After spending a couple weeks in Bali, Singapore felt like the ultimate in modern developed cities - and perhaps it is. A city formed of a largely Chinese population well mixed with Indian, British, Malaysian and all sorts of ex-pat folks. What I am reminded of most is a huge Financial District - which, of course, it also is. When asked about rural or traditional or cultural places to visit, our questions were returned with slightly confused looks and directions to the museums in the city centre, Universal Studios and the wonders of Sentosa island or the nearby neighbourhoods of Little India and Chinatown.
Our first stop was the Asian Civilisations Museum where we found a wealth of background on early trade and development of Singapore. From what I can tell, like Hong Kong, this city/state has maintained a political independence due to its role as a major trade port and finance centre. And the museum has a lot images and stories of the early trading towns that sprang up in Singapore due to its unique location on an island with deep water ports and good river access. The museum houses lots of ancient Chinese and Indian artefacts that are as beautiful and interesting as they are old. The kids ran about through the masses of Singaporean kids on field trips and enjoyed looking at ceremonial outfits and ancient swords.
We came upon Boat Quay close to the Asian Civilisations Museum and stopped in for a drink .. of course, the first drink on order had to be a Singapore Sling. I'm not sure if it was the drink or the heat, but the lights over the city looked absolutely amazing in the twilight. We ordered another drink and locals arrived for post-work drinks, the place becoming busier and busier.
As we sat sipping drinks in the warm evening air, we relaxed, Andy and Sam ran nearby to play. Musicians arrived and set about busking on the waterfront with western pop. Meanwhile Ben kept himself busy drawing pictures of monsters ripping the heads off their victims. Maybe watching the Hunger Games wasn't such a great idea?
We decided to visit the Singapore Zoo - which meant an hour and a half journey across 2 buses. The kids forgave us when they arrived to see the world class free-range style zoo with large enclosures for the animals . The boys had the chance to feed the rhinos which was a first for them. They looked more nervous than when they had the lion encounter in New Zealand! I'm sure they'll remember that experience for a long time, especially as rhinos have always been a favourite in our house.
We were all very impressed by the condition of the animals and their surroundings. The Singapore Zoo should be a stop on any family visit here, it is really well done.
At one of the main animal shows, Justin was pulled up front by the hosts. He doesn't normally go for this sort of thing, but he was great and hammed it up with them. It was a great show in which the trained animals from the zoo participated in a story about saving the rainforest. Cute, educational, what more can you ask for?
The kids enjoyed the children's water zone where they made friends and were 100% soaked. Andy and Sam kept visiting the dogs rescued from a shelter and now working bit parts in the Domestic Animal Show. Ben was invited to the home of his friends, but we didn't really get a chance to go visit, we really weren't in Singapore very long at all.
We finished off the day at the zoo with a visit to the next door Night Safari. In layout, this is very similar to the Singapore Zoo with well spaced enclosures and leafy walkways. But this zoo is only open at night and is there for the pleasure of seeing all the nocturnal animals in their element. The whole place is dark with discretely placed dim lighting and a walking path as well as separate safari-bus routes. I didn't take many photos because it wouldn't haven't really been possible without a flash... and that was definitely not an option!
Another night, we went out walking along Marina Bay Harbour with Sam, while Ben and Andy stayed 'home' with to rest (the girls at the hostel reception loved to be with them) . That night, we saw an amazing light and fire show over the water - apparently it takes place every night at 8 for about 20 minutes. We watched an asian fellow wearing a pink bra and knickers over his clothes get decked out in pink heart-shaped balloons by his friends - there was actually a reason, he was about to be married. On the way home, we saw the electric lights of the Singapore Kite Dancers in operations with their remote controlled 'kites'. The spontaneous adventures that can happen on a walk through town at night remind me a lot of our old life in San Francisco.
Justin took us all on an outing to Orchard Road where the famous sights are huge stores like Gucci, Prada and Chanel. Normally, I love shopping, but I have to say, Singapore by day was beginning to feel like one huge, endless shopping mall. I've never been one to turn down a shopping trip - but somehow all of the girls in their name brands, the bright store lights and gazillion things on offer all feel way out of context when you've spent the last few months in more low key spots. Somehow, I just couldn't get to feeling completely relaxed here.
On the culinary front, we tried our best to stick to local asian cuisine, avoiding the western restaurants. Andy, Ben and Sam have all been very game about trying new dishes and they all love to use chopsticks - with varying results. We've had mixed results, but overall find that anything accompanying noodles or rice will taste good to us.
We went to the Jurong bird park in the wilds of Singapore one day. There were some great walk-through aviaries. The best is the African waterfalls aviary. Because it is so big, you do have to look carefully and stay still to spot interesting birds, the Lorry Aviary was also great, if a little noisy and messy! You could purchase a bowl of food for the lorries ... at which point they almost attacked you and each other to get tho the food first - greedy suckers!
As a treat to the boys for doing a couple hours school work each day we were in Singapore, we rewarded them the last day with a cable car trip to Sentosa island to visit Universal Studios there. It's smaller than the one in Florida, given space constraints, but packs in a lot. We loved the new Transformers ride and Sam went on his first upside down looping roller coaster ... at which point he was desperate to go again, only to find that he was actually too small for the ride.
Nighttime is definitely my favourite time to view Singapore .. its a 365 day a year Christmas lights special. On the last day, I snapped this warship decorated with the words PEACE and the cable cars above look like bubbles floating off it.
Finally, it was time to move on and we said goodbye to Lucy and the others at Mercury Backpackers hostel - one of the best hostels we've seen, complete with rooftop jacuzzi, plasma screen tvs on each floor, persnalised digital lockers, and great WiFi .. the boys never wanted to leave the hotel!
more Singapore photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105332575943799967078/201204Singapore
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