Singapore: Sentosa Island

On July 8th we decided to spend the day on the Singaporean island of Sentosa. It is an island off the coast of Singapore that is known for it’s beaches, resorts and attractions. It also is the location of Universal Studios Singapore. It is a small island, only 3km by 1km in size and is packed full of tourists related venues. It reminded me a bit of the Toronto Island mixed with Canada’s Wonderland.

We took the cable car over to the island:

From the cable car we could see there was a lot of construction going on to build a new area of the park (this was not uncommon in Singapore as we saw construction everywhere throughout the city as they build new, cool, architecturally awesome buildings):

Once on the island we decided to check out Underwater World Singapore, an aquarium which is the home of a number of pink dolphins in addition to sharks, sting rays, turtles and many many different varieties of fish!

We then watched a dolphin and fur seals show where we saw the animals jump and do different tricks.

The fur seals were adorable!

The dolphins were also amazing, they are such graceful animals!

During the show they asked for a volunteer from the audience, so naturally I put my hand up! I entered into a hula-hoop contest with a dolphin. In the photo below you can see the dolphin behind me twirling the hoops around his nose.

After my hula-hoop debut I went into the dolphin tank to meet my opponent (and evidently… the winner of our hula-hooping contest):

We had a great time at the Underwater World, and on our way out we ran into some monkeys:

We spent the rest of the day on the beach:

The beach was different than the other beaches we have seen so far on the trip. Kuta beach was packed with people and the sand was semi-fine, with some very small rocks, while Lovina beach had very dark sand which was much coarser, but this beach had super fine sand, almost like powder. But there was a lot more pollution around this beach, and we could see water bottles and other pieces of garbage floating in the water. It was really sad.

We really enjoyed our time on Sentosa Island, and in Singapore. I would have really liked a few more days in Singapore to explore more areas and to go inside some museums, but unfortunately there isn`t time for everything!

One thing I would not miss about Singapore are the highly elevated prices! The prices in Singapore are almost equivalent to prices back in Canada, which was a major major shock for me! The past 6 weeks I had been used to spending $3 – $5 (CAN) on a full meal everywhere else in Southeast Asia, but in Singapore meals can be $10 - $15 (CAN)! I was excited to be going back to Thailand (and my cheap $3 dinners), and exploring the Thai islands! We had a flight leaving Singapore going to the island of Koh Samui for the following morning!

 

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Singapore: Flyer and Night Safari

On July 7th, our 2nd day in Singapore, we set out first thing in the morning to see the Singapore Flyer: the world’s largest observation wheel.


It’s basically an enormous ferris wheel with a diameter of 150 meters. The wheel contains 1970 tonnes of steelwork (which is equivalent to about 438 adult elephants). On a clear day you can see 45 km into the distance spanning into parts of Malaysia and Indonesia.
Before going up onto the flyer, we walked through a cool museum about the history and construction of the flyer, and an interesting art exhibit:

Going up into the flyer was pretty awesome!

The view of the city was amazing!

I just love the architecture in Singapore! Each building has a unique touch to it, and you can really see the attention to detail that is placed in each and every construction project.
From there we walked to the Helix Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge built in 2010.

We then checked out the Merlion statue on Marina Bay. The Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It is used as Singapore’s mascot to represent Singapore’s origins as a fishing town, and combining it with Singapore’s original name (Singapura) which means “lion city”.

After visiting the Merlion I had some business to take care of. While on my trip I received a letter from the courts in Toronto summoning me to Jury Duty at the end of July (while I would still be away). My dad opened the letter (sent to my address in Toronto) and emailed me a pdf version of my summoning notice. Since I would be missing jury duty due to my travels I needed to write a letter to the courts asking to be exempt from jury duty explaining my situation and providing them proof that I was out of the country. My dad tried doing it for me but they insisted it needed to be done by me no matter where I was in the world. So Mads and I used the printer at the hostel and I printed off my flight information and some additional proof, in addition to a letter written and signed by me. We then found a post office and had it shipped to the courts in Toronto.
The summoning notice said there would be penalties if I didn’t show up on the day I was summoned (unless I wrote a letter with proof etc), but what if my dad didn’t open my mail? Would I have come home from vacation in August and been faced with harsh penalties? It seems a bit unreasonable… What happens to vacationers who don’t have amazing parents who filter through their mail while they are away? Either way I’m glad I dealt with it and hopefully all will work out!
To get to the post office we decided to brave the Singapore Subway system (also called the MRT - Mass Rapid Transit). The transit in Singapore is amazing! It doesn’t even compare to Toronto’s subway system! They have very easy-to-use automated machines to purchase tickets from, and you can buy refillable cards. You swipe your ticket when you enter and exit the station and the money just decreases with each ride. We bought single ride tickets, which are reusable cards that (once used) could be returned for a deposit. We paid S$2 for a single ride, and received S$1 back when we returned the card. If only Toronto could put in a payment system like that! Super quick, easy and efficient!
Another interesting thing about the subways in Singapore are the platforms: they have floor to ceiling barriers between the platforms and the tracks, with sliding doors that align with the doors of the train. This is to prevent people from jumping or falling onto the tracks. I also saw this when I was traveling through Japan a few years ago.

Later that evening we decided to check out the Night Safari: the world’s first wildlife night park. It is located at the Singapore Zoo, but only opens once night falls. Many animals are nocturnal, so when you visit them at a zoo during the day they are generally very groggy and tired, so you don’t really see them in action. This zoo is dedicated to giving people the opportunity to see nocturnal animals at night in their natural habitat doing their daily frolicking, grazing and hunting.

