Singapore

Large modern buildings

Our next stop in the Far East is Singapore. After all that stress with getting our Chinese visas we still decided to hold off on the China part of our travels. We had talked about possibly taking a train from Hong-Kong through southern China and then down in Vietnam, but after careful consideration and advice from better knowing people who told us the trains and hygiene standards in southern China and rural Vietnam are a little bit different from the western world, we decided to take the less adventurous and more comfortable route of travelling. We booked a flight to Singapore with Tiger Airways; south east Asia's version of Ryanair to a very reasonable price. We might still fly to Beijing on our way back to Europe when the weather is better, so hopefully we'll still get to use our visas and see a little bit of the big country.

The flight from Hong-Kong to Singapore was about three and a half hours and went smoothly. Once we landed we were greeting by hot and humid weather and about 33C. A taxi ride in to the center took us to the Fairmont hotel where we would spend the next three nights.

LARGE hotels

Singapore is very clean, well organized and there seems to be lots of enforcement in place in terms of regulations, laws and police. Taxis are strictly forbidden to stop on the main roads or they might have to pay a fairly heavy fine, and illegally parked vechicles are quickly fined and towed away. Victoria accidentally dropped her ice cream on the road one evening and feared she would be caught by the 'ice-cream police'.... :)

The first day we explored the city centre by foot and walked down to Chinatown. Large modern building are mixed with older, colonial ones and along the river a portion of the older houses have been kept. Along the river was a sculpture of a bird (?) which Robert promptly wanted to climb up on top of. Unfortunately, the bird was to big...

Robert trying to climb the bird.

Older buildings mixed with newer

Old colonial style

We explored the market in Chinatown and eventually got hungry and found the food stalls where you can get a delicious meal for almost nothing! $10-12 Singapore dollars (approx. 5-6 pounds or 50-60 SEK) would for sure leave you full and satisfied. At first the thought of eating food off these little stalls on the road felt a little uncertain but after seeing that they all seemed to properly prepare the food and they all had business licenses we decided to dig in. The food was great and if it wasn't for the size of our tummies we would still be there sampling the different kinds of dishes! We had noodle soup and satay skewers followed by beef stirfry, veggies and rice. Mmmmmmm!

Chinatown in Singapore

Lots of yummy food

Food preparations at the market

Robert enjoying a good meal!

With our happy full tummies we decided that walking would be too much work, so we went down to the Fullerton Hotel right by the harbour from which we took a little river cruise. It was quite nice to see the city from the river at night time with lots of lights.

The following day, we went on a day trip out to the zoo. Well worth a visit. It was hot and humid so we had to keep drinking lots and lots of water. Robert even found another plastic cow to climb!

Robert is riding a plastic cow.

The zoo is the home to a large range of animals; everything from exotic species such as monkeys (our favourite!) lions, tigers, zebras and elephants to animals a little less expected in such warm climate: penguins and polar bears! The polar bears looked a little hot even though they had a cool pool to swim in, and an enclosure with misty cooling steam, and you can't blame them!

Monkeys roaming around

Must be bad if he gets a sore throat....

We saw a polar bear... but not in Canada... in Singapore!

Rhinos in the zoo

That evening we stayed close to our hotel for dinner which unfortunately was over priced for what we got, and both of us missed the delicious inexpensive food we had eaten the night before. Sometimes it really is worth going out of the most touristy areas to eat more local and often better food.

Victoria reading the map.... not one of her strengths....

As we were leaving Singapore the next day, but our flight didn't leave until early evening, we got a late check out and explored a little more around the hotel. There was a shopping centre right next to the Fairmont, and like Hong-Kong, there is no lack of shopping opportunities. On our map, the list of shopping areas was longer than the list of 'attractions to see', which confirms that! As our luggage allowance is somewhat restricted (by the airline cut offs AND Robert's dislike for shopping...), we (Victoria) didn't buy anything.

In the afternoon we were off to the airport for another Tiger Airways flight that would take us to Phuket, Thailand. We think we 'deserve' a beachy holiday.... Oh, the stress of travelling....... Life is hard! :)

written by  Victoria & Robert on February 18, 2010 from Singapore, Singapore
from the travel blog: The rest of the world
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