Singapore - Kirsty and Marie

We've come to the end of our short stay in Singapore but it was well worth the visit. We've been staying with Tziyan and family near the centre of the city with easy MRT (mass rapid transit) links to get around. The first evening they took us to a food market where we got a selection of dishes- noodles, satay, stingray and chicken wings. This was a nice introduction to the multiculturalism here. The island itself isn't big with a population of 6 million (1 million ex pats) and the MRT is just a smaller version of the underground with its own 'oyster' system. We had to be strategic with our sightseeing as we only had 3 full days, and quickly learned that this time of year brings thunderstorms from 2pm onwards. Sadly the day we found this out was the day we'd just suncreamed up on the beach at 1.30! Didn't get to swim and opted for a game of scrabble and an iced tea instead. There will be plenty of sunbathing and swimming opportunities later this week in Australia.


We took a stroll in the botanical gardens (along with every yummy mummy in Singapore), visited Sentosa island and wandered around the beautiful national museum. We also made our way to Little India which is like curry mile with a bit less neon. We went to the renowned banana leaf restaurant and ordered a 'mild' curry. Once again this still left Marie mopping her brow!


On our last day we went to Chinatown, another tourist spot. We wandered up and down the streets with all the traditional lanterns and Disney memorabilia. (Earlier that day we saw lots of young girls queuing in a mall to watch the princess parade! Ive never seen so much pink.) Along this theme our Singapore souvenirs were some Marie (from the Aristocats) pens and a Dora the Explorer keyring.

Before Singapore we hadn't heard any mention of Christmas but no sooner had we landed, did we start to hear the festive music. We spent Sunday afternoon wandering down Orchard Road, the main shopping hub with a mall on every corner. We can now see why singaporeans are known shopaholics. We were of course restrained and just soaked up the buzz and atmosphere from all the sparkling lights and decorations. We did, however, stumble across a French food marché in one of the malls where Marie's French charm blagged us free wine tasting and macaroon samples. Kirsty just nodded 'oui oui'and helped herself. In the evening we had some Christmas themed coffees on Clarke quay and ended up singing 'let it snow' as a giant Christmas tree flashed and bubble machines blew bubbles at us.....standing in shorts and t shirt....surreal but fun.

Singapore's top attraction is the night safari, but bad weather causes the animals to hide so we decided it would probably be a waste at this time of year and had a day at the zoo instead. We embraced our not so inner children as we exchanged childhood animal songs on the train there, and cheered along in all the shows. Fascinating facts we learned: 

• Elephants dont like chilli, and only absorb 40per cent of their food intake - leaving the other animals to feast on their dung (if it's not being used to make paper). 
• Lions can mate every 15mins for 3 days and lion cubs are all born with blue eyes that turn colour at 3 months. 
• Marsupials give birth to their young prematurely so they spend the first 3 months maturing inside the pouch.

Overall impression of singapore is that it's a clean, easy to navigate around place with an interesting mix of cultures leading to great food. They love Christmas and shopping which is a perfect combination at this time of year. We wrote this blog on an iPod touch on the MRT just to fit in with everyone else's iPhones and iPads. Sadly mine doesn't have a 'hello kitty' cover. 

So it's farewell Asia and G'day Australia! We've flown forwards in time and are now 10 hours ahead of the UK, which will become 11 at some point on the way to Sydney, but we're not sure when or where yet!