Last Stop (In Asia) Singapore
Singapore is far more expensive than the rest of Asia (although still far cheaper than home) so we decided to save money by spending only two nights there. To maximise our time we left Melaka on the 8am bus and arrived in Singapore around 1pm, which gave us the afternoon to explore. We checked into our hostel, the first dorm we've stayed in for ages, then headed off on the 'City Culture Route' in the business district. It was good to be active again after our lazy time in Melaka and there was plenty to see.Our route took us past the famous Raffles Hotel, the former town hall and magistrates court and across the river to the 'merlion' statue, a strange lion-mermaid hybrid which claims to be the mascot of the city. The business district was clean with plenty of space and greenery and our first impressions of the city were very positive. The old colonial buildings blend surprisingly well with the surrounding tower blocks and Singapore is clearly making an effort to preserve its heritage.
Our initial wanderings took us to the Asian Civilizations Museum which was showing a 'South East Asia' exhibition. We thought this sounded very appropriate for us and it turned out to be a really excellent musuem - I ended up having to drag Chris away at closing time. Suddenly we could understand why the other south-east Asian museums seemed to be lacking exhibits; they are all in Singapore! The exhibition was packed with information and particularly exciting for us were the interactive screens where virtual curators took us on a tour of the gallery whilst telling us about their personal lives.
Having thoroughly explored we headed to China Town to eat and experience a totally different part of the city. With the numerous foodstalls and market it had a much more local, less cosmopolitan feel to it, but still managed to be far cleaner(and more expensive) than any other China Town - or indeed China.
For our only full day we thought we should make a trip to Singapore Zoo, which is without a doubt the best zoo I have ever visited. Surprisingly for a major tourist attraction there was no organised transport from the city centre, but this meant that we got to experience the MRT (underground) and bus system. The zoo is surrounded by jungle in a protected area of the city and so is very green; it's almost possible to convince yourself that you are visiting the animals in the wild. There were so many great animals I couldn't begin to list them here. Highlights were the babyrusas and tapirs (for me) and the manatee for Chris. Although the focus is increasingly on Asian animals there was an Australian section designed with the help of Steve Irwin.
We spent the whole day at the zoo and so managed to see both the animal show and the elephant show. The former featured monkeys, snakes and a sealion, and was made more amusing when one of the snakes swam into the filter of the pool and refused to come out. The elepants were excellent and didn't seem to be having a bad time of it; in fact the zoo advertises the fact that all the animals are given plenty of stimulus in order to prevent them getting bored, and their food intake is carefully controlled. The only animals we felt sorry for were the polar bears, who had a rather small outdoor area with no temperature control. However we felt less sorry for them during feeding time when a live fish was released into the water and slammed against the glass by the bear, who then held it in his paw while he ate some other scraps. We were slightly taken aback.
Our flight was in the evening so we had more time to explore the city on our final day. Despite being totally exhausted we headed to the Orchard Road shopping area, which is characterised by mall after mall lined up along the road featuring increasingly expensive shops. Although we didn't want to shop, it was quite a people-watching experience and very festive. We managed to get enough energy together to visit the Singapore Art Gallery, which featured some interesting exhibitions of Singaporean modern artists, before wandering through the cheaper markets for last minute purchases. Chris had his final rice dish in an Asian food market, but I was suffering from some sort of stupid pre-flight anxiety or something and was unable to eat.
We both thoroughly enjoyed our time in Singapore and would happily go back - it has joined Hong Kong on my list of favourite cities. Despite being expensive it was a great last stop before heading to Australia and helped us leave Asia with many fond memories.
Emily
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