Singapore

August 14-16^th 2010

We arrived at Changi International Airport in Singapore late on the night of August 14^th. After flying for over 19 hours (and travelling for over 30 hours) we were tired and could not wait to find our hostel and sleep in a bed! We took the MRT (the subway) from the airport to Aljunied Station where we got off and began our search for our hostel. "Wow Hostel" was located on the third floor of a building about 2 blocks from the MRT station – we were glad it was so close because it was night when we arrived, plus our packs were heavy! We got there around 10:00pm, checked-in, unpacked a bit, and hung out in the communal area with other backpackers for a while. Sitting in the living room, we ended up talking to a guy from Germany – Stefan – who had been travelling for a while now and knew the city a little better than we did. Thus, we decided to spend the following day with Stefan. We woke up early the following morning, ate breakfast at the hostel, met up with Stefan, and decided to walk towards the Singapore city centre. It turns out the city centre was kinda far from our hostel, but we were exploring and didn’t mind the walk too much. We walked past local fruit stands, pet stores (with tons of birds!), and even a preliminary Formula 1 Racetrack (Singapore is hosting a Formula 1 race soon). Eventually, we made our way toward the Singapore Flyer (a giant ferris wheel), and Marina Bay. At Marina Bay we took a whole bunch of pictures of the city skyline. Stefan then pointed out to us the giant "Lionfish" across the bay, and we decided we wanted to walk over to see it closer up. It turns out that Singapore was hosting the Youth Olympics (the first one ever!) while we were there. Thus, as we walked around Marina Bay we saw a huge Olympic touch, people setting up for a concert, and staging areas for the different sports. Finally, we made it across the bay to the "Lionfish" (in reality the "Lionfish" is called the "Singapore Merlion", haha!). We took some group photos with the Lionfish because we were so happy to see it J After the photo session, we decided to keep walking towards some local markets to get some lunch. On the way we stopped and got some icecream at a cart – the icecream was an icecream + rainbow bread sandwich. It was pretty unique. The icecream helped to cool us down a bit since Singapore was so hot. Eventually we made our way toward Burgis Market. The market consists of a whole bunch of tiny stalls of clothes, juices, and food. We each got a vegetarian lunch for S$2 (The exchange rate is about $1 CAD = $1.30 S (Singapore Dollar)). It was a good meal, and very cheap which was good because Singapore is kinda an expensive city. After lunch we decided to walk back towards the hostel and get some fruit on the way back. We got some pears, apples and a Durian (to try it!). The durian ended tasting almost as bad as it smelled haha! Finally back at the hostel we relaxed for a couple hours and rested our feet for a bit. It turns out our walk that day around the city was 17km!! Even though we had been walking so much we decided to go out again at night. Thus, after a couple hours of relaxing we headed out to the city again. This time we caught the MRT instead of walking, and decided to take pictures of the city skyline at night. We got off the MRT at Marina Bay and took a bunch of pictures on the bridge and pier. There was a concert and fireworks going on because of the Youth Olympics, so we enjoyed some of the festivities for a while before going back to the market for a late dinner. We then went back to the hostel and went to sleep (we had to get up early the next morning to catch a bus to Tioman Island). Thus, after less than 48 hours, our time in Singapore was up and it was time to move on to Malaysia…