The travels of Tim and Megan: Singapore

Wednesday: Little India
Our flight from Johannesburg landed in Singapore at 7am local time. We got through Immigration and Baggage Claim fairly quickly and took a taxi from the airport into the city to our hotel. It was already 27 degrees and extremely humid, even early in the morning. It was too early to check in to "Aqueen Hotel Lavender", so we dropped off our luggage, had some breakfast and then went for a walk through the nearby Little India district.

Singapore is a south-east Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 km north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. Singapore is highly urbanised but almost half of the country is covered by greenery. More land is being created for development through land reclamation.

Modern Singapore was founded as a trading post of the East India Company by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819 with permission from the Sultanate of Johor. The British obtained full sovereignty over the island in 1824 and Singapore became one of the British Straits Settlements in 1826. Singapore was occupied by the Japanese in World War II and reverted to British rule after the war. It became internally self-governing in 1959. Singapore united with other former British territories to form Malaysia in 1963 and became a fully independent state two years later after separation from Malaysia.

Since then it has had a massive increase in wealth, and is one of the Four Asian Tigers. The economy depends heavily on the industry and service sectors. Singapore is a world leader in several areas: It is the world's fourth-leading financial centre, the world's second-biggest casino gambling market, and the world's third-largest oil refining centre. The port of Singapore is one of the five busiest ports in the world, most notable for being the busiest trans-shipment port in the world. The country is home to more US dollar millionaire households per capita than any other country. The World Bank notes Singapore as the easiest place in the world to do business. The country has the world's third highest GDP PPP per capita of US$59,936, making Singapore one of the world's wealthiest countries.

Some 5.2 million people live in Singapore, of whom 3.3 million were born locally. Most are of Chinese, Malay or Indian descent. There are four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Singapore has a total area of 710 sq km, which is comfortably smaller than the Greater Auckland area, and makes Singapore the third most densely populated country in the world. Its capital city is Singapore and its currency is the Singapore Dollar.

Little India is a ramshackle, colourful, disorderly sort of place, apparently much like the old Singapore city (before it became packed with modern shopping centres). It is not renowned for big tourist attractions or postcard sights, but rather it is a neighbourhood that warrants aimless wandering, watching life unfold. Little India is packed with eateries, gold shops, fresh produce stalls on the streets, CD shops and all sorts of interesting smells, good and bad. The street atmosphere is particularly vibrant at night.

It was still quite early when we got to Little India, so some places were still in the process of opening up and the streets were not too busy. We saw two amazing temples - huge almost pyramid shaped structures full of colourful carvings. One of these temples was the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, dedicated to the goddess Kali, a bloodthirsty consort of Shiva, who is usually depicted wearing a necklace of skulls!

We walked past hundreds of places to eat, so we decided to have dinner there that night. Later in the morning, Megan went back to the hotel for a sleep (she was very tired after the 10-hour flight from Johannesburg and the time difference). Tim carried on and explored a bit more of Little India and also found an internet cafe. After checking in on Megan (who was quite happy to carry on sleeping) Tim grabbed a delicious lunch at a little food court near the hotel - sweet and sour pork and noodles.

There was a heavy downpour at about 3pm - there just about always is a short and sharp downpour at that time of day in Singapore. Almost like clockwork, it is very odd. So we hung out in the hotel in the afternoon and caught up on some rest. Once the rain had cleared, we headed out. We had a drink at a bar called "Pub 150". Most of the bars in Singapore are karaoke bars, they just love their karaoke. Pub 150 had blacked out windows and doors and a karaoke stage and disco lights inside. It was pretty much empty. We had some very expensive beers and then carried on. Most things in Singapore are very cheap (especially food) but it seems that some bars are not cheap.

We had dinner in Little India at a very popular Indian vegetarian restaurant called Ananda Bharan. Tim had the "tandoori garlic naan set" and a vanilla milkshake and Megs had the North Indian set menu and a mango lassi. Everything was superb and very cheap. We were exhausted, so we went back to the hotel straight after dinner and crashed.

Thursday: Orchard Road and Chinatown

We had a brilliant 11 hour sleep, waking after 9am on Thursday. We got up, showered and had a really nice breakfast in the hotel lobby restaurant. We then caught the metro to Singapore's home of shopping - Orchard Road.

Orchard Road was once a leafy boulevard lined with plantations, hence the name. These days, however, it is absolutely rammed with huge shopping malls. The sheer scale of this retail and entertainment haven can be a little overwhelming for some tourists. Singaporeans love the enormous malls, spending vast amounts of leisure time bathing in icy air-conditioning, shopping, eating, drinking and movie-going.

Orchard Road must be one of the most amazing shopping streets in the world. It is absolutely amazing - we wandered along the busy street, past huge mall after huge mall. It was crazily hot and humid - we were sweating just walking along the road. We checked out a few different malls and, in one of them, we spent some time in a fantastic toy shop. We could have spent hours there - they had amazing Lego!!! We also checked out a few clothing shops, including taking turns finding hideous outfits in Top Shop. Megan found some crazy bright pink matching suit that looked like it was straight out of the 1980s and yet it cost something like $800. Tim found a lovely woollen jersey with a sailboat on the front!

The shopping was incredibly fun - Megan almost bought leopard print platform ankle boots with a 6-inch heel! But she DID buy some awesome headphones at the Sony shop. Proper DJ headphones. Boom! It rained briefly in the afternoon (as it always does) but it cleared pretty quickly. We had lunch in the food court of one of the malls - Tim got some Maccas and Megs got dumplings and spring rolls.

