An Epic Singapore

7^th – 10^th January 2016

I was very excited for Singapore. It’s the location of a Formula 1 Grand Prix so I had seen it many times on TV and it looked like a cool place. It was. I had three truly epic days in Singapore and I am now a massive fan of the city. I took nearly 800 pictures so its been hard to condense it so this is quite a long one.

Welcome to Singapore

I arrived at the airport just after midday local time and I caught the metro into the city and to my hostel. I pretty much just dumped my bags and headed for one of the most iconic buildings in the whole world.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Its such a weird looking building. I took so many pictures of it, from all angles over the next couple of days. It was always staggering.

Shopping centre complete with canal

In the shadow of Marina Bay Sands is a rather fancy shopping centre. It has a canal running through it! You can take a boat ride around three sides of this enormous place.

Gardens by the Bay

On the other side of the hotel is the Gardens by the Bay and this is what I chose to explore first. This was also very impressive and completely free to walk around. There are a couple of conservatories which were rather expensive to enter and looked packed with people so I skipped that. I did, however, choose to go over the sky walk where you could see the Singapore Flyer.

Epic gardens

Supertree

Singapore Flyer

Inside the tree

Going down the other tower I could see how they have created these ‘supertrees’. They’ve just tied plants to the outside of them. There are a few bags of soil strapped on there too but most of the plants looked dead from this close. They must have to constantly replace them.

This is real!

I went back to the Marina Bay Sands and took the lift to the top floor viewing deck. The view from up here was incredible.

Nice pool

Rich bastards

There’s a swimming pool at the top but that’s for hotel guest only, lucky bastards. Mind you, they have paid a silly amount of money for the privilege. I used the superzoom on my camera to see if I could spot any celebrities but I didn’t notice any.

The pit straight

I got very excited when I saw the pit straight of the grand prix track. There are stands there permanently and the last corner stays there too. It’s the only recognisable part of the track. The rest is disguised in the every day use of the roads. I tried to figure out where the track was but I needed a map.

Sunset

I stayed up on the viewing deck for over an hour to watch the sunset and see the view of the city by night. This was even more impressive then by day!

This is still real and not a model

I love this photo!

Pretty

I saw the Gardens by the Bay light show whilst I was up there too. The supertrees did lots of fancy things using the lights. Like the ultimate Christmas trees.

Super cool

Epic

Massive sink

I made my way back down the harbour through the shopping centre. I noticed this massive bowl thing earlier but I thought nothing of it until it started gushing water into the canal below. I went to the floor above and there was a massive whirlpool. It was really cool and really quite hypnotic.

The plug hole

You are feeling sleepy

F1 car

The beast of all Christmas Trees

Just I was about to head back to the hostel the light show started again so I hung around to watch it again from a different angle. After this I was exhausted and when back and straight to bed.

A day at the zoo

I was up early the next day to get to Singapore Zoo. I heard its world class and I don’t even remember the last time I went to a zoo. I wanted to explore the city a bit more but I didn’t want to do the zoo on a Saturday so I went today instead. I decided I would spend the morning at the zoo and do something else in the afternoon. This didn’t happen. The zoo was so good I couldn’t leave until it was almost closing time.

There were so many animals! Some I’ve never even seen or heard of before. There was such variety as well with like a million different monkeys! That might be an exaggeration but it seemed a lot. I felt like I barely scratched the surface before it was time for the elephant show.

Elephants

Performing tricks

Animals performing for people is always a bit of a concern but this is Singapore and it’s a bit more civilised. I’m pretty confident these animals are treated properly. They seemed happy anyway.

Called Ellie

Squirting water at her mate

The trainers got the elephants to do a few tricks like stand raise legs and squirt water. They showed their strength when one of them pushed a huge log off a rock and into the water and then rolled it all the way back again. They are impressive beasts. At the end there was the opportunity to feed them as well. I watched the feeding but didn’t take part. I didn’t want to spend the extra money

Animal show

Boo! Argh!

