Many people dislike Singapore and it could easily be branded as plastic/easy Asia; it’s clean, everybody speaks English, it beckons no cultural challenges and in all fairness it could be London. However we personally enjoyed our time though we can see both sides of the coin and can fully understand why so many people don’t enjoy it.
Anyway our first evening in Singapore was a simple one. Our hostel hostess kindly led us to the food court and gave us a run down of what stalls to eat at and what we should expect to pay, the first thing we noticed was how cheap it was to eat- something we weren’t entirely expecting. In terms of general shopping and accommodation Singapore is a relatively expensive destination, especially when it comes the latter. After yet another great meal this time at the Smith Street Chinatown food court we decided to hop on the amazingly clean SMRT (Singapore underground/overground system) and took a stroll around the river, past the ridiculously grandeur Fullerton hotel until we finally found what we were looking for- the largest fountain in the world at Suntec City, again a place I remember fondly as this was the area I spent Christmas some 8 years ago.
Day two and we headed out to the Chinese and Japanese gardens for a wonder around. The gardens are the largest green area in Singapore… actually one of the few green areas in the whole country (this isn’t taking into account the other 50+ uninhabited islands belonging to Singapore)!
The area is great for a walk especially if you have a good day, ours was very hot and humid and very overcast. The highlight of the garden for both myself, though especially Jen, was the Bonsai garden, where I’m pretty sure she took more pictures than during our whole stay in KL.
As we were wondering around we met this… I want to say little fellow but he really wasn’t little nor did we want to stick around too long to await his return (the picture doesn’t do him/her justice).
We then headed over to the impressive seven storey Chinese pagoda and ascended to the top.
Back on the train to our Chinatown home where we once again ate at the food court on Smith Street, where I keep eying up all these peculiar foods though can’t quite bring myself to eat a whole squid quite yet- Jen just gives them disgusted looks as she walks past.
Day three and a day of getting around to things we had intended on doing much earlier. We started our day with a more in-depth look around Singapore’s Chinatown, shocking really considering it was located about 100m away from our hostel. Anyway we were once again both in agreement that it was better than that of KL. We then moved on to the ’Buddha’s Tooth Relic Temple’ which was again a building that we could see from our hostel. The temple seems to be built around the concept of educating visitors about Buddhism- after leaving we felt educated (sort of)! Unfortunately most of the temple was under a no photography ruling, so we obeyed… remember Singapore is a fine city.
We the decided to head down to the Raffles, we’re still undecided on our return as to whether or not we’re going to have the famous Singapore sling or the very British high tea- or whether our wallets will be able to sustain the Raffles strain at all. The Raffles Hotel by the way is the oldest building in Singapore and is named after the Brit who colonised Singapore- don’t quote me on the latter as I’m not entirely sure if I’m correct there. Anyway myself and Jen were both in agreement, and I think she was expecting something a lot more striking, that the Fullerton is much more grandeur both in design and location. The Fullerton nestled amongst the high rises:
We decided to carry on around the quay and take in some of Singapore’s well known buildings including the two theatres, both in the same style.
The Merlion is Singapore’s most famous statue and it’s purpose and meaning is to act as a welcome to all that enter Singapore.
We headed back for some shopping in the malls where Jen went to take another look at the Kimono fabric bag in the Japanese shop she had fallen in love with, though we decided to get it on our return to Singapore. Then we headed out to the food court at the Quay where we finally saw someone make Teh Tarik (which literally means ‘pulled tea‘) the way it’s supposed to be made, a process of ‘pulling’ the tea back and forth between two containers, to both cool the tea to drinking temperature and create a froth on the top. It’s made with condensed milk and is very sweet.
Up bright and early for our morning flight with Air Asia to Bali, Jen looking like she was going to pop with excitement.
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