Singapore – 10 to 15 April, 2007
We were up early in KL to catch a taxi to the Sentral train station. As usual we arrived long before we needed to for the 8:30 train, but we don’t like rushing to make a connection and would rather sit and wait for awhile. The train left on time, and we were headed for Singapore once again. The scenery along the route was not that interesting, but there were many plantations of oil palms, some surrounded by a small perimeter of coffee trees. At the border, the train stopped on the Malaysian side and an immigration officer boarded and made a note in our passports to check us out of the country. The train went another few hundred yards and we then had to exit with all our luggage, clear Singapore immigration and customs, and then re-board the same train for the final trip to downtown Singapore.
We arrived in Singapore as we left, in the rain. While we were there in December rain was expected, but it seems it is lasting longer than normal this year, or so we were told. We had made reservations on-line, so caught a taxi to the hotel in the Newton area. For those not familiar with Singapore, Newton is an area on the north side of the city, just north of the Orchard Road shopping area. We hadn’t stayed at this hotel before, but the ratings were good and it was between two stations on the MRT, so we figured it would be convenient.
It was late in the day when we arrived so we didn’t want to do much, but we wanted to find an ATM to get some cash as there were none at the train station. The concierge gave us directions to a nearby shopping center where we found an ATM, and also looked for dinner. We found a very good but somewhat expensive seafood buffet where we decided to splurge as we hadn’t eaten all day plus we hadn’t had a decent meal since arriving in Malaysia ten days earlier. The food was excellent and we definitely had enough to eat by the time we left.
We have written about Singapore before, so will keep this short. Our main reason for returning to Singapore was to catch our flight to Manila on 15 April which was one of the few booking we made before we left. We also wanted to spend a few days here as it is one of our favorite cities and we enjoy just walking around. The benefit of an excellent brew pub (Brewerkz) is an added bonus.
The one thing we wanted to do during our last two visits buy were never able to make was he night safari. In December the weather didn’t cooperate, and it was a similar experience this time. It seemed the storms would move in every afternoon or early evening, so we never did make the night safari. We did visit Chinatown, the Juong Bird Park, hawker food stands, and other areas of the city despite getting caught in downpours every day.
As usual we did a lot of walking around town, but after what we considered a fairly relaxing stay it was soon time to catch our flight to the Philippines.
Next stop Manila.
