Arrival in Singapore

The flight over from Dubai was bearable but not great. We actually had 2 flights, one from Dubai to Doha and then another from Doha to Singapore. Initially we had an hour between landing in Doha and taking off again but after leaving Dubai about 30 minutes late it was a bit of a rush to get through and onto the next flight. We were among the last people to board but at least we didn't have to queue!! Once again, Megan slept for 4-5 hours, I tried but had the world's most annoying woman sitting behind me. She liked to move about a lot, mostly by grabbing my chair and pulling herself up with it, needless to say, a randomly moving chair isn't the best sleeping environment!

Anyway, onto Singapore, our first view of it was coming out of the airport and to describe it in 3 words I would have to say hot, sticky and grey! We are pretty much bang on the equator here so the weather hardly ever changes, it is always hot and the sort of tropical plants we were greeted with proved that point. To get from the airport to Kallang, where we are staying, we used the renowned SMRT, Singapore Mass Rapid Transit, which is the underground train system. It is cheap, reliable and easy to use, we got ourselves an EZ-link card which is like an oyster card and got to where we needed for about S$1.50 (about 50p), not bad for a 20 minute journey. When we got to the hotel we were somewhat disappointed with our room. It was clean and had all the facilities but it was tiny. Imagine a hotel room, now shrink it so that the walls just about surround the bed, that's pretty much what we had! The next morning we went to reception and upgraded ourselves to a "deluxe" room which was a lot bigger (not hard!) and for only about 2 quid extra each per night i was willing to make that sacrifice!

Our first full day in Singapore was a successful one, we started off by heading to Chinatown and it was like nothing either of us had ever seen before. As soon as we stepped off the MRT we were straight into a street market surrounded by Chinese buildings, pagodas and red lanterns. It was absolutely fantastic and we fully immersed ourselves in browsing the traditional (and touristy) goods for sale. The major thing we did here was to go to a tailor and both got measured up and fitted out for new suits. The tailor we went to was excellent and a big fan of Britain. He was so excited that we were British and told us all about how his Dad was in the British Army and how Singapore was much better under Britain. He was an excellent tailor and really knew what he was talking about design-wise. One of the photos he had in his shop was of Bill Clinton there. If his suits are good enough for a US President then I guess they are good enough for me!

After this we continued walking around and went to a temple which was amazing, it was the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and displayed Asia's biggest Stupa (a type of Buddha) made from 420kg of pure gold, decorated with 201 rubies and surrounded by 35 statues of Buddha. We then walked down to the oldest Indian temple in Singapore, not quite as impressive but an amazing tower at the entrance featuring statues of divine beings.

After engrossing ourselves in yet more browsing through stalls we took the MRT to HarbourFront and got on the cable car to take us over to Sentosa Island. This was a really good way to get across, we could have gone by train or bus but we saw a lot more this way. Sentosa is a heavily forested island paradise with a few beaches and a few tourist attractions. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, they are extending the island and are building hotels, casinos and goodness knows what else. Whilst on Sentosa we enjoyed the views and saw the giant statue of the Merlion, a symbol of Singapore. We also went to "Underwater World" which is a sea life centre and had a whole variety of sea life including coral, tropical fish, crabs, sharks, jellyfish and Megan's joint favorites, Clown Fish and Turtles! There was a tunnel running under the tanks that you could go through and see everything, we both really enjoyed this.

After dinner, the plan was to go to the "New Asia Bar" on top of the Swissotel in town. It is the tallest point in Singapore and would have been a perfect way to finish the day, a brilliant view of the city apparently. Unfortunately, to get in you have to be 23, well MEN have to be 23, women only have to be 18! So instead we stayed on the ground floor and had an excellent view over, well, the pavement. Not quite the same but it was a really nice bar where we had appletinis (yes, that's right Adam!!!!) and it was still a good way to finish off the first day of our short stop in Singapore.