Tuesday (24/09/13):
Having meandered by without so much as a second lingering glance on each of our previous excursions; we discovered that the mall (I'll get to malls a bit later) attached to our local station had an underground food haven tucked away below - chock full of oriental delights. This was the site of many a celebratory jiggle as we gleefully purged our craving for cake (having gone cold turkey from any form of soft baked goodness for almost a week - torturous). Baked breakfast foods in Singapore are a devious affair, with varying levels of success. In this country, don't be surprised if the croissant you splashed out on- with delusions of french grandeur/pseudosophistication- in fact contains an american style hotdog (which I presume was crudely inserted before they hit the oven). They had no plain croissants...
I've stumbled slightly off track with this post and will return to the tale at hand: Our adventure to Sentosa island. Sentosa island is what every foreign country usually contains, and what we had avoided until now- a (slightly) cheesy resort. The lure of swimming in the sea was just too great.
As Hawaiian music ("coconut music" to us) rang out we ambled across Sentosa island in the sweltering heat. In keeping with Singapore's innate reluctance to deviate from it's image as a swanky 5 star kind of city, the island had plenty to do, for the financially endowed- Universal world theme parks, water parks, the biggest aquarium ever conceived by man, endless swathes of posh eateries, a rolex shop, countless cocktail toting beach bars and beach side hotels. All were hemmed in (in typical Singapore fashion) with lush tropical fauna, eccentric sculptures and the relaxing sound of the vast array of different fountains and general water splashing- all conjuring the repeated illusion that you were refreshed etc. (I LOVE fountains and tropical plants).
Note to Essex folk
We did
The local mermaid refusing to leave the sweet refreshing solitude of a good soaking. The water must have been a very kind 30 degrees. Sand here a deceptive resting place for a weary traveler. It is attractively soft, loamy and hygienically white looking, but it burns like hell's fire, so we hugged the shade. Yes, I was burnt by the sun. I had it coming...
We had a wondrous meal only 8 foot (or so) from the sea in a beach restaurant/bar. This comprised of a dainty salad for Sop, and gigantic prawns/sea monsters for me, all washed down with Lychee Daiquiri. Beautiful.
We then returned to our hostel to clean up, followed by a charge to the 57th floor of the Marina bay sands hotel (big fancy banana/boat on stilts) to watch the sun struggle in it's futile last attempts at squeezing out light for the day. The views were magnificent. Although, as we were not staying at the hotel we were all shepharded into the "viewing deck". Also on this floor was the luxurious infinity pool (highest in the world we're told) and the sort of restaurant in which £50 barely stretches beyond a single course for two (in which they also bizarrely blurted out monotonous club music at the wealthy diners), but as we were peasants we couldn't explore beyond the confines of the viewing deck.
The evening was finished as all good evenings should be. A cheeky couple of ice cold pints with the jaunty old Chinese barman in Chinatown. In fact, so enjoyable was this part of the night, we completely neglected to turn up to station in time for the last train. So it was that we embarked on an hour of late night/early morning sight seeing on our way back to the hostel, including a brief stroll on the actual F1 race track. My F1 car impersonation needs some practice...
Wednesday (25/09/13):
This day was short but sweet- a prelude to our next flight. We began the day with a big fat, well earned lie-in, whilst torrential rain pummeled down outside. Rain on this side of the earth doesn't just turn up and saunter down for few moments with minimal effort because it feels some semblance of obligation (as it does at home). Rain here pounds down like little soggy hammers, beating everything to the sopping ground, letting up only once there is not much more to fall. By the time we finally emerged from the protection of our hostel room, it was afternoon and all was quiet outside once more. We decided to munch on a gigantic heap of curry then head off to the Artscience museum where there was an interesting exhibit on the national geographic's 50 best photos.
The Artscience museum itself is a rather impressive lotus shaped building, itself surrounded by tidy infinity ponds crammed with all manner of different coloured lotus varieties, and very privileged looking fish (relative to the rest of their kin who in Singapore spend most of their time bobbing about dodging the dinner plate).
The day was rounded off by a last ditch wonder around little India, then some Thai food in a vibrant Chinese food hall. This place was stuffed to the rafters with a whole host of tiny food vending places the size of your average wardrobe and used by the locals as a source of cheap meals, and above all, cheap beer. We had all there was to offer. Some meals, handsome plates full of rice and meat went for as little as 2 and a half dollars (just over £1). Good times.
After much stuffing, we returned to the hotel for an early night in preparation for our 5am rise to fly to...............*drum roll*................... AUSTRALIA!!! Much rejoice.
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