Travel Story «Sampling the Singapore Slings in Singapore»

Singapore | 0 Comments 24 April 2006 - Last Update 22 June 2006

SINGAPORE
With a ridiculous amount of luggage for four people we said our goodbyes to Khoa San Rd on a Monday Morning and headed off to the Airport. Terrified at how expensive Singapore was going to be in comparison to the brilliantly cheap Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos we had ourselves all prepared to set up camp in Singapore airport for four nights and not look sideways at anyone nevermind buy stuff! As it turned out in our haste to read up on the country in our Lonely Planet we mistook the prices to be USD dollars when actually they were SGD dollars (doh!) so everything was pleasantly cheaper then expected!! As usual the first hostel we stopped off at was fully booked so we traipsed around the corner and down the street to a nice little hostel called Bugis Backpacker Hostel with free internet access and a room for four (even if it was windowless) so we were happy! It was really central for all sight-seeing and more importantly shopping so location wise we’d recommend it. That night relations of Lorna’s called Chris and Peggy (originally from England but living over here for years) brought us all out for dinner to a lovely restaurant on the coast overlooking main port. We got a good few dishes between the lot of us and swopped and shared. 

Tuesday was spent sight-seeing by Lorna, Emily and Grainne around the city centre. Loads of photo’s were taken but accidentally deleted  by the photographer extraordinaire herself – and believe me we’re still hearing about it (only messing – sweetie!). As you probably know electrical goods are really cheap over here (and you’re still allowed barter!) so I spent the day going from one huge shopping tower to another sussing out what camera to buy – got one eventually so now we’re really going to bombard ye with photo’s!! That night we all got dolled up in our Sunday best and headed off to a Private Club no less to meet another relation of Lorna’s called Bob. There we had a gorgeous meal and plenty of banter to go with it! 

Upon the advice of Chris, Peggy and Bob we made up our minds what to do with our last two days in Singapore . So Wednesday we headed off to Sentosa Island . Here we visited the underwater aquarium, watched a dolphin show, went on interactive movie rides and finished the day off  by watching a musical show with lazor lights, water and animation. That night we again scrubbed up a bit and headed down the road to the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel and sampled the famous “Singapore Sling” first created here back at the turn of the 19^th century by Mr. Ngiam Tong Boom. It was quite an experience crunching the monkey nuts provided and just chucking the shells on the ground. 

On our last day in Singapore we split up for a while so we could all do our last minute things and that night we headed off on bus and rail to find this famous much talked about night safari. Here we drove around a safari park in an opened out buggy thing with nothing separating us and the deadly lions and tigers except for a small ditch. Quite scary except for the fact that most animals were asleep and couldn’t give a damn if hundreds of tourists were bombing around the place. We did see a few animals like deer, pigs and hippo’s…. After that we went to see a show where an ape of some sort actually skimmied down a rope right over my head and a python was placed under an audience member’s seat. Not grainnes seat obviously or she wouldn’t be here to tell the tale!! We headed back into Clarke’s Quay then where Emily and Lorna (the lunatics!!) decided to do a reverse bungee jump and even pay for this privilege!! Along with a little boy (who was just too young to know any better unlike our two) they were fired at high speed up into the air, bounced around up there for a while, took in the fab views (if their eyes were actually open?) and eventually rejoined us sane people on the (solid) ground. Beers and food was needed after this and quickly attained!! 

Friday morning was another early start at some ungodly hour like 5am and off we went to fly with the FABULOUS Qantas (you can watch films and tv soaps of all genres as you wish, when you wish on your own personal tv screen, get extra wine with your meal and free icecream  just before you land!!) to Australia. Read on to see how that goes…………