Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Good morning England and a good morning from Thailand, well kind of Thailand as it feels more like no mans land at the moment. I write this having so far travelled on a twenty minute taxi, thirty minute train/subway, 2 hour flight all within Singapore. We then had a wait of 4 hours at a Bangkok train station before getting a 11 hour sitting bus to Surat thani which is a port town where we will get a boat ko samui.
Phew, exhausting writing but not quite as tiring as actually doing it. The bus journey was hard work and rather weird. They put 2 films on when people were trying to sleep one of which was a psychological drama with adrien brody which had a male rape scene in it, all a bit strange at 4 in the morning and with some families on board. Not really films for a child to watch but it's the Thailand way I guess.
I was on the edge of giving up on the blog due to lack of Internet and will power but now being stuck at a bus stop with nothing around it has given me a good opportunity. Let's trace our steps back initially to Singapore and the great times had there. We were only there for about 5 days but we managed to get a lot of things done in that time and could easily appreciate how great a city it really is.
On our arrival we made our usual trek to our accommodation stop, looking like large turtles with our backpacks as we made our way across the cosmopolitan city. First stop was an area known as Little India where we would stay for 2 nights. Not a good start though as our hostel didnt get our reservation so we had to immediately find another place, easily done but when you are already shattered the smallest tasks become tiresome. It also did not help that I was now in the midst of a full on English man- cold so my complaining was top notch. The cold was down to the crazy rains of Bali (you dont see those in the holiday brochures), i can only hope i dont pass it to tina as I feel she may kill me if i do. Little India was very pleasant and interesting to walk around, just watching people eat (who doesn't like a curry these days) and there was a bustling market with random Indian music from every area. The most noticeable thing about Singapore as a whole is just how incredibly clean it is and when i say clean I mean not one bit of rubbish anywhere. They have strict fines in dropping litter and basically anything that would tarnish the area. All of this is a stones throw away from the often dirty markets and streets of Vietnam and Thailand and makes things pleasant to walk around.
We moved on from little India to an area near much of Singapore's shopping and the road where my father used to live and work called orchard road. I was still in the midst of my first cold of 2012 but I'm built of strong stuff of course and trooped on. We would stay in 'hotel 81' first before moving to our last hotel called 'park sovereign'. Our hotel/hostel accommodation has usually averaged around £10 I would guess but Singapore we hit around £40-£50 probably due to wanting to see it in a bit of style and tina's need for a swimming pool while I continued my complaining regarding my cold.
We decided to do the tourist thing and get one of the sight seeing open top buses which allows you to hop on and off throughout the 2 days and it was a decision that was a wise one given the large amount to see and cover. You can walk much of Singapore in a day but the public transport is also excellent and easy to take, something that Boris Johnson can only envisage in his wildest dreams I would think.
Our open top bus, known as 'duck and hippo tours' took us around the sights such as Chinatown where they were preparing for Chinese new year celebrations, the central business district, past raffles city and hotel (raffles hotel has it's place in drinking history having opened in 1887 and being the creators of the Singapore sling cocktail in 1915). We got off again at fort canning park (singapores first British residence) and behind this was the newly built 'Clarke quay'. It's an extremely impressive area containing many bars, impressive seafood restaurants and entertainment all of which skirt around the boat quay and water. I had a very enjoyable fish and chips with red snapper fish. Fair enough not Singaporean sounding but the fish was freshly caught and tasted bloody good.
Drinking in Singapore was kept to a minimum due to the cost as it is around $s10 (Singapore dollars) which is about £5 a bottle. Just off Clarke quay is the impressively built hotel (the name escapes me now) which is basically 3 massive hotels all linked together by a large ocean liner put across their top (the pictures I took describe this better). I am told the buildings total cost is 5.7 billion dollars and also houses singapores largest casino. The casino is only really for tourists as they do not want Singaporeans getting hooked. The government has done this by passing a rule that any Singaporean wishing to gamble there has to pay $50 to enter for 24 hours but if any of their family have told the casino not to allow them in (black-listing them) they are automatically banned for 3 years and can not pay to enter.