There wasn’t a long time before another show started in the amphitheatre next door. This show had a wider variety of animals. It started out with monkeys running across the rope vines that went over our heads. Then there was a bird section with all kind of flamboyant and exotic birds.

Proud looking bird

SNAKE!

They brought out a small snake and asked for volunteers from the audience. No one was in a hurry to get on stage with her waving a snake around. A woman got nominated by her kids and went on stage to stroke the snake. Behind her they brought out a much larger snake which made her jump a little. She was surprisingly calm about it actually. It would have been funnier if she’d freaked out.

What a beast!

Wouldn't want my leg in there

The absolute highlight of entire day at the zoo was the feeding of the white tigers. These are proper beasts. They looked quite happy and calm at the back until they brought the food out and then they started pacing up and down. One of the tigers looked me straight in the eye and jumped down into the water in front of me. I was momentarily terrified! I may have jumped back from the fence a little at that point!

Catch!

Awesome

Would make good cricketers

The zookeeper started throwing out chunks of meat for them to catch. They have amazing reflexes and sometimes managed to catch the food in their mouths. It was really entertaining watching them jump up to grab the food. They don't have to hunt for their food which is a bit of a shame but then we wouldn’t be able to see them if they were in the wild.

Arse hanging out

Being told off

Grump granddad

After the tigers I went to visit the monkeys. There was a large pen with loads of monkeys in. It was really interesting to see all the generations of them. There were really cute looking infants and rather grumpy looking older ones. We tend to think of them as quite dumb animals but watching them you could almost tell what they are thinking. The babies are just thinking ‘FIGHT!’, then you see the mother given it the look ‘stop messing about’ and then grandad in the corner completely fed up with life.

I had already been there a few hours but there was still so much left to see. Even more monkeys, seals and penguins, more exotic birds, big grizzly bears and a reptile house with all kinds of lizards, snakes and turtles.

Flying fox

I went into this enclosed part that was supposed to be a bit more rainforesty and there even more amazing animals to look at. The path wandered up into the canopy so you could really close to the flying foxes and the other birds up there.

Very pretty

Passed out

These made me laugh. They were completely asleep. Check out the one at the bottom of the picture! He’s gonna wake up with a sore neck!

Leopard

Mufasa

Still not done, I went over to where the larger animals were. Unfortunately it was now mid afternoon and all the would-be scary animals were asleep and not particularly imposing.

Giraffes

Zebra bums

Selfie with a cheetah!

What an awesome picture!!! I don’t know what was wrong with him but this cheetah was pacing up and down the window relentlessly so I sat in the corner and, with careful timing, snapped this beauty!

Charge!

Very much not the north pole!

I made my way over to the polar bear enclosure just in time for the feeding. It was in part of the ice section where they were a few other cold lovers. I was surprised to see that the polar bear was quite happy to be outside in the 30+ heat. I wanted to stay in the cold bit. It was such sweet relief but I went out into the little stage bit where the tank was to watch them do the feeding.

Going for a dip

Dinner time

effin flamingos

Want some face with that nose?!

I had heard the zoo was good but it was so incredibly awesome I did not want to leave! I had such an great day. So many different type of animals.

Little India food court

On the way back to my hostel I stopped off in Little India where I found a food court that had cheap curries. I got hustled into one by a real Indian man as I was walking around. So much so that I forgot I needed to get money out to pay for it! I realised this about half way through my meal and I was a bit worried to find out what would happen. The man was quite trusting when I told him I would go to the ATM and come back to pay him. I could easily have walked off. I didn’t though because I’m a decent human being!

Sentosa Island

Fantasy land

My third and final day in Singapore gave me no time to rest. It was another packed day walking around the city starting off with Sentosa Island. This is a small island just outside the city that’s like a big playground. I had intended to only be there for an hour or so but, as it was yesterday, it proved too good to leave. You could take a cable car over the water or you could do what I did and just take the walkway for free.

