The flight to Singapore was again a pretty decent
one. The plane was verging on empty and
I had a nice two empty seats next to me.
Still feeling pretty rough from the previous night, there was only one
solution. Find the hair of that dog, sit
back and enjoy the next 9 hours flying over Australia, Indonesia and into
Singapore. I arrived into Singapore
quite late – around 10pm – and managed to negotiate the metro system and find
my way to Chinatown where I’d already booked a couple of nights in the hostel.
The hostel was on the main strip of Chinatown and the whole atmosphere
in the area was buzzing with Hawker stalls lining the streets selling all
varieties of food and lots of the general tourist-trap shops that you find in
any large city. Sadly, the atmosphere
inside of the hostel did not match that of out.
All of the staff were friendly enough and I got a long guided tour of
the place; however as a entered the 6 bed dorm all of the other 5 people were
all sat on their beds, with their laptops and with their headphones in... So I headed straight up to the attic lounge
area, found a few people about to watch a film and just sat back and relaxed
and seeked an early night, ready for an action packed whirlwind tour of
Singapore.
The thing that I quickly noticed about Singapore – and presumed
that this will be consistent across Asia – is that there isn’t actually too
much to do. The one thing that the guide
book points out is the hundreds of amazing temples and mosques that line most
streets across the whole city; however, once you are at the temple, have a
wander and take some photos, there is nothing else to do there; so onto the
next!! I started my walk of Singapore at around 11am and didn’t really stop –
except for lunch – until around 7pm. The
first point of call was the Sri Mariamman Temple; which was probably the best
of the lot. This had a large
multi-sculptured tower in the middle and ornate gold carvings throughout the
inside. From there it was down to the
harbour and across to an area called Marina Sands. Marina Sands was amazing. A large marina with a large shopping complex
on one side, approx. 20 sky scrapers on the other and then the backdrop is most
amazing of buildings; 3 towers with what can only be described as a boat
perched across the top of them.
From the Marina, I took a nice long walk along the harbour
front, through an area where there is a large War Memorial to commemorate the
lives lost during the Japanese Occupation throughout WWII and into Little
India; Where I stopped for lunch. Which
was Awesome!! It was a Thali consisting
of Rice, Bread and several different curries of differing spices and flavours,
served on a large sheet of greaseproof paper and eaten with just your hands!!
It was so much fun and tasted incredible; although I did manage to get it all
round my face and left with a variety of grease spots across my t-shirt... Other points of interest included a temple
with a temple known as the 1000 lights temple, which houses a 15 metre seated Buddha,
various other temples, and then an early dinner within a Hawker centre – which is
pretty much a food court filled with the most amazing freshly cooked food and
all for only £3!! – of chicken noodles, soup and a nice large bottle of Chang.
The whole day – as knackering as it was – was really good;
however like previously said, there isn’t that to do within the city, so I
retreated to the hostel to consider the plan of action. I didn’t feel that I needed any more time
within Singapore, so with 1 full day remaining, there were two options to
consider:
a) Hit the Zoo and the Night Safari
b) Spend the day at Universal Studios
The decision was pretty easy, and seeing as though sure many
an animal whilst in Sydney, it was a no brainer...
x
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