When we arrived we had no Singapore money at all so 1st stop was a money exchange to translate our Ringett into Dollars. Luckily there was one within walking distance of where the bus dropped us off. Now we hadn't anywhere to stay at this point but we had a plan. This was to get a taxi driver to take us to a really posh hotel, pretend we're interested in a room and then not to take it when we 'realize' the price is slightly outside our budget and then ask if we can leave our bags with them while we go looking for something more appropriate.. Well we got to a swanky hotel OK and everything was going according to plan until we asked to leave our bags.. This was a no go-a security risk apparently! We decided to head to the business center of the hotel and use the net to look up a hotel. Found a few which we could just about afford which we decided to check out. We also found a brilliant B and B which was really cheap but they only had the one night available. So, we got a taxi to the two others we found which were conveniently opposite each other a little way out of town.. I don't know where their net prices came from but it was a different story when we got there-about double the price! We were pretty tired at this point and desperately wanted something sorted and so called the B and B and took them up on their one night. Got into a taxi and about half and hour later we were there (the taxi driver had no idea where it was and spent the whole journey on the phone to them trying to identify their location). The b and b was the penthouse of a massive block of ugly looking flats. When we got up to floor 25 however we were amazed, it was excellent and run by a really friendly mumsy woman! Our room was incredible for the price and the bathroom, although shared, was spotless. We were pleased as that night was our big night out and we didn't want to stay in somewhere too naff and marr the romantic ambiance of le nuit. Having got sorted and paid up we were skint and so had to get cash. The local cash point didn't like our card and neither did a cash point about a 20 minute walk away. In the end we decided to get a cab to the main HSBC bank and ask him to wait outside while we went to the cash point to get his money. Luckily when we got there the cash point worked so we could pay him! We got him to drop us off at a supermarket after that to get a bottle of wine and some choc to tuck into in the room before we hit the town. We got back and got all ready and were soon tucking into said wine.. We got a taxi to the Hard Rock Cafe where we would be dining but decided on a few drinks across the road before hand. We actually went to the hotel where Vick and Matty had stayed in when they came here 3 years ago and had a drink there for nostalgic reasons.. Then it started raining harder than ever before so we pretended we were staying at the hotel and asked the porter if he could fetch us an umbrella which we'd return in the morning-he did! we got to the Hard Rock and had a bottle of house white and the most incredible salad of all time-the Cobb salad (see pic). The restaurant was a bit manic but incredible. Like a planet Hollywood but for music lovers!
After this we went for a walk and found an Irish Bar which was awsome. Then we headed back to the Hard Rock Cafe because at 11pm they had a band playing. When we were at the bar Vick recognized the manager from the last time she was here. 3 years ago he'd split a drink on her and they'd got free drinks all evening as an apology. She tried to remind him of this so as to obtain a few more freebies, and although he didn't remember or recognize her, still gave us both a couple of drinks on the house! We also got chatting to some random oldish Aussie guy who although had the most dull banter ever, seemed to enjoy buying us both drinks so we entertained his company for an hour or so! After this the band came on, they were a black kinda soul band, mainly doing covers. A few too many drinks encouraged us to get up onstage and join them in singing 'chasing cars' by Snow Patrol! The night was a belter...
Next day we woke up a little worse for wares.. Matt also had the worst cold ever. We had breakfast at the b and b which was pretty good then had to sort out somewhere to stay for that night. Went on the Internet and found a cheap hotel called the 'fragrance hotel'. Unfortunately this wasn't in the best area of Singapore but we deemed it worth wile as it was only for one night. The hotel was pretty good but the area-a place called Gayang was rather seedy, and it was soon clear that we were in the red light district. Well, we unpacked and then got a taxi to Orchard Avenue-which is the very famous main road of Singapore with all the shops and stuff. It was just too much for either of us to take-so many shops and plazas. It was (as with all of Singapore) spotlessly clean. They have achieved this by imposing fines for almost any kind of act that could have a detrimental effect to the aesthetic pleasure of the streets of Singapore. Chewing Gum is totally illegal, and littering of any kind carries severe fines. We were feeling pretty hungry and found a belting place to dine. It was called Le village and it consisted of an array of old fashioned style stalls all serving different types of food. You get a bar code, which gets scanned every time you get something from whichever stall and then you settle up at the end. There were stalls for pizza,pasta,soup,salad,jackets,fish and a host of others i can't remember. It was so good, we actually came back a couple of hours later for tea! We'd seen a lot of advertising for the Singapore night safari and thought it sounded too good to turn down so after the meal got a taxi about 1/2 hour from Orchard Avenue. It was brilliant, we saw crocks, zebras, lions, giraffes and rhino's amougst others. The lighting was pretty subtle which made some of the animals really hard to see but it was still incredible. A load of red Indians put on a little show breathing fire and all the rest of it which was amazing. We got a taxi back to our hotel at about midnight and any debate over whether this was the red light district of Singapore or not was firmly settled. The road next to us had a line of about 100 tarty looking girls waiting to be picked up..It was pretty bad for the soul to be honest. What was worse was something we noticed on the hotel opposite ours which we then got a snap of in the morning (see pic). The hotel actually had on its advertising board offers to rent the room for one hour and two hours! No shame at all! Our hotel put it a bit more subtly and on their board it just said 'in transit'. That night we set the alarms for about 5am as we had an early flight the next day to Perth. For some reason, despite being pretty tired, neither of us got any sleep. When the alarm went off and we got up we were shattered but packed and got into a Taxi to the airport. The flight was 5 hours, we could hardly stay awake and were so knackered we could hardly take it in that we were on the cusp of hitting Australia, it was pretty surreal.
And then we arrived..
Singapore
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