Universal Studios

Looking over the fence

I didn’t realise there was a Universal Studios here. I was very very tempted to go in and go on the rides and that. It was nearly midday on a Saturday so the place was packed. I would be queueing for hours if I went in so I decided against it. It’s a shame I didn’t have more days in Singapore. It wasn’t the only thing I didn’t have time to do. I peaked over the gate to try and see as much as I could.

Lake pond fountain thing

Some big letters and an even bigger lion

I spent some time walking around the other bits of the park. The hotel and lion were quite impressive to look at. It was like being in a fantasy land. I walked for a bit and suddenly found myself in the middle of a forest with nothing around me. It was quite a contrast

Into the forest

Old army bunker

I followed the path to the top past a couple of ‘waterfalls’. They weren’t real waterfalls, they were just made to look like they were. At the top was a definitely real WWII bunker.

Chinatown

Big Chinese writing

All things Chinese

I walked back over the water to the train station. The next area I wanted to explore was Chinatown. This was mostly consisted of market stalls so I didn’t spend too long here. It’s the weird thing about Singapore. You have these massive ultra modern buildings right next to these little suburbs where you can eat for really cheap. So multicultural too with a Chinatown, Little India and Malaysian section.

Big shopping centre

I went to another part of the city using my unlimited subway pass. This part was the commercial district where there were like a million different shopping centres. Most of them were really posh too.

WWII relics

Cannon

Back on the subway again I went to another area where there were a few other old wartime things to look at. From here I walked all the way down to the harbour checking out the sites.

Buildings and stuff

Very grand

F1 Bridge

On my walk I went across the bridge which is part of the Formula 1 track. There are very few clues as to wear the track went but with the help of a map I managed to figure it out.

City Hall

Old English hotel

The Lion!

When I was at the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel I had noticed that the Singapore Lion was all blocked off. I was quite disappointed because this is a very famous landmark and getting a picture with it is a tourists must do. As I walked past it today though, it was completely open.

Actual F1 tyre skid marks

Singapore Flyer

The pit straight

I carried on walking around to the Formula 1 pit straight and the Singapore Flyer (ferriswheel). It looked like some people were having a tour. I wanted to join them but there were security guards so I couldn’t go down the straight bit.

Fountain of Wealth

Bugis street marker

I carried on walking (I did SOOO much walking!) I went to the Fountain of Wealth which is a rather impressive roundabout and then on to Bugis Street Market.

Chaos

This was a mental labyrinth of market stalls that was absolutely packed with people. I couldn’t handle this on an empty stomach so I went to the cheap food court next door and bought some local food (something with rice). There were about 50 different food stalls to go to with 4 different areas to eat in. I walked around to find something good and I realised I was the only Westerner in the whole place!

So pretty at night

The Helix Bridge

Live music

My legs were about to fall off by now so after I had walked back to the harbour I found myself somewhere to sit whilst I waited for night to come. Just as it did I heard some live music start just along the harbour front so I went to watch that. They were quite good. Quite chilled kind of music. It was nice to relax after an epic three days.

Very clever

Impressive

The day wasn’t done yet though. I had been waiting around to see the lightshow on the harbour front. This was a free thing that happens twice every night. I expected a few lasers and stuff but it was so much more than that. The projected a video onto the water spray as if it were a big sheet of paper. The detail of it was quite amazing.

Supertrees

Gardens by the Bay light show

One more thing to do. Just one! I was so tired by now. I wanted to see the Gardens By The Bay show from up close. I had sort of seen it twice already but from a distance. This time I went in the gardens and laid on the ground with everybody else. This was the best way to do because you could here the music which made it so much better.

Lie back and relax

I finally went back to the hostel for some well earned sleep. I had such an epic three days in Singapore. I could have easily spent a week here and still not be bored! The next morning I caught the bus to cross the border into Malaysia. Next stop, Kuala Lumpur.