Currency:
Singapore Dollars

Highlights:
Dinner with the K2 APAC team, holiday decorations and lights, tea with condensed milk

Our Adventure:

Singapore is known as the 'fine' city due to its reputation for dishing out fines for the slightest offense such as chewing gum. However, we discovered there is so much more to this city and of all the Asian cities we have visited to date, it felt the closest to home.

I like the story of how Singapore got its name - according to Malay legend, a Sumatran prince spotted a lion while visiting the island of Temasek, and based on this good omen he founded a city there called Singapura (lion city).

Singapore is a small country on a small island but with over 4.5 million people, it is the second most densely populated country (after Monaco). It is truly a microcosm of Asia - populated by Chinese, Malays, Indians and a large group of workers and expatriates from across the globe. Singapore was founded as a British trading colony in 1819 and since independence in 1965 has become one of the world's most prosperous countries and sports the world's busiest port. We found Singapore to be very multi-faceted - on one hand, it's modern, affluent and hi-tech boasting skyscrapers galore but on the other, local mania still exists as predominantly shown in all the hawker and food markets.

Singaporean food is legendary and we loved that you could sample a different type of cuisine every night. Of course Singapore is also known for its shopping but we didn't get to indulge in too much of that unfortunately due to budget and baggage restraints. Singapore is also undergoing a fresh development boom gearing up to boost its population to 6.5 million. Gambling casinos will be opening up by 2010 as part of Singapore's new Fun and Entertainment drive, the aim being to double the number of tourists visiting and increasing the length of time they stay.

It was to be another whirlwind adventure as we only had 1.5 days to cram in as many sights and activities as possible…

Day 1:

We arrived mid-afternoon from Malaysia and after dropping our bags at the hotel, were ready to hit the streets running - although this became more of a slow walk thanks to the humidity here. Our time in Malaysia and Singapore has made us eternally grateful for the invent of air conditioning (which I usually despise but could not have lived without there!).

First stop was a late lunch at Hooters in Clarke Quay which consists of a series of restaurants and nightspots along the river. It may seem a strange choice for lunch but those who have tasted their buffalo chicken wings will understand our addiction! After that we jumped on a hippo boat tour down the river - which we discovered took all of half an hour as Singapore is actually quite small. But we did get to see some interesting sights along the river - Boat Quay, various buildings in the colonial district like the hedgehog-shaped fine arts buildings and the space-ship-shaped supreme court building, Fullerton hotel, floating football field, Merlion statue, wishing spheres, the skyscrapers making up the financial district and the construction of the Marina Bay Sands project.

You can see the Merlion statue in our pictures - it's a very interesting-looking hybrid statue of a lion and a mermaid. This was cooked up by the Singapore Tourism Board in the 1960's as a tourism icon and I think Lonely Planet comments on it well - 'And you thought they'd banned drugs'!

We were also really impressed with what could be seen so far of the Marina Bay Sands resort. It's a multi-billion-dollar project and is due to be completed in 2010. It boasts 3 tall towers of hotel rooms which are connected on top by a structure resembling a cruise ship with pools etc. In addition to the casinos, they also plan to have the biggest conference facility in Asia. We look forward to coming back to see the finished project!

We then took a walk along the riverside and through Boat Quay which is another series of restaurants and bars. We had to make a stop at the Manchester United Café Bar which was full of football memorabilia and apparently gets packed on game day. We were a bit freaked out by all the live seafood checking us out from the tanks in the restaurants though - apparently Asian people think this is a good thing to have as it shows they serve fresh seafood but I think for a lot of us more squeamish Westerners, we're not so keen on seeing the totally raw version of the product!

That evening we took a lovely walk along the Esplanade where we were treated to a free classical music concert while overlooking the bay and seeing the different lights coming out over the wishing spheres (big white balls of different sizes on the water where people have written all over them their wishes for 2010). The Esplanade is also a really cool area of restaurants and the street was beautifully decorated with all sorts of Christmas lights - our favourite being the disco balls hanging from the trees.

We went up the Singapore flyer which is similar to the London Eye and has awesome views over Singapore. It was great to get a different perspective at night with all the lights on display.

You can see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=370570&id=713415257&l=bc598ab004

Day 2:

We loved that we could sleep in for a change rather than rushing to catch a flight and after that we set out for our day of exploring.

First stop was Little India which as you can imagine felt like stepping into India. The first thing to hit us was the smell coming from the food market - we didn't indulge too much though since we will be in India soon but we did have the best samoosas ever! Second stop was Chinatown which was also cool to see but we are a little Chinatown'd out at the moment so we were able to walk through and just appreciate it without spending any money which is a first! We loved seeing these enclaves in the middle of Singapore city though.

And then it was on to Orchard Rd for lunch which is the big shopping mecca of Singapore. We stepped out of the metro though and the only way to describe it was overwhelming - people and shops everywhere!

That evening we had a special treat - the APAC team from Shaun's company K2 in Singapore took us out for the evening. Weng Him who runs the office invited us to the office so we could check it out before heading out for dinner. What a great group of guys and what a fun evening! We drove along the east coast to get to the restaurant which was a part of Singapore we hadn't seen yet - awesome area - just a long stretch of running paths, parks and barbeque areas next to the beach. The restaurant we went to was called Jumbo's seafood and is legendary for its chilli crab dish amongst others which is also the signature Singapore dish. It was delicious even though a little tricky and very messy to eat! I think I preferred the fried dough balls that you dip into the crab sauce though - yum! We also got to try lots of other dishes and it was great being with some locals for a change who could advise exactly what to eat and how to eat it!

I think the guys were determined to get us even fatter though as after that we went to a Thai-German brewery across the way for some more beers and snacks. And then on the way home Weng Him insisted we try some Indian pancakes ('roti pratas') so we found a spot in Arab Street and had pancakes with curry sauce (sounds strange but is really good!) and tea with condensed milk (amazing!). So we went to bed very full but was worth it for such a fun evening.

You can see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=370575&id=713415257&l=5a99be8a5c

Next stop: Ao Nang, Thailand.

Love,
Lara + Leise