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Hello everyone!
Well Singapore has been lovely. I really didn't know what to expect when we arrived but it was a pleasant suprise. It is so clean, there are large fines for dropping litter and chewing gum is illegal therefore the city is spotless which is nice to see. It is also a very modern country, with the trains running frequently and punctually and some of the buildings are very spaceage!!
So we arrived Friday 2nd Jan after an 8 hour flight from Sydney with Singapore Airlines who were a brilliant airline to fly with. I watched Mamma Mia twice and have been annoying Matt for the last 3 days with my constant singing of Abba songs especially the Pierce ones!! We got the train to our hostel which wasn't too far from the airport and checked into our room. I fell straight asleep on our orthopedic matresses and 2 pillows (one of the reasons we booked this hostel!) After a short nap we set off into the city to have a look around. It has been so hot the past 3 days here, it hasn't been very sunny but very humid so after a look around the Marina we went to find some air con. We went into one of the many shopping malls to have a look around. Singapore is shopping capital of the world. I have never seen so many shops in one place before, we went into one shopping mall that was just for electrical items and every shop seemed to sell the same sort of things but there were hundreds of shops! If only we had some money to spend, ah well! After a brief look around the shops we got the train back to the hostel and had an early night.
Saturday, we got up late and headed into town to get some breakfast, and this is where we found the best place I have ever been in. Think of Greggs, but cleaner and the products in lovely displays, with no queues and self service and its something like that and it was called the 'bread shop'! I loved it! I made sure I kept the bag as a souvenir!! After this excitement we decided to go on the hop on hop off bus as we had half price tickets as we had flown with Singapore airlines however we couldn't find the bus stop so we decided to have a wander around many of the shops. We walked down the famous Orchard Road and stopped in 1 of the 1st shopping malls we saw as we were dying of heat. As we walked in we noticed there was a Marks and Spencer in it which got us rather excited as we looked around the food section!! We didn't buy anything as we have no money but it was nice to see such a familiar shop. After a brief look around some of the other shops we headed back to the hostel and got ready to go out. We ended up going over the road from our hostel as there was an eating place. We had a beer and were going to order some food as there were many different places to choose from in the same place however everything was written in Chinese characters and the only thing we could understand was fish heads so we decided against that and move on to another place! We had a lovely meal down the road which was pretty similar to Chinese at home and for two 3 course meals and 2 big Tiger beers in cost $23 (half is GBP so 11.50). We then decided to go to the famous Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling in Long Bar. We nearly fell off our stool when 2 drinks came to $52, which is the equivalent of 13GBP each drink!! The Singapore Sling was actually quite nice and we went upstairs and listened to the live band which were really good. We were going to go out for a few more drinks afterwards but we were financially crippled from the cocktails so we opted for an early night on the orthopedic matress!
Today, Sunday we got up early and made it in time for breakfast before setting off into town to go on the hop on hop off bus. We didn't think we were going to get to go on it again as the 1st bus just drove straight past us without stopping! However 30 minutes later the next one arrived and did stop! There were a lot of different stops to choose from and we just stopped at selected ones that we wanted to see. We 1st stopped at Chinatown and had a look around the many temples and places of worshop that were there. They were cool to see as they all had very traditional buildings and decorations in them. After looking around these we set off for the food place which was like a massive version of a food court with over 100 indivdual stalls, which meant a very difficult decision!! After we had eaten we got back on the bus and stopped off a little further along in Chinatown. There were a lot of different shops and a lot of decorations up for the Chinese New Year which were cool to see.
After we had looked around Chinatown for a while we got the bus to the Botanical Gardens which were just stunning. They were so well maintained and kept. There was an Orchid Garden which housed thousands of different varieties of orchids which I went into. It was beautiful, the flowers were all in bloom and it was very colourful. We stayed in the Botanical Gardens for a while just chilling out before we got the next bus. The bus went all the way along Orchard Road and I was amazed at the amount of shops there were that we hadn't already seen! We eventually got back to our starting point and got off the bus ready to get the train back to the hostel! We sat down for an hour or so and then got ready and went for dinner. We again had a very cheap, very nice meal.
Tonight is our last night in Singapore before we fly to Thailand tomorrow for 4 weeks. We are flying to Phuket and heading straight across to Ko Phi Phi to meet Matt's sister and husband which we are both really looking forward to. Singapore has been really cool and somewhere i'm really glad that we came to. I'll get you updated from Thailand!
Take care
Liz
xxx
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