Mustafa Cable
Trip Start
Unknown
1
61
102
Trip End
Ongoing
Singapore, Singapore
Monday, January 10, 2011
We awoke feeling really fresh and as we sat down to breakfast we started chatting to a young couple (Paul and Amy) they had travelled the same route as we had so we sat for a while sharing stories. We were then joined by Hannah form Prague, she was sad as her boyfriend had just flown home so we all agreed to explore Singapore together. We met back us an hour later and headed out to see the many sights. We started off by walking around Little India and visited a temple, it’s great to see all these shoes lined up at the door mostly flip flops, easy for a good trade in subject to size of course! We walked around the Arab district where we had lunch in a really busy cafe, full of locals so we felt this would be the best place to eat...and it was. We then caught the MRT to Chinatown where the early celebrations were starting for Chinese New Year, the streets were so colourful. We walked through a really busy market whilst dodging bikes and cars, it’s so great to see different cultures and this is something that was certainly lacking in Australia.
The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple is a massive temple right in the middle of the market. It is believed to house a sacred tooth of the Buddha (although dentist experts have expressed doubts over its authenticity). Again shoes off at the door we walked into this incredible temple, so bright with colour and gold everywhere, there were a couple of monks in the middle of a ceremony so we all sat and watched them finish. We were all having a great day as Justin planned our next route and carefully navigated us through the MRT network he was like a tour guide. We headed back to the hostel to have a couple of hours relax, get showered to meet back up on the night. We walked to so the worlds largest fountain (The Fountain of Wealth) I’m sure we were all expecting money to fly out of it or something by its name, but sadly it didn’t, but it did squirt out lots of water right high into the air and at the same time there was a light show and music over it. Although it was pretty impressive it wasn’t the most attractive fountain I have seen, so we pushed on to grab a bite to eat.
Now as most people know I love my food and good food that comes cheap then I’m sold. We found a food Hall which was had wall to wall food counters with all different kinds of delicious food and it was so cheap, we all tried different things which were great and cost about 3 pounds we were all high as a kite at this point realising how much money we would save in Asia. Next stop was the famous Raffles Hotel, knows for The Singapore Sling cocktail we just couldn’t visit here without trying one. As we walked through the hotel to The Long Bar we realised how luxurious this hotel really is, and no I didn’t have my flip flops on! Because Singapore is so clean and there are strict laws on littering, The Long Bar is a place that you can freely throw peanut shells on the wooden floor, which took Justin a while to get into what with his OCD I thought he was going to start cleaning them up, once he did get into it he threw one over his shoulder hitting the man who was sat behind...time to leave! We walked down to Marina Bay to see the Singapore sight all light up but when we got there we were so tired of walking about all day so we quickly took our picture then took the MRt back to the hostel.
The following day we said goodbye to our new friends and headed out about midday, we took the MRT to Orchard Street which is the main shopping street in Singapore and to my total excitement as we walked up from the train station the first thing I saw was M&S, I actually think I shrieked, it’s like Oxford Street. To calm me down we decided to walk around the Botanical Gardens first, they are so big we didn’t get time to walk around the full garden but we saw some amazing flowers, Swan Lake where the turtles swam over to us looking for food and a squirrel climbing up a tree, great result from a garden I thought. Just as we were walking out of the park the heavens opened and we got soaking wet so I though it a good idea to shelter in a shopping centre tee hee. Once the rain stopped we walked right down Orchard Street passing all the designer shops, oh the damage that could be done I thought. I had my daily Parata with curry sauce and we walked through Little India on our way back to the hostel, our feet were aching so much. Justin wanted to stop off to try and buy a new charging cable for the laptop and he was advised to pop into the Mustafa Centre. Now two things I learned from this exercise, firstly there is no such thing as “to pop in” to Mustafa Centre and secondly allow for 3 hours to get from one end of the store to the other. I have never seen a store so big in my entire life, it was hilarious on the way in I said “Is it not just a chemist” to Justin and the bouncer mans said “Oh no it is not just a chemist” and he was very correct in saying that, we walked and walked and walked through so many departments, by the end we were just laughing so much “Imagine doing a stock check” we both laughed at the mere thought of it. The crazy thing is that after walking for what felt like two days they didn’t sell the cable he wanted.
We visited Clark Quay which is where most of the night life is and no night life would be complete without a Hooters Bar and there it was. We sat down to watch...no not the Hooter girls but a Chinese dragon dance in the street, they were practising for a competition lined up for the Chinese New Year. Then on to the official sights like Parliment Building, it’s got to be done. We saw the Esplanade as we walked down the F1 route making racing car noises and crossed a very trendy bridge to Marina Bay, there has been so much money spent here in renovating this area it looks so impressive. We went inside the Marina Bay sands Hotel and caught the lift to the 57th floor, which took about 1 minute and from the top we caught amazing views over the city. We sat in the roof top bar as Justin went white as he walked back from the bar after paying five pounds for a Coke; needless to say we sipped it very slowly. We walked along the top of the hotel and watched the guests swim about in the infinity pool. It was really funny when we started taking pictures, it’s hardly a private affair swimming about with all the tourists walking about pointing, but never the less a very fine hotel. We hobbled back to the hostel after our three pound meal and collapsed on the bed.
