The City of Lions

Singapore » The City of Lions

We took another bus... this time to Singapore!

We could tell how well organized this city/country is from the way the border-crossing looked like. Everything has sense, and is just easy :) in comparison to some borders we have crossed before :)

We have been warned by everyone that Singapore is very expensive, so we ignored the advice to take a cab to our new host. We went the local way straight ahead, starting with some Chinese noodles on the MRT station. A subway ride and nine bus stops later, we introduced ourselves to Terence, our host in Singapore.
The next day we were ready for the big city or small country - depends on how you prefer to call it! Since we had 4 whole days, we allowed ourselves to just walk around the first day, taking in the city. We got a proper tourist package, which occured to be a very good deal. It is amazing how developed this place is when it comes to tourism. We paid for two main attractions, namely the famous (and a bit embarasing) Duck Tour and the Singapore Flyer. Then, we had 3 different sightseeing buses going around the city every 15 minutes, vouchers to museums, the botanical garden, river cruises, China town tours, Marina bay tours, and much more. We hesitated a bit before buying it, but are now satisfied with the investment.

We can easily say that yes, we have visited Singapore and we enjoyed the place to 100%! Well, OK, to 90% maybe, since a beer costs S$17! : ) The nightlife and pub rounds is something that we will leave for another type of travelling : ) The type where we will check in on Marina Bay Sands and drink wine in one of the hired cabines on the Singapore Flyer : )

We can also confirm that Singapore is expensive - BIG time!!! We did the naive mistake the first day, and bought some food in a supermarket to have cheaper breakfast at home. It is actually cheaper to go around the corner to one of these Chinese "coffe shops" as they call it, and eat there. They have a lot of different vegetables and kinds of meat. You have rice or noodles as a base and you can pick e.g.two veg. and one meat. A big plate of food for S$ 2.50 (about 7 PLN or 17SEK). No one would go to the supermarket and buy stuff for breakfast for S$20 dollars!

Even though it is a very expensive place, it is possible to enjoy the city and culture as a real backpacker! A hell lot of walking and Chinese cuisine only - but possible! : )

Between our museum and rice maratons, we met up with the Polish guys again. We were lucky to enjoy a concert next to the Marina bay, while watching the impressive business centre, the famous buildings of Marina Bay Sands, and the new construction of the Art Science museum, that presents the lotus flower. Singapore has a lot of architecture to be proud of! And more is to come! Here, we also said goodbye to Wojtek and Kuba - our routes are going different directions from now on - Good luck, both of you, and see you again!

In Singapore, we didnt really feel a big difference from Malaysia. The culture and population is pretty much the same. The Chinese population is definitely a majority in the Singaporian society - 75% ! That is visible not only on the individuals running on the streets, but also of the availability of Chinese food courts all over the place !!! OK, except for the district Little India : )

Now, we have contributed to the tourist based income to the Singaporian government - 9 billion dollars a year (!!!) - we are ready to leave Asia and start our adventure in Australia.

Terence - thank you for letting us stay at your place! You saved us out there! : )

Next: Perth (6 hours flight tomorrow morning! )