Onto Singapore (Nov 2018)

I arrived in Singapore late in the evening, and it was quite a long drive from the airport to where I was staying. My arrival at the hotel didn’t start too well, though, as for some reason my room booking had not been registered and therefore I technically had nowhere to stay! Fortunately, a room was found for me after a long wait.

The next morning, I was excited to see the location of the hotel, as it had obviously been too dark the previous evening to see anything. The hotel was located by the river, which was lovely and offered a scenic walk to wherever I decided to head out to. The first day, I set out for the centre of Singapore, which was quite a trek from the hotel but, along the way, it was great to watch the boats on the river and pass by restaurants and shops. It is particularly hot in Singapore, though, as the humidity is extremely high, and it didn’t help that first morning when I discovered I had been looking at the map the wrong way round and found myself walking a long way in completely the wrong direction!!

Many restaurants I passed had large tanks of fish and crustaceans outside for people to choose from – not something I have ever wanted to do, but its customary in this part of the world and seen as the best way to ensure your food is as fresh as possible. I felt that this part of Singapore was more like the old town, as the main centre is extremely modern and built for tourism.

The centre has a large promenade that overlooks Marina Bay. The area also hosts an iconic 28-foot Merlion statue, which is half fish and half lion, and shoots water into the bay. The fish part of the large statue is supposed to symbolise Singapore’s beginnings as a fishing village, and the lion’s head is said to be a greeting that means ‘Lion City’ in Malay. The statue is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in Singapore. The whole promenade area is easy to get around and has large shopping malls and plenty of places to eat and drink. You can also have a trip on the big wheel called the Singapore Flyer (about a 15-minute walk) that is great for getting some brilliant views of Marina Bay.