Sun, sea and storms

On Wednesday we visited Sentosa, an island just off of Singapore mainland with a number of sandy beaches and attractions including Universal Studios. We took the monorail to the end of the line and went for a swim in the sea, which would have been lovely except for the fact that it looked directly into the Strait of Malacca and loads of giant shipping containers! Not exactly picturesque!

After we’d dried off (doesn’t take very long in this heat!), we decided to go on the luge. This was great fun, although the runs were a bit short. James and I expertly navigated our plastic karts around the other riders and each other to make it to the bottom without crashing, twice (“one ride is never enough” as the slogan said!)

After a quick lunch stop, we visited the Southernmost point of mainland Asia. To get there we had to cross a wooden rope bridge, which was very wobbly! Luckily it was only about 3ft off the ground and the water beneath never went deeper than chest height, so I think we would have been OK if it had snapped! We chilled out in the shade, starting on our quiz book and watching some school kids play games in the water.

We wandered back through the island and took a ride up the Tiger Tower (sponsored by Tiger beer) which gave us good panoramic views of the island and the beaches we’d just come from. There was also another Merlion to admire. After a short detour back via Redhill (mainly so James could get a picture with the sign!) we popped back to the apartment before heading to Boat Quay for dinner. Singapore has three quays, Boat, Clarke and Robertson. Boat Quay is full of restaurants, all with touts outside offering you the same “unique” deal of 20% off and a free bottle of beer! After a tasty Indian meal, we ended the evening with a round of crazy golf in Clarke Quay. Not only was this good fun (particularly as I won!) but the holes were really well themed (Ferris Wheeler’s Day Off was a particular favourite, as was the Monopoly Do Not Pass Go one, which had a jail cell to navigate through!).

For our last day, we went back to the Gardens by the Bay to see the Supertrees and visit the two conservatories, the Flower Dome and The Cloud Forest Dome. Both of these were excellent and well worth the visit. The Flower Dome features cacti, baobab trees and Mediterranean style plants and also had a special poinsettia exhibition for Christmas. The Cloud Forest Dome has a huge mountain in the middle and a 35ft waterfall coming off it. It exhibits a range of plants found at different altitudes in a mountain environment and is really quite spectacular.

Having missed out on our Singapore Sling at Raffles, we decided to go up the Marina Sands Hotel and have a drink on the 57th floor. The boat has an infinity pool in the middle for hotel guests but we headed to Ce La Vie bar as it was the same price to go there for a drink as it was simply to go to the observation deck! The Singapore Sling were very refreshing and it was great to look down over Singapore and see all the places we’d been. Next we jumped on the MRT to Little India, which was incredible as it was only a little bit out of the centre but had a completely different feel to it. There were many extravagant temples and fantastic murals on the walls to admire. Unfortunately as we were walking round it started to thunder and so before the big deluge came we decided to head back to a craft beer pub we’d spotted back at Clarke Quay to ride out the storm. The thunder was spectacular, really low and rumbling, however the rain never really got going so we are yet to experience the full torrential downpours of South East Asia.

​Finally before dinner we walked to Raffles Place to watch the “Wonder Full” light and laser show in front of the big boat. This show happens every night at 8pm and if I’m honest was a bit underwhelming, especially compared to the light show in Hong Kong. That said, it was nice to see Raffles Place all lit up for Christmas so was worth the trip.

Overall our impression of Singapore has been very positive! There were a couple of things we didn’t end up doing, like visiting Fort Canning (due to the thunder) or Robertson Quay, but otherwise three days is a good amount of time to see the city. It’s not cheap by Asian standards, most things are similar to London prices and all the attractions are around £15-£20 to get in, but as we were only there for four days and expect the rest of Asia to be significantly cheaper, we were prepared to be a bit more flash with the cash! This morning we fly to Kota Kinabalu on Borneo for the start of our Malaysian adventure.