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So after being very relaxed in Bali I was up for picking up the pace a bit in Singapore, but I can't believe just how much I have done in this amazing city in just 4 days . I arrived early in the morning so slept much of the first day, only waking up to go for an explore and get some grub. My hostel was huge it reminded me of a hotel you would stay at on a school trip or something. It is situated on the edge of the little India district in Singapore, so I had a little walk around there.
Walking around it was quite strange, so very different form the places in Asia that I had been so far. The sense of space, wide clean pavements and tall buildings and lots of modern shopping malls. Everywhere is just so clean, expensive looking and well finished, the architecture is amazing all different shapes and angles but all very clean and modern.
I met a fellow traveller in the social area, Elicia from Australia was in Singapore for the same amount of days as I was and also wanted to go to the night safari so we thought we would go together. She had bought a ticket for 2 days that allowed her to do pretty much anything including public transport so the following morning (bright and early) I purchased the same ticket and we headed off to Santosa island. It's is the holiday resort island by the marina, with loads of things to do, so here goes. We went by the mrt the underground trains in singapore and then by monorail. First of all we went to universal studios and went on all the rides like Jurassic park and a demo of how they create hurricane scenes in films which was pretty cool. It was kinda like Disney land but as it was mid week there were no queues so we went round pretty quick. After that we went up the sky tower which was good as we got a view of the whole city with all its high rises in the business district and the docks with cargo, and also the giant merlion in the park. We then walked to the aquarium, which was good but like any aquarium, but it was god to see the tropical reef fish as I was pointing out which ones I saw when I went snorkelling in Bali. We saw a dolphin and seal slash show which was pretty impressive. Navigating around the island was quite difficult, you could catch the monorail but if you wanted to walk the pathways were longer and not very accurate on the map.We went into the butterfly and bird gardens next which were pretty little enclosed gardens, there were a few very large and colourful parrots enjoying a hose down from the heat. After having some grub we sat down to watch songs of the sea, advertised as a kind of light orchestra. Well I'm not sure that's how I would have described it, it was more child orientated with a narrative that preppy people mimed and danced along, but the lighting and waters effects they used were impressive. When the performance finished we went back to the hostel by cable car which gave us a fantastic over view of the city by night.
The following day we caught the bus in the morning to Singapore Zoo. There were so many animals its such a huge zoo we literally spent the whole day there, I feel like we walked miles around it. We saw zebras and white tigers and lemurs to name a very few. Some animals were in open enclosures which you had to go through and in the Australian bit there were wallabies and Roos running about and a rainforest tree top walk with monkeys and butterflies. Right next to the zoo was the night Safari, which is basically a completely separate zoo next door. First we watched the show where they had a wolf and a hyena standing on a hill and little otters and possums running about the stage. It was so funny when they made the middle row stand up and pulled a huge snake out from under the bench which they had been sitting on, then made a guy hold on to it and then preceded to run off and leave this poor guy in the dark petrified alone and with a huge snake coiled around his body. We then did the walking paths around the park and saw even more animals but by night they seemed more active, we went through a cave and there were massive bats and sloth and we waited about ten minutes for the flying squirrel to jump. We then got the little tour train thing and we saw deer right next to us, it was the thing that most felt like a night safari, there were elephants and hippos and hyenas it was scary how close we were. We had left the hostel at about half nine in the morning, we didn't get back till gone twelve!
The following day we went on the buses around and saw the highlights of the city like the big wheel, the Merlion, the theatre hall, the sky hotel swimming pool they all were amazing yet so different in looks they were beautiful buildings. In contrast to the vast contemporary shimmering glass of the skyscrapers of the marina we went to Raffels hotel, an extremely posh old English 1920's style hotel, from which the Singapore sling was first created in its famous Long Bar. We had a look around and took photos of the peanut casings on the floor but decided to get our Singapore slings from somewhere else where they would be half the price! We then went into china town, the streets were completely different I. This district busy and a narrow path to walk down as the markets spilled out onto the pedestrian road. A ceremony was being held in the Chinese Buddhist temple and we went in to listen to the monks singing. The colour of red was everywhere and we stopped on a bench to have a drink, to realise that we were in a small area of tables with game boards, where older people were playing a game much like checkers. We tried some of the local food from the street stalls, and went off to little India to have a curry for dinner! Little India was full of lights for the Hindu Diwali festival, and was bustling full of people. We had been recommended this one restaurant, which didn't feel like a restaurant than a food court, but the meal was cheap and tasted amazing so I was very happy. On the way back we found a cool looking bar and finally sat down to our Singapore slings and chatted with some locals.
Myself and Elicia weren't catching a flight until the evening so the following morning we went to the famous Orchard road shopping as I wanted to get something slightly warmer than shorts and flip flops so I got some trainers and some tops to layer up.
That was my hectic stop in Singapore, I then had a 9 hour overnight flat to Auckland, which I not worried about a I have that ability to sleep on any form of transport. However I did not know I was flying jet star,I spent the entire flight hungry, thirsty, cramped and cold as they didn't feed or provide blankets and the seats were tiny with no leg room at all. I asked for a blanket but they charged for them so I found a warm spot on the floor and sat there. So singapore good Jet Star airways: worse than Ryan air!
- comments
Diana Driver All I can say is WOW. I just admire you for finding your way around everywhere - great to have a companion. You really bring your visit to life so full of interest. Love N xxx
Sue Zoe - more fantastic stories and I love reading them so much. I dont think that I could make my adventures so colourful. Be exciting to hear it in person too.
Anne Sparks Still having a great time I see and thanks for the warning, I will avoid Jet Star airways!!!! Enjoy NZ its a wonderful country and I look forward to your next blog, take care. Love Anne xx
Tina Kerswell All sounds amazing - one extreme to the other! Glad you,ve met nice people along the way to share your adventures with. Think I'm going to make myself a Southsea Sling now and relax in front of the telly! Sophie extremely pleased with her birthday prezzie so thanks for that. Carry on enjoying...Love Tina, Sophie and Bilbo xxx