Our best friends moved to Australia a year ago. Last fall, they got a great deal on tickets to Bali, Indonesia, and they invited us to come. We decided to be adventurous and go, so we got tickets. We found that most of the tickets went through Singapore, so we stopped there for a few days to see what it is like. As our friend Brian put it, "Singapore is Asia for beginners." Its true- it is an Asian country, and most of the people are either Indian or Chinese, but the official language of the country is English.
It was fascinating for us to see what the country was like. We stayed in a hotel near the marina bay, also right by the downtown business district. The building our hotel was in, and every other building around there, also housed a mall. They had all of the shops that we are familiar with- North Face, Crocs, and many high end stores-7 for all mankind, Loius Vuitton and the list goes on and on. I'm not sure who does all the shopping there, but there were sure a lot of stores and a lot of malls.
While we were there, we went and saw the two "cultural districts" in the city- Little India and Chinatown. The streets were lined with shops with cheap junk in them, and we enjoyed negotiating prices for things. This first picture is of a hindu temple in Little India.
Another day we visited the Botanical Gardens. Singapore is very green (it is right near the equator)- the temperature varies between 27-32C. (That's about 75-85F). They have a large area close to the large shopping district that is a botanical garden. It is also very hilly there, so unlike Houston, there are lots of hills and ravines- it made it much prettier.
In the botanical gardens, they have a special area that is an orchid garden. They have a lot of species of orchids growing there. Below are some of the orchids we saw...we have about 20 more pictures of other orchids that we also saw. Unfortunately, I got a really bad cold/flu as we were going out, so I could only do a little bit each day, then I would go to my room an
d crash.
The last couple of days that we were there, we went on one of those open top bus tours. Joe never goes on tours like that, I felt special that he would go with me ;)
One of the stops along the way was to visit this hotel, its a new hotel finished last June called the Marina Bay Sands. As you can see it has three towers and a boat on the top of the three towers.
For a large fee ($20 a person) you could go to the top and view the observation deck up there. It was a nice view of the surrounding area, but it was somewhat foggy that day so we couldn't see too far. On clear days you can see the surrounding islands, which are different countries in Malaysia.
At the top is also the hotel's pool. It is an infinity pool so it looks like the edge of the pool falls off the edge of the building. It was very pretty. Hotel guests are the only ones allowed to swim there. Joe wanted to swim anyway, but I was not feeling adventurous enough.
On the bay adjacent to the hotel they are building this building. It is in the shape of a lotus flower and it is going to be a museum. Singapore is a relatively small island with a large population. One of the ways they have found to help this is to "reclaim" land. That is a fancy way of saying they buy dirt from other surrounding countries and put it in the ocean to make the island larger. The big hotel we went up was sitting on reclaimed land.
That day we also saw Chinatown.
There is a small river in that area, and we rode a boat on it. It was apparently a very dirty river until the 1970's when the government decided to do something about it. It still wasn't pristine, but it didn't stink and we saw some turtles so animals are living in it. These are buildings along the river that used to be trading stores, but are now restaurants and bars. The big buildings in the back are some of the financial buildings in the business area.
This is the most famous statue on Singapore- the Merlion. Singapore means Lion in Sanskrit, an old language of natives. One of the early explorers to Singapore thought he saw a lion when he landed (there are no lions there so it was probably a boar or a tiger) and so he named it Singapore. The mermaid tail is because the island's roots were in fishing.
The only other interesting thing that happened while we were there- I got so sick, we finally decided to go to a doctor. We found a clinic and I went and talked to a doctor. She gave me 3 prescriptions and they rang up my total- we were expecting it to be outrageously high and it was only $65, (that included the doctor's fee)! Problem was she didn't have any antibiotics in stock so we had to go to a pharmacy to get some. The nearest pharmacy was a mall store- so we went in and went to give them our prescription and they said they couldn't do it because the pharmacist was out for the day! We were shocked. Luckily we found another pharmacy in a different mall and when the pharmacist finally showed up for the day we were able to get our prescription. It was just a different way of doing things.
