Singapore..Anyone been?

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The cable car ride to Sentosa Island gives you a superb view of the harbour - never knew there were so many container ships in the world.

Here's a photo of the Cental Business District. The architecture is awesome.

You can do a boat trip round it. Oh, and there's a fake Victorian pub called the ‘Penny Black’ that shows the football. Plenty of good places to eat at the bottom of the picture, if a bit pricey.

Plenty giant cafeteria at the lower level of the shopping malls to get noodles and a hundred other kinds of foods.

It's hugely hot and humid and the natives are quite reserved, but otherwise friendly. It's a very safe place to mooch around and the tube system is clean, smart and air-conned. Reckon a week's about long enough tho, and you might want to come back from Oz via Bangkok. Just to compare and contrast, like.

 

[byf]

Thanks for your help guys!

October and it happens......bit different to brighton then?

 

[Trufflehound]

never knew there were so many container ships in the world.

17% of all the world's container freight passes through Singapore.

Just learnt this off the National Geographic Channel on Monday...

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Thanks for your help guys!

October and it happens......bit different to brighton then?

Just a bit. Don't be tempted to take any drugs into Singapore BTW, it's, um, how you say, frowned upon. They executed an Aussie last time I was there.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

Spent a few days there in 2003 on the way home from Sabah. Very nice city, not as clinically clean as I had expected, just very tidy.

Lots of things to do, I went to Changi (very emotional experience), night safari at zoo (excellent, go round the wrong way to avoid Japanese tourists who frighten all the animals, you will know what I mean if you do go), walk round China town which is the oldest part of the city, go to a tea house and have lunch on the quayside, Indian part of the city for electrical items, bought an I-pod before anyone had really heard of them, Chijmes for a free jazz performance in the afternoon and Raffles is a must for lunch (they have a minimum dress code, best to ask the doorman for advice and to avoid embarassment).

Enjoy Singapore, it really is a good example of how several cultures can co-exist in harmony.

Where did you go in Sabah?

BTW, byf, if you do want to fly to Borneo, don't fly from Singapore. Fly from Johor Bahru - it's MUCH cheaper.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Yes,a couple of times.Excellent place.


The Japanese went during WW2,as well.

 

[Gully]

I flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, then on to Kota Kinabalu, with Malaysian Airways. I changed my ticket on the way back to go via Singapore as I had a few days spare and didn't want to waste them lounging around on a beach.

In Sabah I went to the afforementioned Kota Kinabalu, climbed Mt Kinabalu, spent some time in the jungle and with a comminity called the Mescot, then on to Sandakan for visits to a turtle island and orang-utan sanctuary.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

I flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, then on to Kota Kinabalu, with Malaysian Airways. I changed my ticket on the way back to go via Singapore as I had a few days spare and didn't want to waste them lounging around on a beach.

In Sabah I went to the afforementioned Kota Kinabalu, climbed Mt Kinabalu, spent some time in the jungle and with a comminity called the Mescot, then on to Sandakan for visits to a turtle island and orang-utan sanctuary.

Lovely over there innit?! I climbed the mountain, too, but weather was too bad so we had to turn back 100 yards from the top. Was gutted.

Had a month in Sabah and a month in Sarawak - amazing places, both

 

[Gully]

Oh man, that is terrible, sunrise from the top was amazing...mind you, seeing sunset the previous evening from Laban Rata made me feel like I was on top of the World...mild altitude sickness might have added to the effect though.

 

[Norman Baker suck my lozenge]

Bugis street not what it used to be,get down orchard plaza for shopping,newton circus for great food,the place is totally safe,due to the fact that they have a decent government that hangs drug dealers and flogs chavs.

 

[Hampden Park]

no more 'dance of the flaming arseholes' now that Bugis Street has gone

drink tiger tops

 

[Lokki 7]

no more 'dance of the flaming arseholes'

Now to me (and I've never been), that sounds like a good thing.

 

[Hampden Park]

Now to me (and I've never been), that sounds like a good thing.

thinking about it Lokki7 you are probably right
not that i did it of course

 

[eastlondonseagull]

Oh man, that is terrible, sunrise from the top was amazing...mind you, seeing sunset the previous evening from Laban Rata made me feel like I was on top of the World...mild altitude sickness might have added to the effect though.

It was sooo f***ing cold up there! Some of my lot I was climbing with got proper altitude sickness, throwing up etc. But was so gutted to have had that middle-of-the-night start, only to turn back so near the top. Clouds cleared on the walk down, too

 

[Trufflehound]

It was sooo f***ing cold up there!

Tell me about it. I had no cold weather gear as it was the tropics. Ended up wearing all the clothes I owned, including a pair of socks for gloves. Still froze.

Stunning view made it all worth it though... sorry.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

Stunning view made it all worth it though... sorry.

 

[Gully]

We only lost one on the way up, that wasn't because of altitude sickness, it was because she couldn't make it across the bit at the top of the steps from Laban Rata where you go along a ledge holding on to a rope. We had a brilliant guide, a bloke called Soppinghi, saw him mentioned in a newspaper article a few months later...something to do with helping some parents trace a lost daughter. Getting up at 2am to start climbing at 3 is something that is not easily forgotten, definitely worth the effort.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

We only lost one on the way up, that wasn't because of altitude sickness, it was because she couldn't make it across the bit at the top of the steps from Laban Rata where you go along a ledge holding on to a rope. We had a brilliant guide, a bloke called Soppinghi, saw him mentioned in a newspaper article a few months later...something to do with helping some parents trace a lost daughter.

You didn't LEAVE her there?

 

[Gully]

No we didn't, she walked back to the hut and waited for us to come down again...oh yeah, just got what you meant, I think it was a different girl!

 

[Trufflehound]

Anyone who's been up Kinabalu should read "Kinabalu Escape" by Rich Mayfield, about the group of British soldiers who got lost up there in about 1994. Now that is scary stuff...