We started off going on a 45 minute tram ride through the park where we watched lions, foxes, flamingos, hyenas, bears, buffalos, hippopotamuses, elephants, pigs, water buffalos, wolves, deers, rhinoceroses and many more animals graze naturally. The pathway is lit up dimly enough to see but not bright enough to disturb the animals. We were told to turn off the flash on our cameras so we would not harm the animals with the bright lights.

After the tram ride we were able to explore the park on foot and get a closer look at the animals. We really enjoyed walking through the park, and it was nice to see animals outside of their cages. They are just roaming free and not caged up, and it was really cool walking through the dark paths watching and observing them.
I had never seen most of these animals this close, and especially not this awake and full of energy! We watched Hyenas walk around and roll around on their backs, flying squirrels perched on branches and flying around in the trees, leopards roaming around and hanging out with each other, hippos chilling out in the water and porcupines walking around scoping out their territory. It was incredible!
It was very difficult (if not absolutely impossible) to get a decent photo of the animals in the dark. I tried my best but soon gave up and decided to just take in the experience without worrying about fumbling with my camera. Here are some of the photos I was able to get:
The Flamingos:

A Pelican:

A Striped Hyena:

We really enjoyed the night safari, and it was a very unique and memorable way to see the animals. This was our last day in the city of Singapore as we would be spending the following day on the Singapore island of Sentosa!

Singapore: First Impressions

On July 6th we woke up at 3:30am in Kuta, Bali for our 6:20 flight to Singapore. Our hotel prepared us a boxed breakfast to take with us to the airport as we left too early to enjoy our complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast contained a few pastries, two eggs, an orange and a juice box. Once we got to the airport we made ourselves comfortable on the floor (there were no seats left) and decided to indulge in our boxed breakfast. I love hard boiled eggs, so you can imagine my surprise when I cracked into one of my eggs and raw egg spilled out all over the floor of the airport, and onto Mads’ pants! Why would our hotel give us raw eggs for breakfast to bring to the airport?? Bizarre.
We arrived in Singapore at 9am completely exhausted, but since we only had 3 days in Singapore we needed to make the best use of our time! We dropped off our stuff at our hostel and headed out to explore the city. 
Singapore (officially: The Republic of Singapore) is a small city-state with a population of about 5 million people and a size of about 695 squared kilometers. Since it is only 136 km north of the equator is it very hot all year round.
Singapore was a huge culture shock for me! It is completely different than any other Southeast Asian country I’d been to in the past 6 weeks. It is very very westernized, extremely clean, with a lot of modern architecture, expensive cars and beautiful trees everywhere. It is very wealthy compared to the other Southeast Asian countries. The city is so technologically and socially advanced, and it completely shocked me! I guess I didn’t know what to expect when coming to Singapore. I hadn’t done much research in advance, and even though I was excited to see it, I didn’t expect that it would be a highlight of my trip. I was totally wrong, and Singapore ended up being one of my favourite cities I’ve seen thus far.
My favourite part of Singapore was the feel and vibe of the city and the architecture! Almost every building has something of interest on it, whether it is pink painted windows, or an art installation, or an interesting shape or architectural design. We spent a lot of time walking through the streets of Singapore admiring the buildings, architecture, and the random sculptures scattered around the city!

What I loved the most is that among the tall skyscrapers and interesting architecture, there was an abundance of lush trees and greenery all around the city.

One of the major differences in Singapore (than in other Southeast Asian cities) is that English is one of it’s official languages! In Singapore English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil all have the status of official languages, so getting around is super easy! All of the signs are in English, which was a huge change from the cities I had been visiting!
They also have the most bizarre rules, for example it is illegal to sell chewing gum, and if you fail to flush a public toilet you can be finned. There are also strict laws on jaywalking, littering and the possession of pornography. Sexual activity between men is strictly forbidden. Also, there is no eating on the subway or in taxis. Everything seemed so much more regulated and strict here than anywhere else I had been traveling to. For example, we took a taxi within the city and when we didn’t put our seatbelts on an automated voice sternly told us to buckle up! In most of the taxi’s I’ve taken in Southeast Asia you are lucky if you can even find a working seatbelt! Once we arrived at our destination in the taxi, an automated voice came on informing us the amount we needed to pay.
The city is so organized, civilized and technologically advanced. On the streets they have automated signs indicating the driving time to a number of major destinations within the city. They also have signs indicating the number of currently available parting spots in the nearby parking lots so you can plan your route and parking facilities while driving.
Another really cool thing about Singapore is how multicultural the city is, reminding me of Toronto. It has a Chinatown, Little India and an Arab Street, each with a collection of authentic stores from their respective countries.
We started our exploration of the city in Little India, where we walked through a little market and a number of Indian stores.

There were many booths where you could get henna tattoos, or buy authentic Indian spices, scarves, clothing and jewellery. After spending a fair amount of time chatting with an very nice Indian lady we indulged in a few souvenirs from her shop.
From there we explored Orchard Road: the major shopping area of the city. I’m a big shopping fan, but I can honestly say that walking around on Orchard Road is overwhelming, almost too overwhelming to be enjoyable!
Imagine a street with one shopping mall after another, lining both sides of the street. There must have been at least 5 or 6 enormous shopping malls on that one street! When you walk into any one of the malls you will see floors and floors of stores and restaurants… and people… lots and lots of people everywhere! I can’t even imagine how people can do this much shopping! Apparently people fly to Singapore from all over Southeast Asia to do their shopping here.

We didn’t last too long in the shopping area and we quickly headed over to the waterfront to hop on a cruise down the Singapore River. It was really nice to see the city by boat.

We had dinner in an area called Clark Quay, which is one of the hippest areas of the city with a collection of restaurants and bars overlooking the Singapore River. The buildings are all very unique, interesting and really cool looking:




By the end of the day we were completely exhausted! We had been awake for about 20 hours, and going non-stop the whole time. We collapsed in our hostel beds to rest up for our next day in Singapore!