OUR GRAND TOUR
In Other News...
The place is super clean with no chewing gum, littering, graffiti or rubbish to be seen. It is almost as if it is a brand spanking new city except for a little issue that some people still squat on the toilet seats, but they are clearly dealing with this issue as you can see below.
Observation File
Hello:
Apa kabar
People:
Same as any big city, good and bad
State of WCs:
8/10... See "In Other News" section at the bottom of the post
Temperature:
34*c - 38*c
Our diet:
Mixture of Asian foods
No. Of bites:
Maryam 0 v 0 Andy
Distinctive elements:
The luxury look ... A high end playground for the rich
New tricks:
To save money but have tasty food, you can have chinese food from chinatown/food court. There is also a great food hall in the Marina Bay Sands Mall serving great cheap food
Wildlife spotted:
None
Cost:
In food courts you can buy a meal for £4, in restaurants it is London prices
Three words:
Iconic, Humid, Bling
Time:
7 hours ahead of GMT
Miles Covered:
40,831
Singapore
Singapore is a VERY stylish Country. It boasts of high end, high tech, contemporary and designer everything! If Singapore were a person we'd say it would be a Beckham... We will let you interpret that one.
Just the four days in Singapore which doesn't sound like very much time to cover a whole country but then again, whilst Singapore is a country, it's also a state and a city all rolled into one measuring only 719 square kilometres. At just over 50 years old (since it gained independence from you guessed it, the Brits), the country has come a long way in such a short space of time.
One of Singapore's tactics to help it grow economically has been to create a playground for the rich with its crown jewel the Marina Bay Sands hotel, with it's 3 huge towers atop of which sits what can only be described as a sliced cucumber shaped observation deck, swimming pool and restaurant. The complex also includes a shopping mall, casino and an abundance of restaurants. As pretentious as it is we have to be honest and say the view from the top is incredible.
Our favourite part of the city are the Gardens by the Bay which are an architecture and landscape masterpiece (it's not just us that think that, it's won endless awards). An artificially created parkland with a host of different pathways through all sorts of biodiversity is punctured with areas of interest including man made steel 'trees' and two giant greenhouses for plants requiring specific environmental conditions.
Almost an entire day was spent in the National Art Gallery but it was well worth it both for the building itself and the exhibits. The building, designed by Studio Milou architects, was formed by refurbishing the original City Hall and adjacent Supreme Court buildings and connecting them with a covered courtyard space. The new gallery was opened in 2015 after years of refurbishment.
Our last supper before we turned vegetarians in India!
We were invited around to Kim's for dinner and her Mum cooked up an amazing spread! Spending time with Kim's family and friends we got to understand Singapore and Singaporeans better as well as sampling some of their fine cuisine.
We both put our hair into the hands of a local and got our ears lowered on our last day. Maryam's was well over due (first cut of the trip) whist Andy was seriously starting to suffer in the heat under his fro!
On to our penultimate stop - India!
