Singapore - on a budget!?
Trip Start
Feb 04, 2008
1
38
105
Trip End
Jan 19, 2009
Singapore,
Singapore,
Singapore
Saturday, May 3, 2008
As we got closer to the city I couldn't get over just how shiny everything is! The cars are all brand spanking and freshly washed and waxed, the buildings look like they've just had a fresh lick of paint, the streets are so clean you'd think it was a movie set not actually a lived in city, even the people and animals looked cleaner! Quite a contrast from Kuala Lumpur.
We were obviously both pretty excited about exploring this new place but I was particularly excited as Will had booked us a night at The Scarlet, a 5* boutique hotel just next to the bustling China Town area (my belated birthday pressie). We got a taxi from the bus station and arrived at this scrumptiously swanky place, all red and black and gold interior with chandeliers and water features everywhere
Fancy Scarlet bathroom!
. The doorman took our bags and as we walked into reception we felt very underdressed and scruffy! We were shown to our deluxe room, sat on our massive comfy bed and sipped our complimentary cocktails contemplating what to do first! Ahh, this is the life!We ran around the place like kids exploring all the facilities; Flaunt (the in-house gym), Soda (the outdoor hot tub), Bold (the swanky bar with a cocktail list as long as your arm), Desire (the a la carte restaurant) and Breeze (the rooftop seafood bar and grill). We quickly realised that we definitely couldn't afford to eat there as well as stay there so we settled for an hour or so lazing in Soda. After we'd showered and sat in our fluffy robes and slippers for a while watching tv we donned our best attire and headed out to explore the area.
China Town is a gorgeous tangle of brightly coloured streets watched over by giant satin dragon streetlights. We walked down the ingeniously named Food Street with all the restaurants and foodstalls on (obviously) and took in all the yummy smells. We headed to the MRT (tube station) which again was so spotless you could eat your dinner of the floor. We bought a travelcard and went a few stops to Little India to find a guest house for the next couple of days. When we arrived at Little India station it was manic. We were surrounded by a crowd of hundreds upon hundreds of men - not a woman in sight. They were all standing around eating, drinking, chatting with friends, buying things from the market stalls - filling up the streets making it almost impossible for the cars to pass them. We walked wide eyed to a guest house we had in mind, The Inn Crowd, and found ourselves a couple of dorm beds (a double room was a bit out of our price range)
Our lurvely room!
. The friendly girl behind reception said that every Sunday all the Indian construction workers in Singapore spend their day off in Little India doing their weekly shop and catching up with friends. No idea where the women were though! It was good to know that it wasn't going to be this busy every day! Amazing to see though. We hopped back on the MRT to the famous Orchard Road (where the shopping malls are plentiful and the credit cards always warm!) to find ourselves some dinner. I had Japanese in mind but as always, when you have something in mind you can never find that something! We walked further and further along the road and finally gave up delving into one of the many underground foodcourts that are everywhere. There are 20-30 food places and lots of seating in the middle - we opted for Korean and sampled some sizzling plates of chicken and beef with rice which was very tasty - no dog on the menu thank goodness. We headed back to The Scarlet and had an awesome time watching movies in bed and ordering white chocolate cheesecake from room service (well we couldn't go without eating something from their menu!) We planned to get up nice and early, have another dip in the hot tub, grab some breakfast then amble out. However......
The alarm clock showed 11.42am
What could this be?
. Shit shit shit shit - need to check out by midday or they'll charge us for another night! We rushed to pack our things and made it to reception in the nick of time - just about! On our way to Little India we stopped for breakfast at a Chinese bakery (hot tea and egg tarts - the typical Chinese breakfast?!).
Staying in a dorm was a bit of a shock after our luxury the night before but it was a well organised place and very clean. We settled in then headed back out to explore. We wandered round Little India admiring the various shops selling gold and saris and spices - the smells that wafted into the street and mingled together were amazing - a far nicer Little India than the ones in Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur. Then we ventured back to China Town and had yummy satay in Food Street. I (finally) found myself some trousers (hadn't had much luck in the previous couple of weeks as in SE Asia I am an X Large - so upsetting! Damn all those teeny tiny skinny Asian girls!) We walked round more of the super fantastic shopping malls and wished we had more money to spend (like thousands more).
That night we went to Clarke Quay and had an awesome meal at a fancy Japanese restaurant on the waterfront followed by one drink each at a bar (that cost almost as much as the meal)
Hee hee hee!
. Alcohol in Singapore is EXTORTIONATE! Needless to say we didn't have a night on the tiles as we couldn't have afforded the entry fee, let alone the drinks prices! We headed back to Little India and crashed out. After a fairly sleepless night we grabbed some breakfast from the kitchen (the first time we have cooked for ourselves in over 3 months!) and hopped back on the MRT to the waterfront where we caught the monorail over to Sentosa Island. We visited the aquarium which was very cool and saw a dolphin show. We headed back to the mainland in the afternoon and spent another few hours walking round the shops on Orchard Road - bad idea! We contemplated cutting short our trip and spending the rest of our budget there and then in the fabulous shops then coming home! We eventually changed our minds and cheered ourselves up by going to the cinema. We saw Iron Man which, I must admit, I though it was going to be an incredibly cheesy boys film but I loved it! Highly recommended for an easy watch! After scoffing down some incredibly spicy Thai food for dinner we headed back for our last night's sleep before heading to Johor Bahru tomorrow for our flight to Borneo.
Ahhh, glorious glorious Singapore. I'd go back tomorrow!
