This was definitely my best country to visit! The bright lights. The beautiful city. The tall buildings. The amazing hotel. Everything was so perfect about Singapore it kind of ruined Malaysia... but oh my god Singapore!
We got into Singapore at night. We decided to fly because of the longness involved in training it across to Kuala Lumpur (and it would have been a normal seated train as all the sleeper seats were taken). Even the airport is amazing; instant WiFi, I was in heaven (not quite but it would do for now). As we made our way through town in the back of a clean smelling and looking taxi, we drove past the Singapore Flyer (honestly the only words which were coming out of my mouth was Wow and Oh my god), tall buildings, proper roads (it honestly looked like we were back in the UK, we- me and Charlotte- were so not used to seeing good roads after being in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia for the past two months)... we were both totally in awe and even more in shock when he pulled up to the Hilton on Orchard Road (was not expecting it to be this epic!). This was definitely Singapore.
After settling into the plush room and sneaking Charlotte in and out to grab some food (we ate the biggest cannelloni EACH), we headed down Orchard Road to explore our home for the next five days (this was the longest place we would be settled into since leaving Koh Samet last month).
TVT and exploring Singapore by foot:
The whole original point of being in Singapore was to experience and learn how companies operate in the Asian market (especially communication companies as that is my working background). So thanks to Nilesh (top badminton player and a great role model) he introduced me and helped set up to see them here.
I spent the day at TVT and learnt so much about digitisation and adhering to country guidelines for TV content and how programmes from the US and UK are modified for Singapore and other countries in Asia which don't tolerate nudity or violence. Talking to the team there I understood that you have to be accurate and perfect as any mistake would upset the client; similar to PR, because its the channels reputation to put suitable content on and releases to announce accurate information. Lunch was interesting as in Singapore and Malaysia there is a whole market of God available; from Indian to Chinese to Western to Italian, all the choices you could imagine. I opted for Chinese as the two girls I was with also were. It turned out to be pretty simple; you choose six ingredients and tell the chef how you want it, take it and add whatever sauces you want.
(Here's a strange thing I learnt about Singaporean culture. To reserve a seat on a table in a cafeteria, people place tissue packets on the table. Not sure if its true but I genuinely seen a tissue packet on a table!)
After TVT I met with Charlotte back in the room (she had enjoyed a quiet morning in with a Starbucks from down the road) and we headed out towards Raffles in the hope to enjoy Singapore's Singapore Sling. We decided to walk (at the time it didn't seem like a bad idea but oh boy was it) and followed Orchard Road down to Fort Canning Park (by now we had already passed through a HnM, Zara and numerous other shops and made numerous purchases). Such a peaceful park in the middle of Singapore! As we tiredly and sweatily made our way through the park we had come across a stunning view of the city skyline and the quay which was apparently famous for its multitude of food outlets and night life (what a find).
Charlotte had spent the morning watching the Singapore channel and suggested some places she seen to eat. The place we did stop was at a kebab house which honestly served the most delicious lamb kebab. After scoffing it down, we carried on walking towards 'Raffles'. Not in the right direction at all and we ended up walking 20 minutes later back on ourselves as we realised we needed to turn left instead of right. On the bright side we enjoyed the stunning night time views Singapore was offering. Eventually we got to Raffles (we didn't even realise it until we asked the doorman of another hotel and he pointed across the road; we looked pretty dumb... this was not going to be the last time that happened) but we still didn't get there as we spotted the Singapore Flyer and decided to go there instead. So we again carried on towards the lights in the sky.
The Flyer:
Well considering I am well scared of heights, I've done well here; completed a bungee jump, walked up mountains and now the biggest wheel in the world. I think the pictures totally speak for themselves. The view of Singapore was incredible! The lights, everything lit up and the epic marina view was awesome from the top. The best part of Singapore! (We even nearly adventures onto the F1 track after as we spotted a carnival but it turned out to be a practise performance for the Chinese New Year celebrations... oops!)
SingTel, China Town and Night Zoo:
So another opportunity set up by Nilesh to see another company. This time it was one he worked for. SingTel is a giant in telecoms here and I was greeted by the Marketing manager and shown around the business solutions centre. She explained her role in SingTel, its audience and gave me a great introduction to the structure. It was really interesting for me because I've worked with marketing department's whilst at Proactive PR and it was really hard getting stuff from them; now I know why , they have to do a multitude of tasks! But like I said SingTel is widely known in Asia and to give you an idea of how big, think BT.
Their office was a walk away (so I was told) but in my new shoes it took ages to get back. Once I was back, we were back out again headed towards China town (after cheeky lunch at the hard rock cafe behind us) . We decided to get a metro pass as we were going to the night safari later too. Chin town was crazy hot and stuffy, so we definitely didn't stay too long. We had a look around, took some pics and left (little did we know we'd be encountering China town again but in Kuala Lumpur). We headed to Raffles as we wanted to give the famous drink a try. And it didn't disappoint... it was strong, expensive and came with free peanuts which you could peel and drop it on the floor. Well I'd expect it to be free after the cost of he drink and additional service charge on top! How cheeky!
Night safari:
The journey there was long. First we had to get the tube to the edge of Singapore then a bus (ok it was all clearly signposted but it was so much effort!) Would I say it was worth it... maybe its different if you compare it to a normal day time zoo. Similar animals and you also get to trek around parts of the safari too. The best part had to be the show at the end where the little otter things put the right recycling material in its right place! Little geniuses. I had to be reminded numerous times by Charlotte that it was a night safari not a zoo! Whoops!
Universal studios and Little India:
What a day! A theme park and then Indian food, what could be better. We had an epic journey; we caught a train, bus and cable cart! What a long ass cable cart! But we eventually made it to Universal studios. It was located on an island full of resorts and parks. It even included a hard rock hotel! Universal studios as amazing from the start. We experienced most of the rides; getting completely drenched on the Jurassic park rapids and taken or n amazing 4D adventure with bumble bee in the Transformers ride to eating spaghetti in space with Sesame Street's Elmo and Big Bird. What a day! It totally did not feel like we were travellers any more.
We were starved! The only thing we had managed to munch that day was a hot dog (Charlotte nearly walked away with the dummy hot dog if it wasn't the lady at the stand that chased after her to tell her she had the wrong one!) We'd decided yo visit Little India to indulge in the delicious Indian food we'd heard so much about. Well of course whilst we were in a hurry to find food there was a parade happening. I had no clue what they were celebrating but it was looked like Belgrave Road on Diwali, even the shops looked like the Leicester shops! We hurriedly looked for a place to eat and found a quite little corner restaurant which served really tasty food. I opted for a biriyani and a masala dosa (don't judge that's the most I'd eaten all day!)
Museum and Hotel:
We made the most of the hotel on our final day. We woke up and left the hotel at 1pm to head to the National Museum where we took part in a guided tour and learnt how the British claimed Singapore and broke down the port and made life here a little harder than it was. Great job! Throughout the tour Charlotte and I were pointed at and referred to whenever the British were mentioned... lucky us! It got really awkward when she told us we had claimed the land even though India and China had used the port of Singapore for years and never stated a claim. So we shuffled back to the hotel, head down and not too proud of ourselves, to enjoy a cheeky cocktail on the roof of the hotel and a night in before our early 7.30am flight to Singapore... and trust me the next 24 hours would be the hardest of this trip so far!
(P.S... just a little shout out to Starbucks; without you our trip to Singapore would not have been complete without your daily iced frappés and wraps!)
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