I adore Singapore

I was a little sceptical at the thought of a 24 bed dorm when we booked it but it was actually okay. I slept well and woke up to toast with jam or peanut butter or chocolate spread with bananas and unlimited amounts of hot drinks. The showers were also rainfall ones so I couldn't complain. We were out of the hostel by 9 and walked into Chinatown which was only five minutes away. As it was early the place felt a bit deserted but after a stroll through the half open markets we found a nice looking temple. It was named the Tooth Relic Temple and Museum because of a gold relic of Buddha's tooth that they have encased in a room of gold. Quite cool. The rooftop also had a lovely garden with a mini temple and on the ground floor a service was going on which echoed throughout the four floors in a nice eerie way. The middle floors housed a museum which told the story of Buddha and his life which I will tell people if they ask but Matt tells it a lot better. 

It was raining before and after we were in the temple which put a downer on our moods but we trudged on, wanting to see as much as we could. We walked back past the hostel and through Clarke quay to Fort Caning park. This wasn't the nicest of walks in the rain and when we walked up into the park to see the fort (at the top of a big hill) there was a couple getting wedding pictures done so we couldn't even see the fort properly. Soaking wet (my waterproof ain't so waterproof) and a tad grumpy we got out of the park and found a cafe which sat on the Singapore Management university campus (the centre of Singapore city). As it was just before 12 we didn't want lunch yet so we settled for another of the half boiled eggs and coffee to share with toast. This may be my new favourite breakfast/snack. 

The rain lessened slightly as we walked up towards little India, moving amongst the uni students (wishing slightly that we were still students). I'd already eyed up a food centre in little India for lunch so we stopped there and got a chicken biryani that was laid out on banana leaf and was huge! I'm glad we shared it. We also bought some papadams (popodoms) to scoop up some of the rice. Maybe we should have been eating local food but this was amazingly delicious. The flavour was up there with Thailand and just made me happy. My next trip needs to be India. I also need to learn how to make such flavoursome curries. 

We strolled through little India as the rain eventually stopped before heading to the heritage area of the city. This area housed the Sultan which looked pretty impressive but modern at the same time. Singapore is only fifty years old (the celebrations are this weekend which we will sadly miss) so I guess I should expect lots of newish buildings but then the streets in this area were lined with old houses that looked like they dated back to the 19th century. I was slightly confused but invited the idea to sit down with an iced tea and ponder this thought. 

Just out of the heritage area was a famous shopping street called Bugis street. It was a little tacky and we walked straight through, not stopping to look at much and instead walked back past the uni area to Raffles, a famous hotel and bar: the long bar. Matt had read up about the long bar and wanted to go in (we weren't dressed too badly) so we did. Thinking we'd be turned away for wearing sandles we were invited straight in and ordered the most expensive cocktail I've ever had: the Singapore sling which was celebrating its 100th birthday. We only ordered one which we shared but this cost more than one I've had in Monaco! It had pineapple and rum and cherry liqueur and other stuff (I took a picture of the recipe) and was very yummy. The bar and all the tables had bags of peanuts that you can crack and eat for free. It's also a tradition to throw the nut shells on the floor so the whole place is a little hazardous with shells covering the floor. Pretty cool though. 

Out of the bar, we walked through the parliament buildings and passed a cricket club that Matt got quite excited about (he likes cricket). Before we knew it we'd reached the harbour and stopped for a look at Merlion park which isn't so much of a park but more a statue of a lion's head with water spurting out of its mouth. The back drop was the city skyline though so it was quite beautiful. From there we walked all the way round the harbour (it must have been pretty far) until we reached the marina bay shopping mall and the art science museum which was a very interesting building (see pictures). The skyline from this point was the best and with the sun setting the colours looked lovely. We wanted to visit the famous skytrees but were a tad hungry so crossed over the helix bridge, passing a floating football pitch (coolest football pitch ever) before stopping at some stylish hawker stalls just off the bay. We got some tasty noodles with different Italian like sausage slices and the occassional muscle mixed in there. We also bought a carrot cake like last night but this time it was black. This meant it had some soy sauce added with a sprinkling of spring onion making it a little tastier. I'd say it was a comfort food which is never a bad thing. Matt was still hungry after this so he purchased some chicken wings that tasted like they'd been barbecued. They were good and I would have eaten a plate full of them had I not been full. My drink of choice was a lemon barley (it was the cheapest I could find) and was okay but I thought it would taste like the Robinsons squash you can get. It didn't. 

Marina bay did a light show each night, similar to Hong Kong, which was mediocre but the Fullerton hotel opposite had a special 50th birthday one that was impressive. The lights somehow made the old style building look like it was moving. We sat and watched this to the end before finally going back over the helix bridge to see the skytrees. I'd been looking forward to this the most out of all the things in Singapore and wasn't disappointed. We first saw three skytrees on there own which I guess are like big pile ons with fake shrubbery intertwined inside them all the way up and lights perfectly positioned to make them seem magical. I thought these three trees were good until we came across the real deal. We'd reached a viewing platform so we could look at seven or eight trees from the height of a one story building. They were similar to the three first ones but had more lights and more grandeur. After only a minute of looking at them an announcement came on to announce the light show would be starting now. This excited us hugely and when the music started and the lights changed colours and flashed amazingly we wanted to get down to the base of them to get the full effect. This meant running round to the Star Wars theme tune until we finally found an entrance and lay beneath one of the main trees to admire the show. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had. The music fills the area so you don't notice anyone around you and there was a lot of people. It went from Star Wars to Harry Potter and then on to Disney before doing a snazzy rendition of the scripts Hall of Fame followed by some classic violins and piano and finishing on Circle of Life. It's the kind of thing that gives you goosebumps and takes you into your own little world. There is a bridge connecting the top of two of the trees but unfortunately we were too late to go up as it had closed so we agreed to revisit it tomorrow night. I just wanted to experience the light show again. 

It was gone 9 when we headed back to marina bay through the lovely gardens surrounding the skytrees. We crossed over the coolest bridge ever with trees running along it before entering the mall which had a little river running through it with a full sized boat that sailed up and down. This was futuristic. We'd thought about walking back but it would have taken us over an hour so we cheated and got a metro back to Clarke Quay. It had been a tiring day but amazing as well. I'm a little bit in love with Singapore and if I had to I could live here.