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Travelling Asia has been everything we hoped for. The culture, the food, and the scenery has literally blown us away. It pains us to think that we'll soon be leaving this incredible corner of the world, and we won't deny that the idea of living in a Western society again leaves us with mixed emotions. Part of us is looking forward to being able to walk down the street without being stared out, but part of us is wondering whether our next stop, Australia, will excite and amaze us in the same way Asia does pretty much round the clock. Crazy, huh?
…You may wonder why we've already started talking like we've actually left Asia - It surprised us too, as living on the road has a way of making it hard to think beyond the next 24 hours so Australia should feel like a lifetime away - but after we cleared immigration in Singapore we instantly felt the Asia we've come to know slipping away.
Perhaps that's because tiny little Singapore is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The streets are spotlessly, almost insanely, clean (littering, spitting, and even chewing gum is a criminal offence - in fact it's illegal to bring gum into the country); there are gorgeous, meticulously maintained landscapes in the suburbs, and there's a mad swirl of impressive, high-tech skyscrapers in the central business district; oh and the main aroma of the CBD is the waft of perfume and aftershave from the well-dressed locals. It certainly seemed a long way from the rough and tumble of the rest of South East Asia.
One thing has remained though - and that's the heat. Singapore is pretty much always boiling, but clearly the country knew we'd soon be heading to Australia's balmy autumn, so it decided to throw us a heat wave party before we left.
Now, we know you're all still suffering in the crazy cold weather in the UK, and we honestly don't mean to keep banging on about how warm it is here, but once we'd figured out how to find some Singapore Dollars and navigate from the train station to our hostel on a bus and the metro, we wondered how we'd survive this weather. We didn't think it could get any hotter than Kuala Lumpur, but Singapore has proved us wrong. It's so close, you can almost feel the heat pressing down on your head. Ooof!
Thankfully, our dorm was much like the rest of Singapore… lovely and clean. And, most importantly, it had actual air conditioning (not just a useless ceiling fan) which felt like Heaven on Earth. Our roommates were all Chinese though and could barely speak any English, so we quickly left them to it, and ventured out and about . After a chat to the hostel receptionist who pretty much told us every tourist attraction in Singapore is overpriced and tacky, we decided to just take a stroll around the city to get our bearings.
We walked along the stunning Singapore River, which leads across the quays and in to Marina Bay, and hugs the CBD cityscape. Walking around, we wondered if we'd survived an apocalypse as there was literally not a soul to be seen on the streets.
Via the not-so-impressive parliament building, we wandered into to Colonial District and admired the many imposing remnants of British rule, including Victoria Concert Hall, Old Parliament House (which is now an arts centre), St Andrews Cathedral, City Hall and Old Supreme Court. All of which are arranged around the Padang, which is a pretty well-known cricket pitch. Rising above them is the spaceship of the Norman Foster-designed Supreme Court building.
We also nipped into the world-famous Raffles Hotel. A Singaporean icon, we really couldn't miss this place. We had every intention of heading to the famous Long Bar at some point in the next few days for a Singapore Sling - but with memories of being turned away at Bangkok's SkyBar, we were sure they probably had a dress code of: no scummy backpacker get-up. Instead we thought we'd take a look at the hotel museum. Unfortunately the museum is now permanently closed, but we were able to take a nosey in to the Long Bar afterall and discovered the place rammed full of slipper-wearing tourists (slippers is Asian for flip flops!) so figured we might be able to come back another night to enjoy a cocktail.
For now, though, we were still adjusting to the heat and decided to take salvation in a nearby shopping mall. That's when we realised that with Western culture comes Western prices, so we split a delicious hazelnut and chocolate ice-cream before having a nosey around the F1 racing track outside. We weren't sure whether we could visit the pit building, but when we arrived we were ushered inside along with a bunch of local students. It turned out the nearby design university were holding an exhibition of their work inside the building, which we somehow managed to enter for free. Their work was incredible - many had designed video games, and animations which all seemed professional to us. It was also nice to see the guys getting the track outside ready for the F1 which will be here in a few weeks' time.
Just as we were leaving, the heavens opened into one hell of a thunderstorm. Even we were not brave enough to go out in it so we took shelter beneath the city's equivalent to the London Eye which was grounded while the storm erupted. We wondered whose bright idea it was to build a city full of sky scrapers on an island that hosts these incredible electrical storms. We certainly didn't envy the people working in them as it was pretty terrifying watching the lightning so close to the tops of the towers!
Eventually it was dry enough to venture on, and as we made our way home we took a subway to cross a main road. This city will fine you for just about everything - including jaywalking (and chewing gum!)
Below the ground, the subway opened into an underground city. It turned out there was no apocalypse (no really!) - the entire city was in fact hanging out underground in air-conditioned bliss. And, at the heart of this underground paradise were the most incredible food courts which breathed the atmosphere of traditional Asian street food stalls - only with better hygiene standards and in sparkly clean surroundings.
After an hour or so of looking around we settled on a Chinese restaurant for some roast pork and duck. Yum!
On the subject of food, the next day we tried a popular little café for breakfast - it's called The Toast Box, and its speciality is peanut butter on thick toast, served with a half boiled egg for dipping in.
