Update Time - It's Long... You Have Been Warned. :)
Where to begin... First off - I'm sorry its so long and took so long to write. But you'll see why when you get down to Monday and that this is the first chance i've had to post properly.
Second - there is no pics until we get home cos this is such a shitty comp (seriously) and neither of us brought our laptops.
Friday /Night - Arrived safely in Singapore at about 8pm (singapore time - 10pm our time).
Getting off the plane took about 20 mins cos everyone just wanted to get off after sitting for so long. The plane was good - we had personal screens in front of us and a decent selection of movies to watch. Lunch was served ast about 3.30pm (bris time) and refreshments were served at about 6.30pm or so. So off plane and down to immigration - which took about 10 mins, cos they are just so quick at it. Get luggage and then off to customs... which we walked straight through, as in noone was there. Now whether this is because we were a group or what i don't know. was totally weird. Stood around for another 20 mins getting separated into out different colour groups for the buses. trundle off to the buses and then off to the hotel. which took 1/2 hr. Keys and brekky vouchers and such stuff were handed out on the bus - so that saved time for checking in. There are 117 of us in this tour so it would have been a nightmare at reception. Off up to our rooms - which are really nice. Nothing to flash. Hotel rooms are mainly for sleeping and showering in so it's not like you would expect to be at home.
Saturday - Got up to go to breakfast at 7.00am. After our guides had so nicely booked everyone a wakeup call for 6.30am - and forgotten to tell some of us... UGH!!! Brekky every day is continental style type thing so its good - as long as they have coffee i don't care what they serve. Had to be in the foyer at 9.15am for first day orientation day. Glad we went to that instead of just going back to bed. Showed us where Chinatown and Little india are. The wet markets are something else.... they smell Really Bad and they don't care who you are walking around - if they have to chop the head off a fish , then they do it and don't wait for you move so you don't get splatted. They chop fish, meat, vegies, they pluck and gut. It's more like the raw markets, every thing you don't see that gets done normally. It was gross. Now Singapore is a VERY clean place, as in - no littering, no spitting, no public urinating, no chewing gum, no flower picking, no smoking, no bird feeding and no dumping - just to name a few. EXCEPT Little India and China town don't follow these rules - they are really dirty and really smelly. Only thing going for them is that they have cheap things and you can haggle with them. Which is fun to watch. :) Peter decided that he had had enuff at about 1.30pm and went up stairs for a nap (as all the guys were meeting in the foyer at the big screen at 3.30 for the tri - nations rugby match). I decided to go for a walk up orchard road and check out the shops. For 2 1/2 hrs by myself, just me and my MP3 player. If you have head phones in - ppl leave you alone and don't ask if you want help every 5 seconds. It was great. For our welcoming dinner that night we went to a night safari at the singapore zoo. It was entertaining to see animals that are nocturnal moving and acting like it's day time.
Sunday - The morning was ours to do with as we pleased as our tour wasn't until 1pm. So we (peter and I and a few others ) trekked back off to a 24 hr shoping centre - that place was nothing flash. Imaging the queen street mall and myer centre squashed into one and then put into the size of 3 floors and about as big as 2 blocks. Basically it was crap and the prices for stuff were the same as at home for stuff. So we went home and got ready to go on our tour.
SENTOSA ISLAND. I absolutely loved this Island. Now to get to this island you either have to go by bus, taxi, car or cable car. Guess how we go to be taken over there... right - cable car. All i can say is - HOLY SHIT, thank goddess we didn't have to go back like that. It was raining and slightly windy and very high. So we got over there and the first place we went to was Underwater World - which is the same as ours . Was nice to go see still. Lots of fish and some massive turtles too. There weren't that many big sharks. Was still fun to go see tho. Then we were advised of our meetng point to leave that night and then we split up to go see the rest of the island. We were also told to be at the fountains (musical) at 7.10pm so we could see the show and get a good seat as it is quite popular show. So Peter and I went off in a direct line towards the Merlion. I found this excellent fountain that i want to take home with me! it is a dragon fountain and it is just wonderful. I can't describe it well enuff on here. Snapped a few pics of that and then off we went to the merlion. That was fun. Interesting enuff story about how the ppl came to singapore and how the Merlion came about. (not going to bore you with it just now). Wandered around aimlessly pretty much after that and just looked at some stuff. Some of the features were closed due to renovations - but that still didn't stop us looking at some really good stuff. The orchid terraces were so pretty. After that we went to the Skybar and caught up with some ppl and had some beers and chats and eats. Then we trundles off to the musical fountain to watch the show. All i can say is - WOW! It went for about25 mins and was really well done. it wasn't a boring type of clasical music and water, no it had lasers and talking and heaps of stuff. We videoed the whole thing so if you want to see it, just ask. :)
Monday - Well monday was a trip to The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and then to the Botanical Gardens. Except that it turns out that on this "tour" it means "trek/hike". Now some know that peters knee was shot at the nats - and it hasn't healed properly as of yet - so hiking was out. So instead we decided to sleep in and do some slow wandering touristy shopping this arvo. We were supposed to have a "free/ bludge" day on wednesday but they decided to take us to the Singapore Zoo (all the other stuff we didn't see the other night). So we took Monday as our bludge day instead.
