Time spent: 2 nights
Mosquito bites: not that I know of
On budget/time: It's expensive there but I expected that
Lost/stolen: I think I left one of my nice beer Lao T-shirts in the Hostel when waking up in the dark
Sound of Singapore: Well the hostel played really lame music, Real Radio style
Taste of Singapore: I had a very nice pizza with real Gorganzola on it
Drink of Singapore: Couldn't afford beer, but all the tea you can drink included with the hostel. Result.
Highlights of Singapore: The Merlion statue and the battle box, see below.
The bus there was comfy bus there was a lot of waiting around at the border post (Singapore side) and I was worried they were going to arrest me when they found my Thai whisky I still hadn't managed to get rid of!
Found a nice hostel in little India, paying more for a dorm than I usually pay for an en-suite room. First evening I just had time to eat and do some interneting and tried to get some sleep before an early start to do the city all in the next day. Make your own breakfast was included at the hostel then I walked into the centre, wandering through the old colonial district before visiting the Merlion statue by the mouth of the Singapore river. This is obviously a creature with the head of a lion and tail of a fish that spouts water from its mouth, an emblem for the Lion city dreamed up years ago. It's certainly different. I then wandered to the Asian Civilisations museum, which was very well presented but didn't enthrall me too much as I've now seen many of these civilisations and their own museums first hand. For lunch I had a very nice cheap Indian meal before wandering along the Singapore river past the very swish Clarke Quay, home to many trendy bars in the evening, including the Highlander bar, replete with bekilted staff.
Next up was more wandering through Canning Park, including to the Battle Box, an underground bunker used as a base by the British in WWII which now has an excellent audio-visual exhibition on the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese. Afterwards I pushed on to Orchard Road, home to many oppulent shopping malls. All I got was an orange juice and a postcard but it was fun watching the fashion victims (it was noticeable in Malaysia that it had lots of fat people, unlike the rest of SE Asia, whereas Singapore had lots of Painfully thin women and Victoria Beckham wannabes).
I wandered the city a bit more and killed some time before 6pm when I could get into the art gallery for free! I enjoyed the exhibitions here, including the worl of a Chinese artist, Xe Bingheng or something like that, who was great in a number of diverse styles. Then dinner and back to the hostel. I must say that the hostel here was unlike anywhere else I stayed: when I went to the bathroom to do my teeth before going to bed it was full of girls putting on their make-up and straightening their hair before hitting the town! Certainly not what you get in Laos, and in the Cameron Highlands the dorm had a definite reading before early lights out vibe. Singapore seemed to have a younger crowd, many of them just on stopovers on there way back/to Australia.
Anyway, Singapore was clean and modern, and I'm sure you could spent a long time there and have a lot of fun, spending a lot of money in the process!
Photos:
Me, by the Merlion statue.
The Singapore river.
Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of the city.
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