We were too wimpy to try the half boiled egg, but Nat enjoyed peanut butter on toast, and Bret braved the pork floss on toast which looked absolutely disgusting… but in typical stubborn bloke manner, he insisted it was nice and scoffed the lot (albeit more slowly than he'd usually consume breakfast!)
After that we took the same route along the river as the previous day, past the Asian Civilisations Museum, and through Singapore's equivalent to Southbank. It turned out we could have seen Grimes the night before in one of the concert halls, but today we were able to enjoy some stunning views from the theatre rooftop for free instead.
Across the water was a great view of Marina Bay Sands - a large ship slapped on top of three huge tower buildings. Bizarelly, we'd watched a rubbish documentary about the incredible engineering processes that went into constructing this huge resort back in the UK. It houses a casino, loads of top end shops and a hotel. There's also a swimming pool on the roof
We went across the river to take a closer look, and placed a bet at the casino (which, of course, we lost) before walking over to Gardens By The Bay. It's Singapore's third botanic garden, and was only opened last year. The 101-hectare garden houses state-of-the-art greenhouses, large structures powered by solar energy, and, of course, loads of flowers. Like everything in Singapore, the careful planning has resulted in a space that you can easily walk around, and leaves you feeling you've completely escaped the city.
It was so beautiful, we couldn't help but treat ourselves to entry into the two paid-for greenhouses. One was the Flower Garden, which does what it says on the tin, and the other was the Cloud Forest. This one was amazing, as we took a lift right to the top of the greenhouse, where we were literally surrounded by clouds. We then walked down, following a spiral path to view mountain-top plants. We're sure the pictures will explain it better than we can, so do take a look when we load them up.
After that, it was back inside the nearby shopping mall for some Singapore noodles at the bustling food court. We heard it's cheaper for locals to eat at these food courts than cook at home, and the place was heaving at dinner time with people ordering from an eclectic mix of Asian kitchens.
Back outside it was starting to rain and the daily evening storm was brewing so we dashed back across the river to enjoy a free music performance. It turns out we arrived during an annual music festival. There are paid-for and free events happening every night for a couple of weeks. Yesterday a jazz band were playing the outside covered stage. It's been a long time since we've been able to properly enjoy music so we enjoyed these guys all the more. As it was still raining when we left, we challenged ourselves to cross the city underground all the way back to our hostel. We didn't quite make it home, but when we had to come up to ground level the pavements were covered…. It's incredible how big this underground second city is. We read that scientists and engineers are also researching the potential to grow the underground city for people to live in. Mental!
Anyway, now the day has come… our last day in Asia. By now, we were desperate for a lesson in Singapore's history so this morning we headed for the National Museum. We arrived just in time for the free guided tour which was excellent. It answered all the questions we've been asking ourselves about Singapore's history, and we found ourselves saying a lot of "Ahh!" as we pieced it together with the speckled knowledge we'd already picked up from guide books and documentaries before we came travelling.
After enjoying a short stroll through the historic Fort Canning Park we very excitedly headed to Raffles for the cocktails we'd been waiting for. Despite it being a tourist attraction these days, the bar still displays a degree of old colonial charm, with huge wooden ceiling fans, making it easy to imagine important Victorian men relaxing with a drink there in days gone by. There are free peanuts on the tables and the floor is covered in shells as customers are encouraged to just chuck them to the ground. It made for some amusing entertainment as the more discerning travellers skidded across them after a Sling too many.
We started with a famous Singapore sling cocktail. It did just the job and was soo tasty. We toasted to the end of Asia, but then we couldn't help ourselves and decided to ordered more... We also tried the original 150 year old sling from which the Singapore sling was adapted. This one had quite a bit of bubbly and we left suitably giddy, but without any peanut shell induced slip ups.
It was a mad dash back to the hostel to collect our bags this evening before we made our way here to the airport for our flight to Australia. We're told this airport has won a few awards for its facilities which include a swimming pool on the roof, and a number of gorgeous gardens. Well, that's got to beat gazing out at a grey sky from a non-descript departures lounge in London, right?
We're now waiting to board our flight in a lovely little outdoor cactus garden - complete with an outdoor bar. The evening is balmy by Singapore standards, and we're counting our lucky stars for the experiences we've had here and in the rest of Asia. Singapore may be a far cry from the rest of the South Eastern region of the continent, but it's uber-cool, uber-clean, and oh so liveable, we're just as sad to leave this place as everywhere else we've visited. Anyway, leave we must, but before we wave farewell to the continent, we bring you swanky Singapore's vital statistics.
Distance travelled: 6,040km
Time spent waiting in airports: three wonderful hours
Total length of all delays to destination: 1 hour
Time spent on planes: 7hrs 45
Most bizarre building: a ship balancing on a trio of skyscrapers.
Number of photos we took of the strange ship building: Time to buy a new memory card
Distance travelled underground: 90% of the length of the CBD
Clean factor scale: 10 out of 10
Number of times we ducked underground for air conditioning: Countless
Number of meals seen in reverse: none… yet. But surely that pork floss won't stay down for long??
Nominee for the world's best airport waiting lounge: The cactus bar
Most unusual banned item: chewing gum
Average temperature: Whatever it is, it ain't natural
....Until next time Asia. Thanks for having us… we've loved every second. Now, fire up the Barbie, Australia, we're on our way….
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