Last Stop in S/E Asia... Singapore
Trip Start
Mar 15, 2010
1
23
36
Trip End
Mar 15, 2011
Singapore, Singapore
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Reluctantly it was time to say goodbye to Kuala Lumpur. It had been a fun and interesting few days in the capital of Malaysia. We had also grown very attached to our homely hostel but we would move onto our final stop in south east Asia....... Singapore.
We took the monorail to the bus station. We were again blessed with another spacious bus, with armchair like seats. I took this five hour journey as an opportunity to finish reading my recent novel, while Liam tried to catch up on some sleep. Thus however still seems to be a problem for him unlike myself who can sleep anywhere. After a change of bus and a quick trip through passport control we arrived into Singapore.
We had booked our accommodation on the Internet to avoid large expenses and so set off in pursuit of our hostel. With the aid of my directions, we found it with little trouble and was only a couple of tube stops from where we'd been dropped off.
As Singapore is rather expensive in comparison to the rest of S/E Asia we decided to stay in dormitories as private rooms were outlandish. Dropping our bags rather late in the afternoon we perched ourselves on the hostel sofa and watched a film on the wide-screen T.V we'd been blessed with before grabbing some Asian food from a food market around the corner from our hostel.
We watched films with the rest of the guests before hitting our rather comfy bunk beds for a good nights sleep.
Thursday 20th May 2010 Written by Katie
Waking up with the rest of the dorm around 9am for our free breakfast, we sat around the dining table with some other guests discussing our adventures so far. One very nice chap named Ed had spent three months on the east coast of Australia and New Zealand. After a while chatting we arranged to go visit Sentosa island just off Singapore together.
We jumped on the metro and hoped over to the island, it was a rather surreal experience as the island was more like a theme park than a desert Island. Everything was definitely geared towards tourism as were the prices.
As the island was very expensive we headed down to the only free activity available.. the beach. Which also included the southern most point of South East Asia. Which I felt was an appropriate end to our trip in South East Asia.
While Liam cooled down in the water and Ed went to change into his swim shorts, I lay on the sand catching some rays. When two VERY camp philipino boys came over to ask for a photograph. Getting up to take the photo, I soon realised it was me they wanted the photograph of! They soon took a shine for Ed when he returned in only his swim shorts and when they explained they would like to marry a English man one day he was off in a shot to join Liam in the water.
At 6:30pm we ventured to the luge, a mix between a go-cart and a toboggan slay, this rode us at high speeds down the tarmacked hill and towards the beach. where we would catch the sky ride back up again. This supposed to be the less exhilarating of the two. The height of the thing was for me worse than speeding down the hill in the luge.
We had booked a ticket for the songs of the sea show which had won many awards and was to be shown down on the beach. The dodgy storyline let it down a little, however the special effects with sprays of water, lazor lights and fireworks was jaw dropping.
It had been a long day but a fun one on Sentosa island. So we headed back onto the mainland to a great food hall in the centre of Singapore. Built in the 18 century it was a beautifully historic building that had a fantastic choice of foods from Korean, Malay, Japanese to the more familiar Thai dishes we were used to. There was also a band playing, stationed on top of the beverages stall. We grabbed tea for round two pound each and headed back to the hostel to chill out.
When we arrived back almost all the guests were sat around the television watching a film, so we grabbed our pillows and joined them. What a great end to our action packed day in Singapore.
Friday 21st May 2010 Written by Katie
One of the most popular things to do in Singapore is shop, known as the home of bargains, we decided to spend the day on the Oxford road of Singapore; Orchard Road.
Ed also wanted to see it, as this was the only attraction he had yet to see before leaving the next day. So we jumped on the tube and headed out in pursuit of the Apple store in the aim of getting Liam's Ipod fixed (which had been broken since the first week of our travels). Getting lost in the many maze like malls, we finally found an Apple store with a service centre, to which Liam's Ipod was confirmed as unrepairable.
After the unfortunate news we headed for a little bit of window shopping, this made a great change from the copious amount of market stalls we have been used to. The shopping centres here were enormous. They were sparkling clean with floors and floors of designer shops,from Prada to my personal favourite Topshop, which we had to have a look in for my benefit of course. Liam fell in love with a pair of shorts in there for thirty quid, not a bad price..... for England, but now that we are very much accustomed to the cheap prices of S/E Asia we thought it was far too expensive. I managed to pick up a top in the sale for four pound which was a fix for my addiction for the time being.
Both us and Ed are on a budget and the thought of wasting our money on material possessions apposed to traveling purposes led us away from the expensive malls and head to the more familiar street market.
This market only a few stops from our hostel named Bugis, was filled with Japanese street fashion, Singapore souvenirs and street food. We had a look around looking in and out of the each stall.
Like the night before we ventured to a large food hall nearby for more cheap and delicious Asian cuisine, there was so much choice, perhaps a little too much.
By the time we had decided on what to eat and then devoured it, it was around 8pm and so we headed back the three or so stops on the metro to our hostel.
Tonight being Eds last night in Singapore, he and Liam bought a couple of beers and we watched films again with the rest of the guests.
Saturday 22nd May 2010 Written by Katie
With a fairly restless night after the Brazilian in the top bunk opposite mine had been snoring VERY loudly all night, we were reluctant to get up for our free breakfast. However we managed to peel ourselves off our pillows and got changed ready to visit Chinatown.
Chinatown here was much the same as the one in Kuala Lumpur, however with less fake designer gear. We bought ourselves a new Singapore badge each for our backpacks and a British one seeing as that was the only flag missing off our bags from our travels so far.
We decided to head back to Bugis market for the Internet cafe to upload some photos before heading to (expensive) Australia.
We grabbed some tea from one of the food market stalls around the corner from our hostel, (recommended by another guest) and went back to pack our bags and sew on our new badges.
Sunday 23rd May 2010 Written by Liam
With our flight to Australia leaving that night, we decided to spend our final day in South East Asia relaxing on the hostels sofa watching dvds and packing all our belongings into our bags, chucking out unnecessary items to make room for our new purchases.
We took the monorail to the airport and prepared ourselves for take off. Leaving Asia behind and ready to continue our adventures in Australia.
The ten weeks spent in South East Asia was certainly an eye opener and one of the best experiences of our lives to date. Some tough times were had but the good and fun times definately outweighed the bad...altogether six countries and 23 amazingly different cities, which made for a AMAZING trip!!! We will be sad to leave
But our adventures continues Down Under...
