Singapore

Day 1 – Another Country

Today we were leaving Malaysia heading for Singapore a stop off before we caught our flight to Australia.  We were picked up by our transfer around 11am and driven to the very small airport near Cherating.

Entering the airport it was very empty and looking at the boards there only appeared to be two flights leaving today, so being early no check-in’s were open.  We had to kill some time so we went for a bit of breakfast/lunch at their very sparse café, which consisted of a pot noodle (Glenn) and some Malaysian style samosa’s (Shell).

When the check-in’s finally opened we went through to the very basic departure gate where we waited until the plane that had just landed emptied and shortly after we boarded and were on our way.

Arriving at Singapore airport it was pretty hot, unfortunately we missed the transfer desk on the way through baggage collection so had to get a taxi to our hotel for the next two nights.  The hotel was pretty bog standard but it was handily placed in the centre of Little India.

After unpacking we headed out to find a drink and after getting directions we headed to The Prince of Wales backpacker pub. We knew that Singapore was going to be expensive, but it turned out that a pint of beer was £6 each and that was at a cheap bar!!  So we sat there for an hour or two nursing our pints.

Getting a bit peckish we headed across the road to an Indian café where we sat down and shared some quite cheap and reasonable mutton Biriyani before heading back to the hotel to get out of the heat and get some rest.

In the evening we had to bite the bullet and pay for some extortionate beers at The Prince of Wales.  We asked the bar tender (who was very helpful) for some recommendations for places to eat and he pointed us up the road to a couple of local restaurants that he said were good.

Finishing our beers we headed up the road but the restaurants that he recommended were one,  closed and two,  not found.  So we walked around for a bit until we found an open air café place with various Chinese food stalls around, so we sat down and dithered for a while on what to eat.  We decided to go for some pork rib & noodle dishes that were famous in the area and ordered one dry and one wet, which were very cheap.  The food was OK and we were pleased to find that the beers were slightly cheaper here.

Dinner done we headed back to the hotel for the evening in order for us to save some money!!

Day 2 - Sightseeing 

As we had not seen anything the day before and we were only here for one more full day we decided to try and go and see the sights.

After a quick coffee in a nearby café we headed down into the underground and headed by tube to a station that we thought was by the harbour part of the city.  

Exiting the tube station it was again very hot but we worked out the direction of the water and headed for it.  When we got there we got our first glimpse of the famous Singapore skyline so took a few snaps.

We then crossed a funky modern bridge to the other side where there was a large shopping centre, modern art building and some hotels (I think) with a large ocean liner construction (Roof Terrace/Bar?) along the top of the building, very impressive.

Taking a break after taking loads of pic’s we then headed around the side of the harbour with the intention of visiting Chinatown.  Along the way we saw some crazy people doing boxersize on the side of the pavement in ridiculously hot conditions, when we arrived at a junction, map in hand, a really friendly ex-pat businessman told us we should go a different route.  He told us that if we headed up a few blocks we would see the old Singapore buildings and a place called Club Street which was where a lot of the Chinese population used to live, plus some bars.  

Following the directions we soon found ourselves in a street that had older style building and loads of little restaurants that seemed very popular with the local business people.

Walking up this street we then found a very old pretty Chinese temple, Thain Hock Keng,  which we walked around for a bit. Taking photo’s there was a great contrast between the old and the new.

It still being stupidly hot we then headed for Club Street where we stopped at a bar in the shade and had one or two beers to cool off.

Moving on we then headed for Chinatown which was pretty touristy to be honest with loads of souvenir shops, food and juice stalls.  We walked around for a bit and then headed to food street where we got a dish of chopped Duck, Pork and Beef to share between us which was quite tasty and not that expensive.

After another quick drink in Chinatown people watching we then headed back to our hotel for a bit of a relax before going out in the evening.

Along our walk in the morning we had noticed that there were nightly laser shows over the harbour area so we caught the underground again and found a position facing the boat hotel and waited for the show to start.  At around 8pm some music started and then nearby building had coloured lights projected onto them whilst some very weak lasers were shone out of the top of the boat hotel, we waited for it to get more exciting or build to a crescendo but it didn’t, Jean Micheal Jarre it was not!!

Slightly disappointed we then headed back to club street where we stayed for a couple of hours for some drinks (and putting up with a slightly obnoxious drunk Singapore guy, he asked where we were from and we he told him he said “who gives a fuck”, Shell then asked him the same question, when he replied and she gave him the same rude response we think he got the message as he did attempt to apologise) before heading back to Little India close to our hotel.

We walked round for a bit then found a small little bar that had some friendly locals in that we started chatting to.  The bar owner, his friend (who was in the Singapore army) and another couple. We spent some time with them having a few beers and the couple offered us some of their local delicacy, a green glue like sweet that stuck to your teeth (won’t be investing in a box of those!!).

Unfortunately due to the prices we soon run out of our Singapore dollars so had to say our goodbyes and return home for the night.

To be honest we quite like Singapore, despite the cost of beer and can see why there are so many ex-pats working here as it is a very modern city with stunning architecture but also has some streets with old style charm.