OUR FIRST DAYS IN SINGAPORE

5 DAYS IN SINGAPORE!  We've been waiting for this! It was worth every cent & every minute we spent. We both loved it.

Last Saturday we put the van into storage & to fill in time we went to a movie; The Avengers. It was great.  As we walked out I said to Phill "Feel like going to Singapore?" & he said "Yeah, why not?"  So I said "Let's go then". So we drove to the airport & 4 1/2 hours (+ waiting time of course) later we were in Singapore! How easy is that?

We weren't very impressed when we went through Customs in Darwin & found out that we couldn't take any liquids, aerosols or gels with us if they were over 100ml. No one had told us! So here we are, standing in line, pulling out all of our toiletries in front of dozens of strangers! How embarrassing! It all went in the bin. So one of the first things we had to do when we got up the next day was buy them all over again!

When we arrived in Singapore it was 9.30pm & it was a balmy 29 degrees. It gets up to about 33 during the day; pretty warm & humid but lovely. We felt very important when we walked out of the airport to see a man standing there with a board with our names on it! He drove us to our hotel & we proceeded to check in only to be told they couldn't find our booking. Not happy! After a stressful first few minutes, the clerk swiped our credit card for $1000, gave us a room & said they'd try & contact our agent the next day. Of course, it was Sunday the next day & Monday was a holiday so it was 3 days before anything was done. We were a bit worried but it did finally get sorted out thank goodness.

It was about 10.30pm by the time we checked in but we were hungry so we went for a walk. Everything everywhere is open late, all over the city. We ended up eating at a place across the road from our hotel. It's a beautiful old restored convent called Chijmes.  The church still stands & the old convent is now full of restaurants & bars of every type you can think of. It was so full there was almost standing room only. The night life in Singapore is amazing & you feel completely safe walking around.

On our first day, we decided we'd probably see more if we walked so off we went. We found our way across the city to  the harbour & there was a walkway across the river where we came across a huge shopping centre with ice skating rink, all the well known designers shops, a casino, museum & a hotel precinct called Marina Bay Sands.

The people of Singapore are so friendly, we even got a free hug on the way over!

The hotel is made up of three 200 metre tall towers. On top of the hotel is Skypark & the observation deck which is built as a cantilever structure and then there's  a 150mtr long infinity pool, then a restaurant at the other end. It looks like a long ship beached on top of the three towers. The view from on top is amazing; you have 360 deg views all around Singapore. They say on a clear day you can see some of the Indonesian Islands. We went for a walk down to the pool area; that was pretty impressive! They look like they're going to fall off the edge hey! We weren't allowed to have a swim though 'cos we weren't staying at that hotel.

This is the Flyer, it's about 140 metres high & takes about 1/2 hr to go round. You get an incredible view from it. Singapore is such a clean city, you never see any rubbish, you're not even allowed to bring chewing gum into the country! The harbour & river are all used as drinking water so that has to be kept clean. They even have outside washbasins with soap at the eateries in the markets.

Take a look at the port - it's the busiest in the world with 600 million containers going through it every year.

This is the view looking out to sea from the top of the Marina Sands. About 25% of Singapore is reclaimed land & they keep filling in more & more. A taxi driver told us that there aren't any hills in Singapore anymore, it's all flat. They've bulldozed all of them into the ocean to make more land & they've increased Singapore by 25%. Amazing hey?

We went for a ride down the river on a 'bumboat'; you get a great view while enjoying yourself! The walk along the river is lovely too, there are restaurants & bars all the way. A lot of the riverside restaurants are pretty expensive though & you can't afford to get drunk in Singapore, that's for sure! The drinks are very expensive & there's a $10,000 fine & 4 year's disqualification if you get caught drink driving too! 

A lot of the restaurants have fresh lobster & huge crabs. They price the lobster by the weight of what they use for the meal so you're a bit scared to have it; you have no idea how much it's going to cost! We had lunch at one & sampled some lovely asian food & of course I had to have a Singapore Sling! Yummy!

 

This is Clarke Quay - a mix of restaurants, bars & shops. It's a very colourful place! Those boats are also used as restaurants.

The Merlion a mythical creature with the head of a lion & the body of a fish. The fish body respresents Singapore's origin as a fishing village & the lion's head is for the city's original name (Singapura) which meant 'lion city'. 

 

We went to the zoo the next day. The first thing I did was feed the elephants which I just loved! I could touch & stroke them & it was so lovely!  Isn't she just adorable?    Don't you just love the green & orange blobs? It was raining so we had to buy some ponchos - not the best look but better than being wet all day!

We had breakfast with the animals. They brought some orangutans & snakes in & we both held a snake for the very first time!  They're warm & soft; not like I expected. This zoo is really good; all the animals are easily seen with the enclosures being wide & natural looking & the barriers are hardly noticeable.  There's every animal imaginable, many you wouldn't see at any other zoo. They had a show where they got a guy from the audience up against an orangutan to see who could peel a coconut first. You can guess who won!

The highlight for me was the elephant show & ride. The show is great. It's so funny & the elephants are amazingly clever. The ride wasn't long enough but I still loved it. You all know how I feel about elephants! 

I know.... you're wondering which ones are the apes & which are the humans???

We caught the bus then the train home from the zoo. The public transport system is very good & it's pretty easy to find your way around Singapore. The fares are very reasonable too. There are barriers to keep you away from the railway lines at all of the train stations; what a great idea! I'd feel much better about having kids with me at the station if we had these! They have an electronic road toll to help ease congestion in the CBD. It costs more to use the city roads at peak times so more people use public transport. Once you get out of the city though, the traffic is really bad.

We went to Little India where a lot of Singaporians with Indian heritage live. It's not very far out of the city. There are a lot of curry eateries & Indian cloth & clothes for sale.

Buying your own home is out of reach of most Singaporians. About 85% live in public housing. Some blocks are very old & some are quite new, but nobody has a yard or a garden. I guess they don't know any better but I can't imagine living like that.  Houses are very expensive. On the weekends they all meet at the parks & beaches to get together with their families. They don't have room at home.

We had a night out in Chinatown where we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, then a look around the shops & markets. A chinese man painted whatever we wanted onto a paper fan in chinese characters. I got 'Happiness & Good Health' & Phill got 'Happy Traveller'. That stumped him for a minute; take a look at his face!

Then we had a trishaw ride to the river & jumped on another 'bumboat' to see Singapore at night. The lights are beautiful. Singapore is an amazing sight at night, it's so full of life. Nobody seems to look at the time, they just keep on & on.

All traffic is supposed to give way to trishaws so the 'uncles' or drivers just go for it, down the middle of the road, in front of buses, cars, you name it! It's a bit scary at times but loads of fun!