of the world's largest ports, rainforest to the north... you get the picture. There was also a swimming pool at the top (the world's highest elevated swimming pool if you must know) but they don't let us hostel-dwelling skanks use stuff like that for fear that we may absorb too much money via osmosis.
That evening, we went down to Marina Bay to see if we could catch a water show we had seen advertised. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to know anything about it but we did have a nice time walking past the impressive opera houses and across the helix bridge seeing all the Christmas decorations on the way. We even walked on the grand prix circuit for a while. There was a free music concert on the waterfront and some rehearsals for a charity talent event which kept us well entertained for a while. We were told that a good place to eat was 'Gluttons Bay' near the marina waterfront, lots of different stalls selling a variety of food types.
It was so busy that finding somewhere to sit was difficult. We asked a few guys if we could sit with them and they said it was fine. We got chatting and it turned out they all flew for Qantas as the A380 flight crew. They had a fair few interesting stories about their jobs, it's a shame they weren't flying us onto Brisbane - that would have been weird! Anyway, it turns out they hate the A380 and they hate Qantas. (Jono I advise not applying for them unless you are happy to pay for our 'free' upgrade!)
After eating we headed to Boats Quay, where Pip tried a Singapore Sling (their local cocktail). Finally, with aching legs, we decided to head back.
Here's a tip if you ever decide to visit Singapore: take an umbrella. When it rains here, it really pours. We've been caught out a couple of times now and it's currently looking like our dash to the metro station for the airport may be a wet one.
We've really enjoyed Singapore and would love to come back again one day and see some of the stuff we missed this time. Maybe do some Christmas shopping if we can sell a kidney or something.
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