ANDY AND ANA, SINGAPORE, 27th - 30th JUNE 2014.

Singapore

Early arrival in Singapore and a bit of a shock to the system! South East Asia seems to stop at Singapore and you feel as though you could be in London or NYC! A very lively cosmopolitan city.

We jumped on the train from the airport into the City and walked the short route to our hostel-The 5 stones which had been recommended to us by a traveller we met in Malacca. This was our first proper dormitory stop as Singapore is pretty pricey, so we threw ourselves into the deep end by staying in a 16 bed dorm in bunks! The hostel was great, very funky, clean and was well equipped.

Getting settled into the dorm way of things...

Whilst Andy amuses himself with a plastic bag. (Andy: I was just demonstrating how big the bag was!)

We were only staying for 3 nights so had plenty to keep us entertained during the day and night. We spent the first day getting our bearings, and appreciating the orderly manner of Singapore! We found that over the weekend was a 3 day music event being held on the river front for free! Kerching! That would be our evenings entertainment sorted :)

Singapore by day

Next day Andy spent half the day being like one of the girls from Sex and the City! He shopped until he dropped replacing some of the essentially for backpacking, like a backpack! When he finally did drop, costa coffee was there to pick him back up :) We spent the day on and around Orchard Rd after visiting the main museum in the morning.

Purchases within the first hour, good man shopping

You see allsorts on Orchard Rd.  This man had the worlds biggest prayer beads around his neck and was hula hooping them around himself...

But by hour 3 we needed to stop for a refuel and seek a backpack shop in Singapore, apparently Singaporean's are far too cool for backpacks!

Entertaining myself whilst Andy gets to shop, the sign says 'cuppage' btw!

After spending all day on our feet we retired back to the hostel and got ready for the music events. We sat and watched a few bands play with marina bay and the Singapore river as a backdrop. Once the bands had finished we headed back around 11.30pm to find that only 1 other person was in the room. We assumed that they'd all come in late and wake us oldies up, but we were wrong! Great nights sleep so Andy got up early and headed out for a run along the streets past Marina bay and along the F1 race track portion of the streets in Singapore - including down the pit lane :)

Night-time skyline... One of many blurry night shots! Must learn how to use camera...

One of the many 'Bay Beats' performers who kept us entertained over the 3 days

The Mer Lion... Not as impressive as I thought it would be

We then headed across town on the tube to search for malarone anti-malarials to replace those lost in Andys bag. Which at this point was still classed as 'delayed' not lost. Once we'd paid with my right arm for the drugs we made our way over to Sentosa island. Sentosa is a bit of a Disneyland-esque style place, packed with kids attractions, restaurants and very family (kid) friendly. After a brief pit stop we headed back into Singapore to have a drink in The Long Bar.

Yes, the actual Sebastian Vettel, he was buying a Braun razor apparently!

Sentosa, or Disneyland for locals

Ok, so we are in a big city and I have no shoes that don't look like they are from the summer/winter 2013 Millets collection - I do now :) (Andy: Click your heels together three times dorothy!)

The Long Bar is on the second floor of the Raffles hotel complex and Andy tells me that you 'have' to go there for an overpriced drink so you can throw peanut shells on the floor. So we headed in for a Singapore Sling and a fruity mocktail (guess who had which drink) and as many shelled peanuts you could want, as it turns out more than you can actually stomach! Drinks down the hatch and shells on the floor we had ticked another touristy to-do off our travel list.

Showing off his new clothes (not emporers!) at the Raffles arcade

Nuts and sling

I tried the Singapore sling too... didn't think too much of it really!

That evening we headed back to the music event (Bay Beats) and ate the infamous Singapore Chilli Crab for dinner. We dined with a couple of Pilots who were on a pit stop in town, so checked with them if they'd seen Andy's bag. To my surprise they'd not come across it, but said they'd keep an eye out ;)

Right, now which stall sells the chilli crab? Oh, almost all of them!

Ta dah! Chili crab, tasty but a messy dish - and the crabs are really sharp!

Up stupidly early as our flight to Jakarta was at 8.30am. So we left the hostel and it rained so much that the 5 minute trip to the train station got us both saturated. We arrived at the station before it was open, so had to run around looking for an entrance to the platforms so we could catch the first train to the airport. An open entrance was located and we hopped on the train to Changi Airport. Andy checked again with Air Asia to see if any luggage had arrived and he was told again that it was still 'delayed'. So we hopped on the plane ready for our final SE Asian country - Indonesia!