Singapore

Day 1 (Monday 25th June 2007)

My flatmate got up at 1.30am to drive me to the airport, which is above and beyond the call, particularly as he is moving out when I get back. It took about 45 mins to get through the queue, and another 30 for customs, so by the time I got through it was pretty much time to go. 3am is a horrible time to fly - it's too early to sleep before you go and too late to sleep afterwards. The flight lasted a bit over 4 hours but with the time difference it was a bit after 6 when I got in. The customs in Singapore was great - I was through much quicker than any time I've returned home to Australia.

I flew Tiger Airways, which meant I arrived at the Budget Airlines terminal, and caught a shuttle bus over to the main Terminal. From there I took the underground train, called the MRT, which is every bit as clean, fast and efficient as I had heard. I got off at Bugis Station and started the trek towards my hotel, the Hotel Royal@Queens. The outside wasn't particularly reassuring, looking every bit the once grand hotel that is past its prime, but the inside is better. I was planning to leave my luggage with them for a few hours, as their check in time is from 1pm onwards, but much to my amazement they let me check in at 7 in the morning. I was given room 1637, on the very top floor of the hotel, and was pleasantly surprised by the room which was a little small but clean and nicely furnished.

My view wasn't much too look at during the day, but did look much nicer after dark.

I crashed for a few hours and got up around midday feeling much better. I grabbed my new camera (an Olympus E-410 digital SLR) and headed for the Singapore River and Chinatown. I had only gone a few blocks when I noticed a huge circular structure on top of one of the buildings.

It looked like an observation deck, so I wandered over that way to check it out. It turned out I was right, but there's just one catch - it's on top of their Supreme Court, and they don't let cameras into the building. Strange ... I got up to the top and the view was terrific - except that the glass saucer has a 360 degree view but only about 45 degrees is open to the public. Stranger ...

Back at ground level I continued down to the river. I walked across the bridge and stopped at a convenience store for a cold drink. Coke was the only thing I recognised, but I hate the stuff, so I ended up buying a can of flower juice instead. A little different, but quite nice.

I'd done some research on the net before I came, and everyone said to go to the Yum cha Restaurant (That is its name, not just a description), so that's what I did. The food was excellent, but I do have one gripe. The first time I ever had Yum Cha was with my mother in Sydney's Chinatown, and they wheeled around carts of food and you just chose what you liked off the cart. I've been to Yum Cha restaurants in Perth, Darwin and now Singapore since then, and they just give you a list of what's on offer and you have to pick from that. That's how they did it at the Yum Cha restaurant, and once you did order they started making it all and brought it all out as soon it was ready. That meant that some of it went cold and wasn't as nice as it could have been. Personally I prefer the cart. Still the range was great, the quality was excellent, and being a fairly adventurous eater four of the five dishes were things I'd never even heard of before let alone tried, so I thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

Having walked down South Bridge Road to get to Chinatown I went back the other way along New Bridge Road. I spotted a building with bright coloured shutters that had caught my eye earlier in the day, so I wandered over to see what it was.

It used to be the Hill Street Police Station, but now belongs to MCIA, which is the ministry for the arts, and houses several art galleries. It also has a central open area, which was being used for an exhibition by a Chinese Zen artist, a 91-year old female monk who I got to meet.

It's a really nice space, with natural light filtered through opaque panels, a water feature that creates a lovely background and the local florist has donated flower arrangements for the exhibition, giving it a lovely smell as well.

It was a really relaxing way to spend an hour, and was exactly the sort of relaxing start I needed to my holiday after a long and at times stressful semester at school.

From the gallery I continued up the road to Fort Canning Park. This was where Raffles had his house in Singapore, and was once on the waterfront. However Singapore has done a lot of land reclamation, and it now sits in the middle of the city, which makes its little lighthouse look fairly silly, particularly in a city with as much high-rise as Singapore.

Still the park is beautiful, including a huge spice garden, and a great collection of tropical flowers. I'm a keen gardener back home, and living in Darwin can grow most tropical plants, so it's inspired me to try a few new things when I get home. The spice garden was great too, and I spent another very relaxing hour or so smelling and tasting my way through the park.

Given that I'd only had four hours sleep the night before I was starting to flag by this stage so I went back to the hotel and watched a movie (Dreams for an Insomniac) before grabbing some soup from a local takeaway and crashing for the night.