Singapore Stopover

 

Reasons has gone east!

Or should that be I have lost all reason and gone east!  Which ever way I say it I have left the lovely Lakeland hills for a few months and headed east.  Far East… Cambodia at the time of typing, just.

After a couple of days R&R in Singapore to catch my breath after all that packing and preparation, recover from a 14 hour flight and sleep off the jet lag.

Singapore was perfect.  There was no problem.  I was met at the airport by a man with a card with my name on.

So joyous not having to negotiate busses or trains for a change.  Not that, subsequently that turned out to be a problem.  After three days I felt a complete master of the MRT (subway).  It was just incredibly easy to understand and cheap.  Not one of journeys cost me more than S$2, which is give or take £1.

Aside from thundering around on the MRT I managed to do a bit of sightseeing.  The botanic and orchard gardens were worth a walk around, maybe just a little underwhelming.

What ‘blew me away’ was the new garden by Bay Front.  Modern architecture combined with nature.

Giant purple trees surrounded by cultural gardens from the melting pot of races now living in Singapore.  Particularly spectacular at night with light glinting from the giant tree canopies.  Though I am not sure that the  beautiful sunsets were not contributed to by polluted skies.

Conversely the streets were squeaky clean.  Every where was clean.  The only place litter dared to linger was by the port, and even that was only the odd crisp packet.

The only place litter dared to linger was by the port, and even that was a stray packet or two .

Then I left Knightsbridge and spent a day a the zoo.   Controversial though they are Singapore Zoo is ranked among the top few and as I am not a shopping fanatic (and even if I was my luggage allowance is already exceeded) after a quick stroll down Orchard Road I felt the only use, to me, of the Malls was a quick cool down in the arctic chill of the air con.

Back to the Zoo.  Whatever your feelings they do have a good breeding program for certain species and as it is close to China may be a few Chinese may come and be educated into respecting animals, not just spuriously believing  their body parts are good for curing cancer or impotency.

Plus it is so well laid I out I could take pictures and pretend I had hiked through the jungles of Madagascar and lain in wait for a days just to take a picture of a Lemma.

Or a Vietnamese monkey

fruit bat

or Komodo Dragon

Unsurprisingly there is not a lot left of Colonial Singapore.

Just a few streets where the old terraces, churches,

opera houses and government buildings linger under the shadow of gleaming new towers.

Lose yourself amongst them for a while and believe yourself back in time.

Lonely Planet say there is much more to see and do.  There are even some green spaces, nature reserves and bird parks, but I just did not have time to get there.  May be I will on my way back.

I stayed, merely from trawling through Tripadvisor and various deals,

at The Quincy.  Which was wonderful.  Good location.  Food drip fed all day if required.  12th floor pool and the most helpful staff I think I have ever met.  And now I have arrived in Cambodia I am very glad I had those few days of R&R!