The following morning we got up at 4:15am, went to the airport and at check-in found that they had cancelled our tickets, even though we had re-confirmed only the day before! Luckily the flight was fairly empty and we managed to get everything sorted out and even got the emergency exit seats! Auckland to Singapore direct is a ten hour flight, but Cathay Pacific don't fly direct so we had to go via Hong Kong. We boarded the plane at 8:55am and after they closed the doors they realised that there was a problem with it, so we sat for just under two hours on the plane before we went anywhere! Still, better to find out on the ground than in the air! Eleven hours later we landed in Hong Kong, three hours later we boarded our second plane and another three and a half hours later we landed in Singapore. By the time we got into bed we had been on the go for twenty-seven hours!
Our first day in Singapore we headed to the renowned Orchard Road, meant to be the best shopping area in Singapore and literally if you name it you could probably buy it here! After wandering around for a while we headed to the Orchard Emerald "Hawker Centre" which is a food court in our terms. However, the idea here is that you buy small dishes of food from lots of different stalls, so you get your starter, main course, side dishes, pudding and drinks all from different stalls! The food was exceptional and also a little bit spicy! I have had Laksa before in the UK, but nothing like the freshly cooked feast that they served, with real pride, to me!
That first afternoon we then headed off in search of Raffles Hotel and The Long Bar for a Singapore Sling! The bar was exactly what I was expecting, dimly lit, monkey nut shells strewn across the floor with Sparrows hoping around trying to find discarded peanuts. The bar had pots of the same nuts all the way along it and ornate fans gently swayed back and forth on the ceiling to keep everyone cool. The spiral staircase in the centre of the bar-lounge had a huge sack of monkey nuts leant against the bottom of it that waiters and waitresses would casually walk past and scoop up potfulls of nuts for you.
From Raffles we headed to La Pau Sat Festival Market which was another Hawker Centre. This one, however, was much grander as it was set in a larger, open-air building, whereas the one we went to at lunchtime was in an air-conditioned enclosed building. This place is open around the clock and never gets any less busy! The stalls inside offered an amazing array of food, using every organ of pig you can imagine! Really! No we didn't try it! Outside they have numerous Satay Stalls and here we found a table, ordered three jugs of Tiger beer and finally some chicken and beef satay accompanied by chilli crab, the dish of Singapore, and spicy squid and onions. This place was packed with many more locals than tourists and the food again was exceptional.
Day two in Singapore brought about another surprise! This time it was at Singapore Zoo and in the shape of Steve Irwin. Remember we paid a fortune for the Platinum Tour around Australia Zoo and never got to meet him? Well at Singapore Zoo we not only saw him doing a show, afterwards we briefly got to meet him, and he even gave Angela a hug and a kiss! Just as I was about to get a photo of him and Angela someone stepped in front of me to get his autograph. As there were literally hundreds of kids now heading our way he sincerely apologised to us, saying, "mate, you have no idea what it can be like" as he was dragged away by his manager into an awaiting shuttle, as they sped off he again turned and said, "sorry mate!" I suppose it is a case of if you stop for one person then you have to stop for everyone, buy hey at least we got to finally meet him!
Singapore Zoo and Singapore Night Safari, which are two separate side-by-side zoos, are both phenomenal and highly endorsed by Steve Irwin. The "enclosures" are all huge, naturally planted and even secured by using natural boundaries such as moats, etc, so for most animals there are no fences or glass screens. The main exception to that being for the big cats, where safety has to be more secure.
The zoo has the largest collection of primates in any zoo in the world. It was an amazing sight and the sounds of the apes and monkeys was incredible. The reason Steve Irwin was there was to officially open the outback section of the zoo, but he couldn't resist playing with the snakes!
The night safari was awesome, we took a forty-five minute tram-ride around the park and then walked around three trails that let you really get close to the nocturnal animals. I know we possibly have had more experience of game spotting than the average person, but surely it is common-sense that the quieter and more patient you are, the more you will see. We could not believe how inconsiderate to the environment and animals and just plain noisy some people are, actually we could as we have unfortunately seen it way too often so far this year!
Our final day we went back to the first Hawker Centre we went to and as we approached the counter the lady remembered us, probably because we hadn't seen any non-locals in there at all the first time and there still weren't any! Then we headed out on an old Chinese boat to tour the smaller islands just off Singapore. The boat, the Imperial Cheng Ho, was very beautiful and intricately decorated. We stopped for a short while at Kusu Island, which means Tortoise Island. In addition to a Turtle (Tortoise) Sanctuary it is also home to Kramat Kusu, a Malay Shrine and Tua Pekong, a Chinese Temple. According to local legend, Kusu Island came into being when a giant sea turtle turned itself into an island to save two drowning men, a Malay and a Chinese. We also saw a couple of rather large Reticulated Pythons in the temple!