Thats about it for now.
:-D
Second - there is no pics until we get home cos this is such a shitty comp (seriously) and neither of us brought our laptops.
Friday /Night - Arrived safely in Singapore at about 8pm (singapore time - 10pm our time).
Getting off the plane took about 20 mins cos everyone just wanted to get off after sitting for so long. The plane was good - we had personal screens in front of us and a decent selection of movies to watch. Lunch was served ast about 3.30pm (bris time) and refreshments were served at about 6.30pm or so. So off plane and down to immigration - which took about 10 mins, cos they are just so quick at it. Get luggage and then off to customs... which we walked straight through, as in noone was there. Now whether this is because we were a group or what i don't know. was totally weird. Stood around for another 20 mins getting separated into out different colour groups for the buses. trundle off to the buses and then off to the hotel. which took 1/2 hr. Keys and brekky vouchers and such stuff were handed out on the bus - so that saved time for checking in. There are 117 of us in this tour so it would have been a nightmare at reception. Off up to our rooms - which are really nice. Nothing to flash. Hotel rooms are mainly for sleeping and showering in so it's not like you would expect to be at home.
Saturday - Got up to go to breakfast at 7.00am. After our guides had so nicely booked everyone a wakeup call for 6.30am - and forgotten to tell some of us... UGH!!! Brekky every day is continental style type thing so its good - as long as they have coffee i don't care what they serve. Had to be in the foyer at 9.15am for first day orientation day. Glad we went to that instead of just going back to bed. Showed us where Chinatown and Little india are. The wet markets are something else.... they smell Really Bad and they don't care who you are walking around - if they have to chop the head off a fish , then they do it and don't wait for you move so you don't get splatted. They chop fish, meat, vegies, they pluck and gut. It's more like the raw markets, every thing you don't see that gets done normally. It was gross. Now Singapore is a VERY clean place, as in - no littering, no spitting, no public urinating, no chewing gum, no flower picking, no smoking, no bird feeding and no dumping - just to name a few. EXCEPT Little India and China town don't follow these rules - they are really dirty and really smelly. Only thing going for them is that they have cheap things and you can haggle with them. Which is fun to watch. :) Peter decided that he had had enuff at about 1.30pm and went up stairs for a nap (as all the guys were meeting in the foyer at the big screen at 3.30 for the tri - nations rugby match). I decided to go for a walk up orchard road and check out the shops. For 2 1/2 hrs by myself, just me and my MP3 player. If you have head phones in - ppl leave you alone and don't ask if you want help every 5 seconds. It was great. For our welcoming dinner that night we went to a night safari at the singapore zoo. It was entertaining to see animals that are nocturnal moving and acting like it's day time.
Sunday - The morning was ours to do with as we pleased as our tour wasn't until 1pm. So we (peter and I and a few others ) trekked back off to a 24 hr shoping centre - that place was nothing flash. Imaging the queen street mall and myer centre squashed into one and then put into the size of 3 floors and about as big as 2 blocks. Basically it was crap and the prices for stuff were the same as at home for stuff. So we went home and got ready to go on our tour.
SENTOSA ISLAND. I absolutely loved this Island. Now to get to this island you either have to go by bus, taxi, car or cable car. Guess how we go to be taken over there... right - cable car. All i can say is - HOLY SHIT, thank goddess we didn't have to go back like that. It was raining and slightly windy and very high. So we got over there and the first place we went to was Underwater World - which is the same as ours . Was nice to go see still. Lots of fish and some massive turtles too. There weren't that many big sharks. Was still fun to go see tho. Then we were advised of our meetng point to leave that night and then we split up to go see the rest of the island. We were also told to be at the fountains (musical) at 7.10pm so we could see the show and get a good seat as it is quite popular show. So Peter and I went off in a direct line towards the Merlion. I found this excellent fountain that i want to take home with me! it is a dragon fountain and it is just wonderful. I can't describe it well enuff on here. Snapped a few pics of that and then off we went to the merlion. That was fun. Interesting enuff story about how the ppl came to singapore and how the Merlion came about. (not going to bore you with it just now). Wandered around aimlessly pretty much after that and just looked at some stuff. Some of the features were closed due to renovations - but that still didn't stop us looking at some really good stuff. The orchid terraces were so pretty. After that we went to the Skybar and caught up with some ppl and had some beers and chats and eats. Then we trundles off to the musical fountain to watch the show. All i can say is - WOW! It went for about25 mins and was really well done. it wasn't a boring type of clasical music and water, no it had lasers and talking and heaps of stuff. We videoed the whole thing so if you want to see it, just ask. :)
Monday - Well monday was a trip to The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and then to the Botanical Gardens. Except that it turns out that on this "tour" it means "trek/hike". Now some know that peters knee was shot at the nats - and it hasn't healed properly as of yet - so hiking was out. So instead we decided to sleep in and do some slow wandering touristy shopping this arvo. We were supposed to have a "free/ bludge" day on wednesday but they decided to take us to the Singapore Zoo (all the other stuff we didn't see the other night). So we took Monday as our bludge day instead.
Thats about it for now.
:-D