Singapore

K and I decided to hit Singapore as a girl’s trip during the Christmas holidays. Singapore was a bit of an eye-opener. I’ve never travelled in Asia before, so it was great to have such a different experience. As far as culture clash goes, it was pretty easy to acclimatise – everyone speaks English, the money is similar to Australia. The humidity however, was difficult to deal with! Even coming from the heat of a Perth January, it was sticky and exhausting. And rainy! The plants were amazing though – lush and bright.

We arrived in the wee hours of the morning via Tiger, and so had a late start to our first day. The hotel (Ibis) was very clean and pretty non-descript. We could have been pretty much anywhere, except for the view of red-roofed temples from our window, and the fish ball soup on the breakfast menu! The hotel was right near Bugis Market, so we wandered around that for a while.

We decided to take a bit of a city orientation tour on our first day, which took us around to Orchard Road shopping district, Marina Bay, some of the temples, the obligatory visit to a jewellery shop, and the Botanical Gardens. Since we only got to see the gardens for a few minutes, we decided that had to be on our list for exploring in more detail.

We also did the other “must do” tourist trap – a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar at the Raffles. After getting off at the wrong bus stop and having to walk back, it was lovely to sit down with a drink – but at $29 each, they weren’t cheap! The Raffles is gorgeous though, and they take great pains to keep it a reminder of the colonial era. Since we were nearby, we popped into the Suntec City Mall for some retail therapy.

Little India was another stop on our list, which was fabulous. It was raining while we were there, so people were crowded into all the shops and markets for cover, but K found some gorgeous batik fabrics for quilting, and I won the jackpot finding decorated shoes for cheap. We wandered around looking for sari fabric and eventually got a bit directionally challenged, so caught a taxi back to the hotel.

Chinatown was another eye-opener. We had delicious Haianese Chicken and steamed rice dumplings in a food hall around the corner – yummy and very cheap! Then we settled down for some serious souvenir shopping in Chinatown. We found tshirts, fans, chopsticks, silks and jewellery very reasonably priced.

The bird park was a contrast – the huge big aviaries with lots of birds were great but it was so sad to see the big birds all alone in the room-sized cages.

We watched the Birds of Prey show, and I was agitating that they only asked the kids to volunteer to hold the birds… until they asked for an adult volunteer! My chance at fame (and holding big scary birds) had come! I was gloved up, and brought out a gorgeous big hawk owl. Then another bird flew out and landed on my other arm! Wow!

The Night Zoo was another cool must-do. The animal show wasn’t anything very new or different, so we left 10 mins early and headed to the safari train before everyone else did. We had no queue plus only a few people on our train making noise, so we saw heaps of animals out in the enclosures. Mental note: Next time don’t automatically try to pat the big kitty who is having a picture taken with you…

Fabulous signs on public transport – lots of signs telling people to smile at each other and be polite, and also the important one – “No Durian!”

We did end up making it back to the Botanical Park, and visited the Orchid Garden. This was amazing, and I don’t even like orchids that much! Vibrant, shocking colours and huge plants!

For our last night, K and I decided to splurge on a seafood dinner down on Clarke Quay, where the “nightlife” of Singapore is. We sat right on the water and had delicious food. A fitting end to the trip.