Crossed over the bridge into Singapore from Malaysia. It was an epic!! You have to go through two sets of extremely busy passport controls, off the bus, on the bus, off the bus….then no bus!?? Waited for over an hour and no bus so sacked it off for a taxi. It took 4 hours to clear passport controls and travel about 15 miles!! But it was worth it because Singapore is very spectacular. The modern architecture is jaw dropping especially around the river front and marina bay. There is also the old colonial buildings, old shophouses in chinatown, little india, arab st, lots of green space and long river side pathways. The marina bay gardens are astounding. Built on reclaimed land they are a combination of rainforest gardens, water features, sculptures and the magnificent supergrove tree-like structures that are covered in plants and illuminated at night. If you watched the city episode of plant earth sir David featured this gardens as a great modern urban/natural environment. The backdrop to the gardens is the brand new marina hotel that consists of three towers with a huge platform across the top. The platform is a viewpoint skybridge, an infinity pool, restaurant and gardens. It looks unreal, it is out of this world. This hotel featured on the BBCs 'Amazing Hotels' a few days ago if you saw it.
Explored the city by bike, on foot and on an electric scooter which was really good fun. Managed a top speed of 24km/hour on my scooter from the starting line of the F1 route. I didn't know F1 raced in Singapore but it does!! And we rode our scooters on a small part of the route, not quite as fast as Lewis Hamilton though!!! (I hope you are impressed Richard!!).
Unlike Malaysia, Singapore is not predominately Muslim so I could free my legs and there is beer everywhere – no more hunting for the naughty corner!! Beer is expensive though and food can be really expensive especially compared to Malaysia. On our final night had a fantastic Hanan chinese meal and a few cheeky sakes at a Japanese bar on the way home. Last day we visited Sentosa Island which to Singapore's Disneyland. It is an island dedicated to fun with water parks, theme parks, universal studio and an outstanding aquarium. We only had a few hours so we just went to the aquarium and it was fantastic. Singapore doesn't do architecture in half measures! The scale of this aquarium is huge, the biggest tank had sharks, manta rays, sting rays and massive shoals of lots of different fish. Loved it.
Singapore was a fantastic way to finish this amazing trip. Everything for the whole month has been the best, not a single hiccup or problem. The highlights of the entire trip was the food, the national parks and the Malaysian people. Everybody is friendly and they go out of their way to help you and speak to you. It was a very humbling experience at times. I can't praise Malaysia and Singapore enough, two outstanding countries.
Back home now after a great journey home…….planning the next adventure!
