Hotel 81 - Sakura Singapore

... had a look in a few of the malls, but didn't buy anything. I particularly liked the designer shopping mall which had everything from Prada to YSL in it. <br><br>After that we went down to the quay area and had a stroll around. Saw the war memorial which was huge and was erected in the memory of civilians who lost their lives in the Japanese occupation. Then went to see raffles which is smaller than I expected, but looks very colonial. We didn ...

... the shopping hub for SouthEast Asia you know, so wherever you go, there is shopping available. Orchard Road was lined with mall after mall after mall. It had all of the most expensive name brands over and over and over again. We managed to hit up every Nike store available until Kevin finally made a t-shirt purchase. For lunch we found a grocery store and bought buns, sausage and a hunk of cheese and made our own sandwiches for lunch. They ...

... spent the next half an hour taking lots of different photos as I walked east along the north bank, past Raffles Landing Site (the point where Singapore's founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, first landed), and then over Cavanagh Bridge. I made my way past more towering skyscrapers to Raffles Place MRT station where I took the train back to the hostel.<br><br>I had another shower, thanks to the humidity, sorted out my bags and packed everything, before heading off for another ...

... restaurant (as we are still in little india), sleep for last time in stinky, mouldy hotel room.<br><br>10/09/09 - Torture Day - pack up our stuff, bought a bit much yesterday as things not fitting so good in our packs (must send some stuff home via sea mail - may beat us, may not), waddle out of the hotel with our stuffed packs and extra bags and don't bother to thank the staff as they are busy texting someone while filing their nails, hail taxi (god taxis are good in ...

... side of the road. We spent a little bit of time trying to take all this in. Many of you will know that J and I are not against shopping and have at times been shelled out more money than we should on odd bits of clobber with the right designer name on it. However this appeared to be real overkill and we lost track of all the major names that were represented in every direction. We counted five separate DKNY outlets within one short stretch of street and began to wonder ...

... was given to someone else. We still stayed in the hostel however I wasn't impressed.<br><br>So it started with a minor blip but after reuniting with my friends Emily and Lucy things to a turn for the better and we celebrated by eating at this amazing street cafe and ordered 5 dishes between us.<br><br>I'm usually an optimist, but I"m still expecting something bad to happen, like they've cancelled our work experience. I'll keep a calm disposition until Monday at least. <br><br><br>

Today I took a walk around China Town. <br> <br><br><br>First to Thian Hock Keng, Singapore's oldest Hokkien building. It&#8217;s a lovely Chinese temple thick with the smell on incense. <br><br> <br><br>Then on Sri Mariamman Temple, which is a Hindu temple. It was covered for restoration but still ...

... they were more like airports with managed queues and air-con, no more standing in crowds in the blistering heat with no idea of where we're going. We had the weekend to sort out all the things we needed for Australia, mainly getting a box to send home with our new belongings, we had bought so many souvenirs we needed to post it all home. We were back staying with our previous host and we were glad to be back. We arrived in a heap of luggage ...

... not so fond of surprises, thus, the nagging thought of what awaited us there kept me uptight. <br><br>But my perceptions about the island-state somewhat changed when we finally went there for our quick visit, which, if I'm not mistaken, lasted for only 18 hours. Brief as it was, the sojourn showed me a side of the country that's the opposite of the island of fear I thought it to be. Singapore seemed like a whole new world ...