Singapore

Masjid Abdul Gafoor
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We arrived in Singapore after a bit of a long flight as there was a lot of turbulance. We found the hostel after travelling on the ultra clean MRT (subway). We checked into our hostel and headed out for food. Our hostel was in Chinatown so we had some food from a hawker stall nearby. Hawker stalls are food stalls and they are everywhere in Singapore. They are graded by health and safety so they are very clean and the food is good and cheap.

The next day we headed out to Little India which is a district to the north of the city. We walked up there and really felt the humidity and heat, understanding why people travel via the air conditioned MRT trains. In little india we looked around lots of stalls with fabrics, spices and food and saw loads of temples with huge roofs decorated with religious images. While walking through the town we were offered lots of interesting things, mainly the stall owners aimed their comments at Jon so I found it amusing. Jon's been offered food, a suit and a carpet among other things. We had some food in little india and then headed to Kampong Glam and Arab street, an area well known for its fabrics.  In the evening we had a bit of a walk around Clarke Quay along the river and had some food at a complex in Chinatown.

Boat Quay with CBD in background.
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On Friday we headed to Orchard Road which is a mile long road world famous for its shopping. It had mall after mall full of shops, some malls had little locally owned shops and some had huge chains including Marks and Spencers, Topshop, Gap, Dorothy Perkins, Warehouse and lots of other I recognised. We spend the morning wandering around this area and had some food before heading to Bugis street which is Singapores largest street market. In the evening we headed to Merlion Park which was on the Singapore river. The Merlion is the national tourist symbol for Singapore. It has the head of a lion and the tail of a fish. There is a big merlion looking out over the river which spurts out water.

Merlion Park.
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The next day we got the MRT to the harbour front where Mount Faber is situated. Here we got a cable car up to the top of the hill. The cable car goes from the 15th floor of a building on the harbourfront, over a freeway and forest to Mount Faber, it was pretty high and Jon wasn't too keen about the height but we made it and the views from Mount Faber were pretty impressive. We saw just how huge and built up the city is and we also saw out to sea towards Indonesia. We walked back down the hill and headed to a food centre for lunch. After lunch we got the monorail to Sentosa Island, Singapores Island resort. It was very touristy with lots of activities and shows but it was interesting to visit and also go to the Southern Most Point of Continental Asia. Apparently it still counts even though its on Sentosa Island because the island is linked by a bridge! In the evening we went to the Fountain of Wealth which is the largest fountain in the world. Between 8 and 10pm the fountain has a music and laser show which was ok but we didn't think it was too amazing. We saw the fountain the next day and actually thought it looked better then.

Cable Car from Mount Faber.
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On the next day we went to the civic district and as I said we saw the fountain again along with the Esplanade theatre which has quite an odd looking roof. We saw various monuments of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles who founded Singapore for the British. We also saw Raffles hotel which is a posh and famous hotel. In the evening we had a bit more of a look around Chinatown as even though the hostel is there, other than for food we hadn't really looked around it. Chinatown was originally on the river but is now further back due to development.

On Monday we went to the Asian Civilisations Museum and discovered a bit more about the history of Singapore before it was found by the british as well as after. In the evening we went on a Night Safari at Singapore Zoo. This is Singapores most popular attraction and was actually really good. You got to see the animals night activity as well as getting up close to quite a few animals. There were various walking trails which we followed which included a walk through a Mangrove with free flying bats and an enclosure with Flying Squirrels (my favourites of the tour) which flew from tree to tree very close to our heads. We then went on a tram ride which went to various other bits of the park and took in Hippos, Rhinos, Elephants and various other animals. We both really enjoyed the night safari.

Today is our last day and we are just getting ourselves sorted for the next bit of our trip, doing some washing and revisiting some places we enjoyed such as Little India and the Merlion Park area. We've both really enjoyed Singapore, its been good to visit somewhere a bit different. Now we're looking forward to getting into China.

H.