We spent Halloween, it was on the Saturday over here in Café Del Mar in the swimming pool at a foam party. Last week I was eating rice and lentils…Get the picture?? Another highlight of the first 5 days was the Fish and Chips from Smith’s restaurant. Real fish and chips, wrapped up in paper with real malt vinegar. Yes I know you can get it anytime you want but I’m 8 hours ahead of you lot. Other than that we just spent some time at the beach and swimming pool, trying to get our heads right.
After the cooling off period, we decided it was about time to starting ticking off some of the things we wanted to do in Singapore. We decided to get the Singapore play pass, which allowed us to do around 13 activities on Sentosa island including Tiger Tower, large viewing tower where you can see 360 view of Sentosa, south China Sea and Singapore mainland; the merlion, Singapore’s symbol a large concrete structure half lion, half merman/mermaid. A 4d cinema showing a film ripping off Pirates of the Caribbean was the main attraction for me, which was brilliant, getting wet, stung by wasps etc and falling off cliffs, right from your cinema chair. There was also a 3d rollercaster which was quite good and a 3d shootout, of which I was nominated Sheriff after getting the high score.
A little ride on a segway makes me want to buy one, and hours bicycle ride which we struggled to fit in at the end. Bike had no lights and it was really dark. It was an action packed day and one we enjoyed very much. There was more planned for the next day; a trip to the newly opened Universal Studios. This was getting built the last time I was here, you could see the beginning of the rollercosters forming.
Obviously an early start was in order if we were only spending one day there and we got 20% discount if we paid our entry by mastercard. Any discount you can get in Singapore you take it with open arms. Money has a way of just disappearing here. It was an epic day. Running around like kids going on rollercoasters and watching live acts like Donkey from Shrek live. Although for kids it was quite funny. The monster rock show was brilliant, stage performance with singers and pyrotechnics but the best was Waterworld live. Live stunts by guys on jetski’s, explosions and fighting scenes depicting a famous scene from the famous flop Waterworld…”dry land is not a myth!!” We got soaked which was the point of sitting in the splash zone. One Indian guy had a problem with the language barrier and got soaked after he spent 10 minutes wiping down his seat before he would sit down. I thought that was hliarious because I sat and watched him do it, thinking “are you serious, or just oblivious to whats going to happen?” Either answer was funny.
Some of the rides were for kids but there were three hairy rollercoasters. One in ancient Egypt, and indoor rollercoaster was quite terrifying the first time, then there was Human vs Ceylon in Sci-fi land. Human was sit-down and Ceylon was suspended. Ceylon was the best of the two and with only 5 minute queues it felt rude not to wait that extra 1.5 minutes to get the front seats. Must have been on these about 10 times, well until Toni started to feel a little green. Fair play to her, she was a trooper and kept going until I was finished. Great day all round and the attention to detail was magnificent and worth the money to get in.
Over the next few days we spent it relaxing and we went to St James Power Station on Harbour front. This was on the mainland and at the end of the bridge to Sentosa. It was Ladies night so Toni got in free and got up to 5 free drink tokens on entry, lucky her, she got 5. There was a long queue for he drinks but it wasn’t surprising considering the price of alcohol. 5 drinks, 15 dollars per drink, 75 dollars, just under £40 free. We spent some time in Powerhouse, which was the club I got tossed out of two years ago for dancing on the stage. I must have set some precedent because your now allowed to dance on the stage. After we took a walk around the other 6 bars that were open in the complex and in a quiet one, Toni played dumb and managed to get another 5 free drinks plus a shot of tequila from the bar man plus a glass of beer for me. Toni got about £80 worth of free drink that night and needless to say, we didn’t do much the next day. It was a good night and it was our first clubbing experience since we left the UK. India and Nepal are not really known for their nightlife.
We also done the main “thing to do,” in Singapore, the Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel in the infamous Long Bar. What a jip. The cocktail is a premade mix with not the best ingredients and it costs a fortune. I got the original and Toni got the Spring Sling. Toni’s was nice, mine was ok, the total price S$ 61.20. That’s over £30 for two not very strong cocktails. The best part of the bar is the fact you get free monkey nuts and its tradition to throw the shells on the floor. The bar is a tip. I think people only come here because it’s cheaper to litter on the ground in here than it is outside, and that’s not saying much. 500-1000 fine for littering outside. Needless to say I threw nut shells everywhere.
A trip to the Botanic Gardens was a nice walk in a really nice area. Nothing really special, just nice to see some grass when you are surrounded by skyscrapers on the mainland.
After all our activities we had some chill out time spending nights in having nice conversations with Christine and a few drinks staying up until sometimes three or 4 just talking. It was a good chance to phone home as well for both of us. Toni sent some stuff home and we decided where we wanted to be for New Years and Xmas because we knew places would start to get booked up. Plenty of time at the pool and in the steam room, just because we could. Sometimes at night there would be some fantastic thunderstorms, sheet and fork lightning lighting up the sky and very frequent; every few seconds on some occasions. I like thunder and lightning but not too close.
Claire and Mark Gannon and their son Liam arrived (Ron’s older sister) the day before Toni’s birthday. We decided that we would do something together before we hit the road again and went to the Night Safari. Singapore has one of the best Zoo’s and a great collection of animals from tiger’s to lions elephants to hyena’s, all well looked after by the staff there. Not like some of the freak show’s you see in Asia. It was a really good night and a great trip then went back to the apartment and had nacho’s and a few drinks. And Toni was pleased with her new stuffed pet tiger which she has named Barry.
The day before Toni’s birthday I need some time on my todd to get things prepared and sorted to make sure she had a good birthday. Needed to get her cake sorted, Jack Daniels and other little part bits and make sure the hotel was sorted for the next night. I booked us into the five star Festive Hotel in Resorts world, which she didn’t know about, so quite a bit of secrecy was needed. We had a party the night before with burgers and snacks, drinks then the next day we would leave Ron and Christine and the beautiful apartment in Sentosa cove and off on the road again, but not without stopping at the big hotel first. Toni was treated to room service, hotel spa and hair treatments all at her request and she told me she had an amazing day. There was an epic thunderstorm this day as well and I caught some of it on my webcam, I hope itll load up on this blog.
The next day we were off to Kuala Lumpur. Our wonderful trip to Singapore had come to an end, in a way I was glad. It was awesome to stay where we did and we couldn’t be more thankful to Ronald and Christine Foster for their hospitality and letting us stay at their home. It was a welcomed break but we were now ready to hit the road again and start living like paupers again, the high life was getting to comfortable and I think one more week there and I would have had to stay for good lol
We decided to wing Malaysia, take it as it comes, nothing pre booked or decided and we would just see what we would get up to. I think il leave it there people and Start Malaysia in a new blog. Thanks for reading. Just surpassed the 20,000 word mark…il have my MA in travel writing pretty soon.
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