Jamie and Naomi’s Adventure

Well we arrived in Singapore….what a contrast!!! We love it. We got a taxi to our hostel and realised we were in heaven. It was 8 o’clock in the morning, the sun was blazing down on us and our hostel is directly located above a bar which has a live band every night. Perfect!!

We checked into our room and had a look around the hostel. It is simple but does the job perfectly there is an area where all us travellers can congregate and eat, shared bathroom and the bedrooms are at the opposite end. It is family run and they really are lovely. They have a little on called Denise who really is as good as gold and can sometimes turn a boring afternoon into a funfilled one!! (The website for this fab hostel is www.fernloft.com)We then took the 15 minute stroll down to the beach and took in the sight of it. It really wasn’t what we expected at all it really is quite beautiful but, unfortunately one of the first things that met us on the beach was a used needle! As with everywhere there is always one.

We went down to the bar in the evening and were shocked at the prices of alcohol here, lucky the people that run the hostel had given us some drinks vouchers and a meal voucher so we took advantage of these. I think the idea is to make them last the length of your stay but we met a couple of really nice people and ended up using all the drinks vouchers in one foul swoop. Later around one o’clock we realised this was not a good idea as Jamie spent the next 30 minutes leaning out of the bedroom window looking at his stomach. The good thing was, it was the best nights sleep either of us have had since we have left.

We took the bus to the city centre to change some of our flights which was far easier than expected. The bus driver was more than helpful in telling us where we needed to get off and how to get the bus back. The public transport here is fantastic!! We had a good look around the city and then stopped for lunch at a little outdoor restaurant, we had noodles with prawns and it came to about $10SD so quite a good deal and it tasted good!

We have got a couple more nights here but we are going to use them to get a little organised and get some rest before flying to Vietnam.

All in all Singapore has been a welcome relief after India and it really is stunning. What should be ugly buildings ie flats and apartments are easy on the eye. The public transport is amazing and still they are updating the MRT and expanding it to further more of the city. And, this place is spotless which is always nice to see. The government really are looking after this place and it shows. Mum and Dad, next time you go to New Zealand you must stop in Singapore only for 2 nights that will be enough. You will love it.

Tips for Singapore:
1. If you are backpacking 2 nights is more than enough, we would love to have stayed here for longer but we really couldn’t afford it.
2. Try and get a hostel out of the city centre, it is much quieter, we are right near the beach and if we need to get into town it is an easy 15 minute bus ride
3. If you are a beach lover, do go to the beach there are segregated cycle and walker paths and it simply is beautiful, and is not at all what you would expect. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.