Day 37 - Singapore, Singapore

Today we arranged to meet Suan and Weng and get a nice wake up call from the good lady herself at 8am saying they would pick us up at 9am. We meet at 9am and head to Amoy Street food court for some authentic Singaporean breakfast. A far cry from the conventional western breakfast, we have rice porridge with onion shavings and chillies plus floating thing (middle), rice flats with yams (left) and raw sashimi type dish (my fave) followed by pumpkin. All really tasty although more like an English dinner. Suan and Weng very kindly treat us to breakfast. 

Suan treating us to some great juice. The Sour Sop and the ABC (Apple, Beetroot and Carrot) were delicious. 

After breakfast we have a little walk around the area. Suan's mother was born in this street so she knows it well. She takes us to a little secret garden set high behind the houses, a mini oasis in the middle of the city and also one of the oldest temples in the city, the Thian Hock Keng temple. 

After, we jump back in the car to Mount Faber Park. We have a very pleasant surprise that Suan and Weng are going to take us around for the day. We thought they were just meeting us for breakfast. Loving having a chauffer driven personal tour of the city from local friends!

Mount Faber is where the cable car goes to Sentosa Island and as it is set on top of a big hill has great views of the city, particular Sentosa Island. Very cool residential building called the reflection. Such amazing architecture everywhere you look in Singapore. 

We then head to the Asian Civilization Museum to learn about how Singapore (and Asia) became what it is today. Very interesting to learn about how being such a favorable location for a port (mainly due to the monsoon winds that go south east for half the year and north west for the other half) enabled it to develop to where it is today. 

Pretending to live in a traditional Malay house. 

We then went for a lovely surprise. Suan took us (and very naughtily treated us again) to lunch at her brothers Italian restaurant called Amarone in the financial district. 

http://www.amarone.sg

We highly recommend people go here to eat. It is a lovely Italian with gorgeous food (we can highly recommend the bolognese and linguini) in a pretty grand setting. We also get to meet Suan's brother too which is great. Very pleasant lunch. Reminded me of the sort of place Tony Soprano would have liked and frequented!

Next we decide to head to Singapore zoo which is towards the north west of the island not far from where Suan and Weng live and we drop by to see their place on the way.  They live in such a lovely place (not that there are any horrible places in Singapore!). Pretty much everyone in Singapore lives in high rise condominuims such as this, with fantastic facilities. They have a shared pool, tennis and squash courts, a shop, restaurant, BBQ area and even a pub! What more do you need?

Lovely big pool. 

As the Singaporian Government are meticulous planners and setters of policy they don't leave anything down to chance and even sets quotas per building for the different mix of races that can live in them. Singapore has such a wide range of religions and races that they wanted to avoid areas of the city become predominately one race which seems sensible. 

Their place is so gorgeous. Such a lovely space and massive too for a two bedroom condo. It's split level, with two balconies, lovely high ceilings and a very eclectic mix of things Suan has collected over the years. 

It also has a very cool and unique shower. It is an open area onto a second balcony off their bedroom. You can get into it from both sides. Very quirky. This is what you can do when you live in a place that is hot all year and has no seasons. 

It is great to get some insights into what it is like living in Singapore. The property prices as you can expect on such a small (at 276 sq miles it is under half the size of London) but wealthy island with population of about 5.3m (vs London's 8m) are pretty punchy. Suan and Wengs place alone is worth S$1.8m (£900k). What's more to drive here is even more expensive. You need to buy a license to own a car and they cost S$80k (£40k) for a 10 year license. Absolutely crazy and that is even before you have paid for the car, tax, insurance and all the road tolls / congestion charges they have in place across the city. Naturally in this futuristic city every car also has great little high tech gadget on the dashboard which automatically charges for tolls and even parking. No getting one of those annoying car park tickets and queueing at the machine to pay here. You just drive in and out. Very cool. 