Singapore is a place that most people will never spend enough time exploring and is somewhere we will definitely be coming back to.
Our first day in Singapore we headed to the renowned Orchard Road, meant to be the best shopping area in Singapore and literally if you name it you could probably buy it here! After wandering around for a while we headed to the Orchard Emerald "Hawker Centre" which is a food court in our terms. However, the idea here is that you buy small dishes of food from lots of different stalls, so you get your starter, main course, side dishes, pudding and drinks all from different stalls! The food was exceptional and also a little bit spicy! I have had Laksa before in the UK, but nothing like the freshly cooked feast that they served, with real pride, to me!
That first afternoon we then headed off in search of Raffles Hotel and The Long Bar for a Singapore Sling! The bar was exactly what I was expecting, dimly lit, monkey nut shells strewn across the floor with Sparrows hoping around trying to find discarded peanuts. The bar had pots of the same nuts all the way along it and ornate fans gently swayed back and forth on the ceiling to keep everyone cool. The spiral staircase in the centre of the bar-lounge had a huge sack of monkey nuts leant against the bottom of it that waiters and waitresses would casually walk past and scoop up potfulls of nuts for you.
From Raffles we headed to La Pau Sat Festival Market which was another Hawker Centre. This one, however, was much grander as it was set in a larger, open-air building, whereas the one we went to at lunchtime was in an air-conditioned enclosed building. This place is open around the clock and never gets any less busy! The stalls inside offered an amazing array of food, using every organ of pig you can imagine! Really! No we didn't try it! Outside they have numerous Satay Stalls and here we found a table, ordered three jugs of Tiger beer and finally some chicken and beef satay accompanied by chilli crab, the dish of Singapore, and spicy squid and onions. This place was packed with many more locals than tourists and the food again was exceptional.
Day two in Singapore brought about another surprise! This time it was at Singapore Zoo and in the shape of Steve Irwin. Remember we paid a fortune for the Platinum Tour around Australia Zoo and never got to meet him? Well at Singapore Zoo we not only saw him doing a show, afterwards we briefly got to meet him, and he even gave Angela a hug and a kiss! Just as I was about to get a photo of him and Angela someone stepped in front of me to get his autograph. As there were literally hundreds of kids now heading our way he sincerely apologised to us, saying, "mate, you have no idea what it can be like" as he was dragged away by his manager into an awaiting shuttle, as they sped off he again turned and said, "sorry mate!" I suppose it is a case of if you stop for one person then you have to stop for everyone, buy hey at least we got to finally meet him!
Singapore Zoo and Singapore Night Safari, which are two separate side-by-side zoos, are both phenomenal and highly endorsed by Steve Irwin. The "enclosures" are all huge, naturally planted and even secured by using natural boundaries such as moats, etc, so for most animals there are no fences or glass screens. The main exception to that being for the big cats, where safety has to be more secure.
The zoo has the largest collection of primates in any zoo in the world. It was an amazing sight and the sounds of the apes and monkeys was incredible. The reason Steve Irwin was there was to officially open the outback section of the zoo, but he couldn't resist playing with the snakes!
The night safari was awesome, we took a forty-five minute tram-ride around the park and then walked around three trails that let you really get close to the nocturnal animals. I know we possibly have had more experience of game spotting than the average person, but surely it is common-sense that the quieter and more patient you are, the more you will see. We could not believe how inconsiderate to the environment and animals and just plain noisy some people are, actually we could as we have unfortunately seen it way too often so far this year!
Our final day we went back to the first Hawker Centre we went to and as we approached the counter the lady remembered us, probably because we hadn't seen any non-locals in there at all the first time and there still weren't any! Then we headed out on an old Chinese boat to tour the smaller islands just off Singapore. The boat, the Imperial Cheng Ho, was very beautiful and intricately decorated. We stopped for a short while at Kusu Island, which means Tortoise Island. In addition to a Turtle (Tortoise) Sanctuary it is also home to Kramat Kusu, a Malay Shrine and Tua Pekong, a Chinese Temple. According to local legend, Kusu Island came into being when a giant sea turtle turned itself into an island to save two drowning men, a Malay and a Chinese. We also saw a couple of rather large Reticulated Pythons in the temple!
Singapore is a place that most people will never spend enough time exploring and is somewhere we will definitely be coming back to.
