Christmas in Crane Singapore
December 2007, by Gini
We changed our flights to stay in Singapore over Christmas and indulged
ourselves with a nice Hotel for a 'relaxation' holiday before heading
for the chaos in Australia. We had both been to Singapore but never
stayed more than a few days to see what it has to offer, so the
exploring begun.
Orchard Road we came across first, as it isn't hard to miss with its fantastic lights and lots of people. It seems shopping hours open later in the morning but stay open until 10pm, which even for me could get a bit exhausting. There wasn't any shortage of food outlets which seemed to be a mixture of Chinese, Malaysian and Thai which we liked. Tom even trialled a ice cream sandwich for only a dollar.
We hopped on and off the metro which was the cleanest in the world (so far by our standards) and very easy to use. It got us everywhere we wanted to go in cool conditions. We took a trip to Sentosa Island, traveling over by gondola for the view of the city of cranes. The island was the greenest of Singapore and was kind of like a theme park in a controlled calm way. We saw the great Merlion and some interestingly fake beaches which just didn't feel like our cup of tea for swimming with large oil tankers in the harbour. Fussy New Zealanders! The mosaic water features where fantastic and I want some in my garden one day. There was also some lovely walks which took it out of us in the heat so we retreated to the air conditioned hotel for more relaxation by the pool.
We tackled the famous zoo which had an amazing array of animals and we checked that the tiger enclosure was safe after the Christmas accident in San Francisco - very sad. It was a big zoo but we managed to see the lot by foot and in the heat. I still can't decide who is my favourite animal! But the cute cheeky monkeys where up there on my list. Tom went with the Pigmy Hippo with its ballerina toes and cute grin.
On our last day we explored our local Chinatown and bought a few Chinese New Year gifts for ourselves. We also stuffed ourselves at a local restaurant before the rain set in, just in time for us to fly on out of Singapore bound for Brisbane for the Wedding of the year!
G
Orchard Road we came across first, as it isn't hard to miss with its fantastic lights and lots of people. It seems shopping hours open later in the morning but stay open until 10pm, which even for me could get a bit exhausting. There wasn't any shortage of food outlets which seemed to be a mixture of Chinese, Malaysian and Thai which we liked. Tom even trialled a ice cream sandwich for only a dollar.
We hopped on and off the metro which was the cleanest in the world (so far by our standards) and very easy to use. It got us everywhere we wanted to go in cool conditions. We took a trip to Sentosa Island, traveling over by gondola for the view of the city of cranes. The island was the greenest of Singapore and was kind of like a theme park in a controlled calm way. We saw the great Merlion and some interestingly fake beaches which just didn't feel like our cup of tea for swimming with large oil tankers in the harbour. Fussy New Zealanders! The mosaic water features where fantastic and I want some in my garden one day. There was also some lovely walks which took it out of us in the heat so we retreated to the air conditioned hotel for more relaxation by the pool.
We tackled the famous zoo which had an amazing array of animals and we checked that the tiger enclosure was safe after the Christmas accident in San Francisco - very sad. It was a big zoo but we managed to see the lot by foot and in the heat. I still can't decide who is my favourite animal! But the cute cheeky monkeys where up there on my list. Tom went with the Pigmy Hippo with its ballerina toes and cute grin.
On our last day we explored our local Chinatown and bought a few Chinese New Year gifts for ourselves. We also stuffed ourselves at a local restaurant before the rain set in, just in time for us to fly on out of Singapore bound for Brisbane for the Wedding of the year!
G
The lights covered the busy shopping street
The city of cranes
Look at the little guy go!
friendly monkey roaming the zoo
Snails not again!
