Category: Singapore

We are sitting at the FREE Internet terminal at the Singapore airpot, about to board our plane for Thailand and I thought it was appropriate to write a quick blog about how wondeful Singapore is. The streets are clean, the people are wonderful and the services are exceptional – where else can you get FREE Internet access.

Yesterday we thought we better venture out a little beyond Orchard Road and the Sim Lim Square (more on Sim Lim Square later); we decided to go to Santosa Island — A little island just south of mainland Singapore (a bit like Phillip Island cross with an amusement park). Santosa was great, we caught the cable-car from the mainland and explored the island on the free mono-rail. Our first stop was the Santosa beach, with it’s beutiful sand and clear water – we decided to relax for a few hours in an outdoor recliner with a few beers as we watched the sun go down. Second stop was the amazing sound and light show (apprently it cost 4 million to produce) – it was truely incredible, I could just imagine my nieces screaming with delight at the show!

Sim Lim Square is one of the many IT shopping centres, 6 floors of IT goodness! There were litterally hundreds of shops selling every gadget you could possibly imagine. I was in heaven!! After about the 5th hour of window shopping, Philippa mentioned to me that if we stayed for another minute she would jump over the edge of the 4th floor. I guess I was a bit selfish 😛

Our plane leaves in 20 mins, so I better scoot. Love you all heaps and will try and upload the pics of Santosa in Thailand!

As the rooster crowed I woke up and re-packed my bag – emptying out the contents to ensure that there was no items that was likely to get me shot or caned in Singapore. We arrived in Singapore, picked up our bags and as I turned to find customs, I was sorely disappointed when I noticed that no one was manning the customs desk and we walked straight through to the airport shuttle bus.

Efficiency is the word for Singapore – especially after being in Indonesia. The queue are orderly, the taxis are metered, there is quality control measures on everything and the buses run every six minutes. The guide book describing the public transport system is literally a novel and has about 10 pages on public transport safety, it is a bit of an ergonomist’s dream city.

Matt hasn’t wiped the smile off his face since we have arrived. He is enjoying looking at all the IT gadgets that we cannot get in Oz, the clean water and of course the variety of fast food outlets.

Today we went to Raffels and enjoyed a Gin Sling in the Long Room Bar and then a buffet afternoon tea in the Tiffin room – which we had to book in advance. Matthew almost keeled over when he saw how I loaded my plate – he knew that I had an appetite when he married me. The food was exquisite! We had a fantastic time catching up with Gail (dad’s partner) and her mother who had a stop over in Singapore on their way home from Europe. It was all a bit posh – the poor people who have to polish all that silver!

We have also finally found a decent internet pipe and hopefully tonight is the night that we will be able to upload some photos.

Unfortunately dad had to delay meeting up with us, so we are catching up with him in Bangkok and he is staying with us through Cambodia and Vietnam. Matt and I are also looking at our own travel plans, we are thinking about extending our stay in Singapore and reducing the time we planned to stay in Malaysia, we are going to try and track down a travel agent tomorrow.

Thanks for all the emails, I am really enjoying getting news from home!