I had a pretty tight and rigorous immigration check as soon as I arrived, in fact a number of people in front of me were not allowed through and were taken somewhere to be checked out further. I heard Singapore was a very safe and clean city with a no tolerance policy to crime of any kind, well that was pretty clear when reading the immigration form which says in big red capitals ‘ if you are caught bringing drugs into the country the penalty can be death’ that’ll deter you!
Getting to the hostel from the airport was really easy, the transport network is simple clear and easy to use. I was booked into ‘The Hangout @ Mount Emily’ hostel. First impressions - this place didn’t disappoint, It was basically a 5 star hostel, It was a little expensive though at 20 Pounds per night but you get a lot for your money.
Only in the initial few hours of being there it was clear this place is well oiled and organized machine, from the transport network to its cleanliness. Everything was so far ahead of the UK. After a little while it became clearer why Singapore has been able to invest so much money into developing the country; basically its because they put so much bloody tax on EVERYTHING, its crazy expensive!
There were quite a few people floating about in the hostel and my dorm, I soon got to meet a few guys, all been to different places and with lots of stories to tell.
- THE CITY BY DAY AND NIGHT After breakfast I set off into town to see as much of the city as possible, I wondered around for about 4 hours before bumping into a couple of German girls who had just been in Oz for a couple of months. The girls filled me in on their trip and gave me some good advice and I have to say the German girls certainly like to drink!
After a few ‘Jugs’ (pitchers) of beer which were stupidly expensive, we wondered off to get some food and didn’t get very far before a reverse bunjee ride caught our eye which we just had to do. It was over far too quickly but was pretty good fun, I’m looking forward to the big one in NZ !
We didn’t have a hugely late one as we were drinking pretty early in the day and were pretty tired, it was a good day!
10th - The quest to find a beach in Singapore
Well off to a good start tody, I went down to book up another night in the hostel before breakfast but a few of us were a little surprised to find the hostel was fully booked up which sucked as we just met everyone. So we headed down the road to another recommended hostel (G4) and booked in there. It wasn’t quite as good as The Hangout but it was still pretty good – so I’ll make sure I book ahead of time in future! I headed back to meet up with the guys in the other hostel and we headed off to try and find a beach.
Sentosa island was at the top of everyones list and was described as a bit of a fake Disney land resort (fully man made – beach and all) but a beach man made or not sounded appealing and so it was well worth a bit of an adventure.
- SENTOSA BEACHSentosa Island harbour was one of the stops to the Volvo ocean tall ship race which were docked while we were there, unfortunately they were out on a day race at the time but there was a huge event going on around the main race and it was a day out in its self.
We trekked off around the island a little and decided it’d be a good idea to climb for a coconut which turned out to be a good free drink!
[1459 – climbing for coconuts vid]
there are a few different areas within Singapore, Malaysian, Chinese, Indian and a couple of others. We headed to china town to get some food and then went to town to have a world famous Singapore Sling Cocktail which, surprise surprise was crazy expensive.
- EATING SOME GRUB IN CHINA TOWN11th & 12th of Jan – Sight seeing, Saving the penny's and updating the old blog
The last couple of days in Singapore constited of sight seeing and saving a little money (in this stupidly expensive country) by chilling out in an internet café and updating my Sri Lankan leg of my blog. The videos are proving to be pretty time consuming to upload but so far so good, I have most of what I wanted to put up.
Singapore has been close to what I expected – a large, clean and modern city with not a great deal to see or do. I have spent a lot of money here but ive met a number of good and interesting people, that was worth it in its self. Ive enjoyed the short time I have spent here but I wouldn’t stay any longer and I wouldn’t come back to visit unless it was another stop over destination. It seems that Singapore is a key stepping stone for many people traveling around the world from NZ to Norway, from Thailand to India, from Germany to Bornio and from the people I have met the list goes on. There are so many people doing and seeing so many amazing things its great to hear about.
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