It was fascinating for us to see what the country was like. We stayed in a hotel near the marina bay, also right by the downtown business district. The building our hotel was in, and every other building around there, also housed a mall. They had all of the shops that we are familiar with- North Face, Crocs, and many high end stores-7 for all mankind, Loius Vuitton and the list goes on and on. I'm not sure who does all the shopping there, but there were sure a lot of stores and a lot of malls.
While we were there, we went and saw the two "cultural districts" in the city- Little India and Chinatown. The streets were lined with shops with cheap junk in them, and we enjoyed negotiating prices for things. This first picture is of a hindu temple in Little India.
Another day we visited the Botanical Gardens. Singapore is very green (it is right near the equator)- the temperature varies between 27-32C. (That's about 75-85F). They have a large area close to the large shopping district that is a botanical garden. It is also very hilly there, so unlike Houston, there are lots of hills and ravines- it made it much prettier.
In the botanical gardens, they have a special area that is an orchid garden. They have a lot of species of orchids growing there. Below are some of the orchids we saw...we have about 20 more pictures of other orchids that we also saw. Unfortunately, I got a really bad cold/flu as we were going out, so I could only do a little bit each day, then I would go to my room an
d crash.The last couple of days that we were there, we went on one of those open top bus tours. Joe never goes on tours like that, I felt special that he would go with me ;)
One of the stops along the way was to visit this hotel, its a new hotel finished last June called the Marina Bay Sands. As you can see it has three towers and a boat on the top of the three towers.
For a large fee ($20 a person) you could go to the top and view the observation deck up there. It was a nice view of the surrounding area, but it was somewhat foggy that day so we couldn't see too far. On clear days you can see the surrounding islands, which are different countries in Malaysia.
At the top is also the hotel's pool. It is an infinity pool so it looks like the edge of the pool falls off the edge of the building. It was very pretty. Hotel guests are the only ones allowed to swim there. Joe wanted to swim anyway, but I was not feeling adventurous enough.
On the bay adjacent to the hotel they are building this building. It is in the shape of a lotus flower and it is going to be a museum. Singapore is a relatively small island with a large population. One of the ways they have found to help this is to "reclaim" land. That is a fancy way of saying they buy dirt from other surrounding countries and put it in the ocean to make the island larger. The big hotel we went up was sitting on reclaimed land.
That day we also saw Chinatown.There is a small river in that area, and we rode a boat on it. It was apparently a very dirty river until the 1970's when the government decided to do something about it. It still wasn't pristine, but it didn't stink and we saw some turtles so animals are living in it. These are buildings along the river that used to be trading stores, but are now restaurants and bars. The big buildings in the back are some of the financial buildings in the business area.
This is the most famous statue on Singapore- the Merlion. Singapore means Lion in Sanskrit, an old language of natives. One of the early explorers to Singapore thought he saw a lion when he landed (there are no lions there so it was probably a boar or a tiger) and so he named it Singapore. The mermaid tail is because the island's roots were in fishing.
The only other interesting thing that happened while we were there- I got so sick, we finally decided to go to a doctor. We found a clinic and I went and talked to a doctor. She gave me 3 prescriptions and they rang up my total- we were expecting it to be outrageously high and it was only $65, (that included the doctor's fee)! Problem was she didn't have any antibiotics in stock so we had to go to a pharmacy to get some. The nearest pharmacy was a mall store- so we went in and went to give them our prescription and they said they couldn't do it because the pharmacist was out for the day! We were shocked. Luckily we found another pharmacy in a different mall and when the pharmacist finally showed up for the day we were able to get our prescription. It was just a different way of doing things.
2 comments:
Those pics are great! So glad you got to see some fun places in Singapore despite being sick.
When was the trip? Did you continue on to Bali? I need more details.... I'm so envious :-) I love travel stories.
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