We finally make it to the zoo for a couple of hours before it closes. We see why this is consistently rated as one of the best in the world. It's an amazing setting, set in a rainforest with very few barriers and cages between you and the animals. It is just designed in a clever way so the tigers and lions don't get you!

I let Nat out of my sight for one minute and she cops off with a giraffe. 

Right apologies for lots of animal shots coming up... Zebras. 

There's millions Sir Geoffrey all under one roof (this is what Nat thought the Toys r Us advert said). 

Whistle stop tram ride around the zoo. 

Baboons. 

No animals. Just nice scenary. 

More elephants. 

Can ye guess what it is yet?? (and I don't mean a paedophile joke!)

His back is killing with all this bouncing around and terrible posture. Casual stretch and scratch...

Alligator that we thought had made its way into the Pygmy Hippo enclosure. 

But they turn out to be next door. 

These things are hilrious.

The most impressive (along with the polar bears that I don't have a pic of) is the White Tiger that is about as white as Frank Bruno. I think the zoo keepers did that thing where your pet dies and they try to replace it without you knowing but the new one looks nothing like the old. 

Group shot. 

Suan and Weng very kindly drop us back to the hotel which is massively out of their way - they are so kind. We head back via Orchard Road (the Oxford St of Singapore) to see all the Christmas lights. They look great. We get back to the hotel at about 7pm and say our goodbyes. We are so sad to leave them. They have given us such a fantastic day. Couldn't have hoped for a better day in Singers. 

That evening we head back to the Marina starting off in the Lantern bar at the Fullerton Bay Hotel to see the light show. Great recommendation from Toni Burrito. Just a shame he and Cat are in Perth and not Singapore so can't join us. 

View of the Fullerton Hotel. 

The light show turns out to be what I like to call 'all fart and no poo'. Basically it promised a lot but doesn't deliver. I'm afraid Vegas still has the drop on Singapore for fountains and light shows in a lake. Cracking views though. 

 

And lovey pool at the Lantern bar. 

After we stroll around the Marina towards the Marina Bay Sands (big building in this pic). 

They are getting all set up for English new year. Looks like it will be superb. Amazing colourful lights projected onto the esplanade. 

After such a big breakfast and lunch we decide to have a light dinner at the place we had a drink yesterday called Supply & Demand. Really nice place overlooking the marina. I even ordered a salad. First time for everything. 

At around 10pm the lights that are projected onto the esplanade flip over and light up the balls with the New Year messages on in the Marina. Looks really cool. 

Art and Sciene Museum lit up beautifully. Great building. 

The Marina Bay Sands shopping centre. Great mall. They love a pimp mall in Asia. 

We then head up to the roof of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel to one of the coolest bars I have ever been in called Ku De Ta.  http://kudeta.com/singapore/mobile/

One of the best views from a bar I have ever seen. 

Looking off the back of the hotel to the gardens. 

It has by far the best pool I have ever seen. This is beyond words it is so amazing and surreal. I am definitely going to come back to Singapore, stay here and swim in this pool. 

My pictures don't do it justice so to show the true beauty of it here are some pics I have grabbed from Google (this one is a bit better than my version above!!)...

Best infinity pool ever. 

More views across the Marina. 

Good view of the balls lit up in the water. Ours is bottom right section, 17th row up, 4th column in. 

Panoramic views (plus one I forgot to put up yesterday). 

We have absolutely fallen in love with Singapore. What a fantastic city. Definitely a place that I could live especially as English is the first language here (followed by Mandarin). Definitely another one for the 'must come back' list. Especially to swim in that pool!!

I find this place fascinating, especially as it consistently ranks as one of the best in the world for healthcare, education, government transparency and economic competitiveness. It has the 4th largest financial centre in the world, a booming manufacturing sector, is the fourth largest port and has one the strongest economies. No wonder it's GDP at PPP per capita is third in the world (we are 21st). Also I can only see it getting stronger due to its links with China. Def a good place to be for the future (I feel a book purchase coming on!).