I ended up having to buy new flip-flops as my 2 others had perished in bali's rain. Unfortunately the flip-flops i bought were about 4 sizes to small for me, meaning i walked around scraping the ground and by the later part of the day like somone walking on hot coals. We retired that evening having explored what felt like the whole of Singapore by both bus, boat and foot but a great day was had and my feet needed to recover. They would recover ready for our trip to universal studies.
Off the very southern shore of Singapore is a 3km by 1km island called Sentosa. The island is linked by cable cars and a five- hundred metre causeway. On this island they have basically turned it into a Disney world esque place containing underwater world, beaches, resorts, water parks and for the purpose of our journey 'Universal Studies'. We arrived at the gates and saw the well known turning globe- the symbol for universal you know you are going to have a good time. The different themes within the park were; far far away, sci-fi city, waterworld, transformers, hollywood, lost world,
ancient egypt, new York and Madagascar. It felt like we were kids again and you just don't know what ride to go on first.
Sci-fi city = this was basically a massive rollercoaster in the name of battlestar gallatica but highly enjoyable.
Hollywood= you begin with a presentation and scene setting moment from Steven spielberg (not live of course). It is a mock up of a scene from a tornado movie and basically has explosions, falling debris and it is done as if it was being filmed. Very clever, although I still have not forgiven Spielberg for Indiana jones 4 and the crazy alien plot and this did not go anyway in getting back in my good books.
Far far away= this was a clever 4D cinema showing for a new plot. It was good as you have 3d glasses on and as things happen on screen your seat is moving around and things are happening around you. For example when one of the characters sneezes, you water that comes out at you. Plus I got to see the 3 little pigs an their genius german accent which made
me chuckle.
Lost world= basically a Jurassic park themed area where you take a cable car type ride over the park. Bit rubbish and I was facing backwards on the ride meaning I saw nothing and I needed the toilet at the time which didn't help my enjoyment of it.
Madagascar= crap film and the ride was worse. Rubbish animatronics and you just go along a lazy river on a boat.
Waterworld= was a live show from the the tanker boat from the film. Looked great with plenty of stunts on the jet skis and explosions everywhere. We stupidly sat near the front in the so called 'soak zone' but managed to keep fairly dry. Sadly no Kevin Costner I'm afraid to say mum but he was probably deemed to wooden an actor even for a theme park.
Ancient Egypt= things were taken up a notch on this one. Great ride in darkness with mummies everywhere and really well done.
Transformers= this was the big one that they have been advertising the whole universal studies on. Throughout the universal studies history they always have the big ones to reel people in and they try to be ground breaking and it did not disappoint. The whole section was set out like the place was under attack and you have to get into an autobot evac vehicle. You then travel at pace an a film is showing all around you in 3D which was amazing. The 3D did make you feel like you were there and as your building gets hit you are falling and it really felt like it with the effects around you and the falling ride. To my embarrassment I actually found
myself dodging a rocket that was coming my way. My only gripe was that I didn't get to see Megan fox or rosie hunting whitingly (or whatever her name is) in 3D but perhaps it is a work in progress.
There were plenty of other things going on and it made for a really enjoyable day, if not a bit random considering we have been doing general backpacker things to suddenly being in a Universal Studies theme park.
To conclude, Singapore brilliant and we could have stayed longer but time is ticking on. We now found ourselves entering the last 3 weeks of our trip where we plan to spend it in the small islands of northern eastern islands of Thailand (ko samui, ko phangan etc..) we have now changed onto our 3rd bus and I see no port in sight yet so we are slightly concerned how a boat can get to ko samui but having now been travelling non stop for over 26hours everything seems a little funny.
Robbie c out for now.
Further blogs will follow regarding Bali (brilliant time had there) and kuala lumpur (don't bother reading that blog nothing interesting there).
- comments