Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Day 65, 66, 67, 68, 69 and 70
It didnt really feel like we'd entered a new country when crossing into Singapore, however once we reached the main city the difference was clear. Singapore didn't feel like our last country in Asia... it felt like we'd already left, the city was spotless and all the buildings seemed to have some unique design feature. Unfortunatley for us Singapore also had a more western pricing system so a dorm room at the Travellers inn was our home for the next five nights. The hostel was very nice though, and after dropping our bags off we headed to Little India for some dinner.
The next morning after quite a good nights sleep we set out to explore the city. The Singapore MRT was pretty cheap and only 5 minutes walk from our hostel so we used it to get to Marina bay. We were immediately impressed to see three giant skyscrapers, which had a ship balancing across them all!!! We then went into the newly developed shopping mall, which despite being a saturday was pretty much empty (probs due to the very expensive shops). After walking around imagining what it would feellike to be millionaire's we came back down to earth with a bang and found the oldest hawker center in Sinapore for a cheap lunch. We finished our day off with a walk along the river and a visit to the famous Raffle's hotel.
On our second day we went to the small island of Sentosa, only separted from Singapore by a small sea channel. Sentosa was home to a Universal studios theme park as well as many other expensive attractions. We had to work hard to find some free things to do such as a vist to the man made beach and a walk across a rope bridge to the southern most part of mainland Asia. With this complete we thought we had better pay for at least one attraction and opted for Underwater world aquarium. We arrived just in time to see the dolphin show and although it was good to see the rare pink river dolphins, Disney sea world has nothing to worry about! The rest of the displays were pretty decent although the battle against the Chinese tourists and their cameras was a hard fought one.
The Singapore Zoo and Night safari was something we'd been planning to do for a few weeks and thankfully we werent disappointed as it is by far the best zoo we've been to. The setup of the enclosures meant that most of the animals were free from cages and you could simply walk from one enclosure to another via elevated platforms. The list of animals we saw is huge and we may have got a little camera happy but it was hard to resist. Once the zoo closed we headed for the night safari, which was actually a separate park altogether, with almost a complete set of different animals. By the end of the day we were exhausted but felt we had got more than our money's worth.
Our zoo and night safari ticket also included entry into the Jurong bird park, so this was our desitination for our final full day. After getting up late we missed the first bus and had to wait a few hours for the next one . The bird park was also very good, although an afternoon was more than enough for even the most keen Biologists and we were getting tired of reading animal facts. Our last night was an itchy one as we had both been devoured by mosquitoes during the day (michelle had 18 bites!!).
Our last morning in Singapore was spent booking some accommodation ready for New Zealand. We then headed for the airport pretty early although the reason for this was not to make sure we caught our plane on time, but more to do with the surprising number of activites available there. These included a swimming pool, cinema, giant slide and lots of shops.
Overall Singapore had been a great place to visit and we both couldn't believe Aisa was over and Australia had come around so quick.
Things we have learnt from Aisa
1. Flushing toilet paper is an underrated privelage
2. Beware of the Chinese... They spit...alot
3. Cambodians do not like Korean people
4. Patong is horrible...unless your looking for a Thai bride
5. Never trust a Vietnamese taxi driver
6. Thai timetables are not worth the paper they are printed on
7. Cambodia is massively underrated... its a must visit
8. The contradicting phrase 'Same, same but different' is popular
9. Do eat street food
10. FREE internet is everywhere...even on buses...take note europe!!!
11. Most people in Asia support liverpool :) not Manu
- comments