Later in the afternoon, we caught the metro to Chinatown. Just in time Singapore realised Chinatown's narrow lanes of old shop-houses, with their shuttered windows and steep tiled roofs, were fit for more than tearing down. This old district, once home to opium dens, death houses, brothels and gang warfare, is still Singapore's most colourful. We walked around Chinatown for a while, did some internet, visited a lively pub (where we shared a jug of Tiger beer and played some pool) and checked out the street markets. Megs bought a cool T-shirt and a fridge magnet. The markets were awesome at night - the lanes were packed with people, there were bright lights everywhere and amazing smells coming from food stalls.

We eventually made it to our destination of the Maxwell Road Hawker Centre - one of many "hawker centres" spread around Singapore. Hawker centres are open air areas (with covered roofs) lined with dozens and dozens of tiny stalls, specialising in different Chinese dishes. They are immensely popular amongst Singaporeans and tourists alike - you can wander in any time of the day in jandals and shorts, pick and choose what you want to eat, grab a table amongst the steam and smoke and noise, have a few beers and fill your face. Awesome.

We had a superb dinner at the Maxwell Centre - some potato coconut dumplings, two lots of chicken on rice and one duck stew with noodles. All of it was amazing and it was dirt cheap. After dinner we walked back through Chinatown, past an amazing big temple, to the metro station. We got the metro back to the hotel and crawled into bed, exhausted from another big day and full of delicious Chinese food.

Friday: Colonial District and Chinatown

After another pretty big sleep, we got up at 9am, packed our bags, had breakfast and headed out. It was another very hot and very muggy day. We did some internet in Little India and then caught the metro to the Colonial District.

If Little India and Chinatown are the soul of Singapore, then the Colonial District is its heart and the Quays are its fancy hairdo. Home of Singapore's most photographed buildings and vistas, the Colonial District is an area of such architectural richness that a treasure can be seen at every turn. The list of heritage structures is endless: Raffles Hotel, City Hall, the Singapore Art Museum, the National Museum and the Asian Civilisations Museum to name a few. And modern buildings such as the magnificent Esplanade are earning Singapore a cutting-edge reputation.

Our first stop on arriving in the Colonial District was Bugis Junction, a large shopping complex, where we checked out some of the impressive shops. From there, we walked towards the waterfront, via the Raffles City Shopping Centre, where we also had a quick look around. The shopping all over Singapore really is spectacular. Further along the road, we passed City Hall, the Supreme Court and then we stopped for photos outside the Singapore Parliament building.

Just past Parliament is the Singapore River, which winds its way through the city out towards the Quays. There is a walkway alongside the river, showing great views of Singapore's CBD. We ambled along the walkway, checking out the various statues and sculptures scattered along the river's edge. There is a majestic-looking statues of Sir Stamford Raffles, a British statesman best known for his founding of the city of Singapore. Further around the river, we passed the beautiful Dalhousie Obelisk, built to commemorate the second visit to Singapore, in February 1850, of the Marquis of Dalhousie, who was the Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856.

The Quays area is home to Singapore's new modern buildings. The Esplanade is one of South-East Asia's most stunning pieces of architecture. It was created to announce Singapore's arrival on the world's arts scene and to challenge the city's deep-seated conservatism. It succeeded on both counts, with a year-round programme of opera, classical music, jazz, theatre, dance and more. Across the water is the enormous Marina Bay Sands Hotel - with three towers, designed to look stacks of playing cards, and a long flat piece across the top of the towers that looks like a boat! Insane.

We headed back through the Colonial District to the Raffles Hotel. The Raffles Hotel is a colonial-style hotel in Singapore, and one of the world's most famous hotels. It was established by the famous Armenian Sarkies Brothers. Opened in 1887, it was named after Singapore's founder Sir Stamford Raffles. The hotel is known for its luxurious accommodation, superb restaurants and amazing shops. It also houses a tropical garden courtyard, museum and Victorian-style theatre. We walked through the grounds of the hotel, but the eateries were a little expensive for us, so we caught the metro back to Chinatown.

We were getting hungry so we headed straight for the Maxwell Road Hawkers Centre, where we had a magnificent lunch. We managed to get there just before the daily downpour, which was excellent timing. We had delicious chicken and pork dishes as well as chicken curry puffs, oyster fritters and potato dumplings. Mmmmm.

We had a real problem catching a taxi back to our hotel after lunch. It was a terrible time to look for a taxi in Singapore - "shift change". Every day between 4-5pm all of the taxi drivers change shift, meaning that many taxi drivers do not want to take you across the city, but rather they want one final fare that coincides with their particular route home. We eventually got a cab to the hotel, where we picked up our luggage and headed to the airport.

Our short stopover in Singapore was over and we were heading home to New Zealand. This marked the end of our five months of travel since packing up and leaving London in July. But it also marked the end of nearly five years of our incredible overseas adventure. We had lived in magical London and travelled all over Europe and to parts of Africa, Asia and North America, visiting around 60 countries and some of the world's most famous sights in the process. It was the most brilliant OE we could have hoped for and it was surely the most amazing five years we will ever experience.

Thank you to all of our dedicated blog fans who have followed our travels and adventures during the last five years. We have had a blast and we hope you enjoyed it too!

Country tally:
Megan: 64
Tim: 61
Bear: 61