Singapore

After flying from Dublin, with a brief stopover in Dubai, we arrived in Singapore on Wednesday 1st July. Getting to our hostel (the 'Five Stones hostel') from the airport was fairly straightforward by bus, and we finally checked our groggy selves in at around five in the evening after nearly 24 hours spent flying and waiting in airports. Our hostel was located in a busy area of the city, with several Turkish, Arabic, Hong Kong, and Mexican restaurants close at hand, as were the obligatory Subway and Starbucks on every second street. On our first full day, and after a brief internet search of the best things to do in Singapore, we decided to bus it to the 'tree-top walk' at MacRitchie Reservoir in the city. This walk consists of a trek through a dense and tall forest, all the while being accompanied by singing birds, clicking insects, overly-friendly monkeys that will rob your lunch given half a chance, and fairly sizable lizards that you can nearly step on before you realise they’re there. Around mid-way through this walk is a free-standing suspension bridge that hangs 25 metres over the forest canopy underneath, providing particularly impressive views of the surrounding landscape. We initially intended to do a 5-km route of the park but unfortunately we had trouble interpreting the signs and accidently ended up doing a 10 km route. Overall, the walk was great and well worth doing, especially since it's free to do. That night, we filled our hungry bellies with some rice and questionable meat in a  Hong Kong-style restaurant near our hostel, and rehydrated with some good-ol' tea (served in plastic cups and with ice, of course).

After two nights in the hostel, we said our goodbyes and ventured outside the main city area to Sentosa, where we stayed with two very generous Irish friends of ours. From there, we visited the so-called Gardens by the Bay, which is a large park reminiscent of a scene from Avatar, with a 'Skywalk' between man-made towers made in the image of gigantic trees. This  provided great photo-ops of the city skyline. Next on our agenda over the next couple of days were visits to the city, which included visits to the 'Merlion' (a large statue of a weird half-lion, half-mermaid creature looking out over Marina Bay off the Singapore Strait), little India (the fresh-food market was impressive and very aromatic!), Arab Street, and Holland Road (for some nice street-food). On Saturday night, we went for a wander around Clarke Quay, which is an area near the main business district that was hopping with pubs and clubs to cater for all tastes and persuasions. Of course, we couldn't resist a quick pint or two in the local Irish pub.



The view from the Skywalk



The 'Tree-top Walk' suspension bridge

 

 

 





The fresh-food market in Little India

Our overall impressions of Singapore are that, firstly, it comes across as quite a rich country, with prices to match (a pint of beer is generally around $15, which is around 10 euro). Fortunately, it also comes across as being safe (possibly due to the supposed zero-tolerance approach taken to many crimes), and there are security cameras scattered everywhere. Secondly, there are lots of people and they are absolutely everywhere! This isn't particularly surprising considering the population is 5.5 million and the total land area is only 716 square km. So Singapore is probably not the best place to go if you don't like large crowds. The people are diverse in ethnicity and religion, with there being many Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, and European people, including the odd Irish person thrown in for good measure. This brings with it the opportunity to try many different foods, which seem to be fairly widely available. About half of the people speak Mandarin as their native language, and a third speak English as their mother tongue. Around one-third of people are Buddhists, and one-fifth Christians. The city is easily explored using the simple and frequent subway system, and is well worth a visit if in that part of the world. We're headed to China next: first stop Shanghai...