A Trip Of A Lifetime

I still can't quite believe I'm actually here in Singapore... and it's time for me to leave already!! So, I thought I'd better fill you in on what I've been up to before I get to Sydney and get distracted with a whole new city :-)

On Tuesday, I landed in Singapore after the 12.5hr/10,783km flight and I was shattered. Singapore Airlines were great and up to about 7hrs it wasn't so bad... it was the last few that were hard to take! We practically ran through immigration it was so efficient, and as soon as I stepped out of the airport the heat hit me like I'd just opened the door of a tumble drier... and thankfully I didn't struggle with it as much as I expected to, most of the time anyway!

I got a taxi to the hotel and practically fell into bed - I know I should have stayed up but having not had much sleep over the few days before leaving England and none on the plane, I was fit for nothing! The hotel is - how do I put this - 'basic', but it's clean enough and really I'm only there to sleep so it did fine, an extra bonus being that I had booked a 2 bed female dorm, but there's been nobody else in there since I arrived - good job, it's tiny!! I'm staying in Little India, which is just as it sounds... it's particularly alive at night when I've been walking through to get to the hotel, there are still food markets open now at 22:30 at night.

Wednesday I got up early and headed out to wander around. Went to the Singapore Art Museum and joined in a tour (that was just the guide with two trainees, and me!) and kept walking til I ended up in the centre, where I started to realise just how many shopping centres there are here - and they all appear to be immense!! SunTec City Mall alone has 5 towers on 3 floors... and houses the Fountain of Wealth, the largest fountain in the world apparently (there was no water flowing while I was here, hope that's not a bad omen ;-)). I'm not much of a shopper, but it was very easy to spend a few hours wandering around without even realising it.

Thursday morning, I headed back into the city for a while (the MRT, the subway system, makes it very very easy to get around and like the entire city, it's spotlessly clean and airconditioned so it's a bit of a breather from the humidity as well!) and then made my way to Singapore Zoo. It's a really impressive set-up, made to imitate the natural settings of the animals as much as possible and you feel very close to them as they're mainly only separated from you by a moat or other equally inconspicuous means. After that, I went on to the Night Safari next door... it starts at 19:30 when it's getting dark - the idea being that you get on a tram (with running commentary) around the zoo, sometimes going through areas where deer or buffalo are eating the grass right beside the tram (no moats there!!), and you can do several walks round the zoo in the dark - they're small paths rather than open roads - really cool if slightly eerie, I was on my own a lot of the time because everyone else were sticking together in packs - it felt almost as if I had the place to myself! I made a couple of people really jump just walking out from a path they hadn't noticed... hee hee :-) There is also a Creatures of the Night show at the end, housed in an open ampitheathre where some of the zoo workers show the skills of some of the animals they've trained - it was a bit theatrical for my liking but all in all definitely worth a visit if you're in Singapore.

Yesterday was my cooking course at at-sunrice Academy, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We had a tour of the Spice Garden first which was good, though if I were to go again I think I'd skip that level. However, I did get to see my first banana tree so I can't complain :-) The demo and the hands-on cooking parts of the course were really informative and I would definitely recommend both of them. There wasn't a scrap left on any plate at the end so we can't have done too bad either :-) I spent the afternoon with a lovely Lebanese lady I met on the course, we went to Chinatown to have a look round as neither of us had been there yet. She also very kindly showed me around the Raffles Hotel where she was staying so I got to see the bits the tourists don't generally get to see (thanks, Basma!!) - oh how the other half live!! Later that evening, on a whim I decided to go to see an opera (The Glorious Zhen Guan Years of Tang Dynasty) at the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay (the large spiky building in the photo)... I left at the interval... It was obviously a very impressive performance, and was translated into English on a screen by the stage, but I was very tired by then and was really struggling to follow it - and when ripples of laughter were running through the audience and I just did not get the joke, I thought I might as well cut my losses!!

Today, I've been taking it easy mostly, had another walk through Chinatown and round a couple of the shopping centres, oh and I went on the river cruise tour - the commentary was unfortunately taped, very Americanised and again a bit theatrical for me (ending on "do tell your friends if you enjoyed this tour as we would love to show them around too - you have a fantastic day now!!"... groan! Still, it did give you a good tour of the quays and Marina Bay, and I spend a while walking round there afterwards.

And that about brings me to the end of my time here - I've walked miles and even managed to squeeze in a couple of cinema trips too :-) There's still lots I didn't have time to do, but all in all it's been a really good few days and this is a great place to come to visit. It's such a clean, safe city - it's a real pleasure to be able to just walk around even at night without feeling like you really have to watch your back. But of course the people make the place - they are wonderfully friendly and helpful and I am so glad I've had the chance to be here for a few days.

Well I think I've waffled on quite long enough now - time to head back to the hotel and get some sleep before an early start tomorrow morning.

Next stop Australia!!!!! :-)