Singapore

Monday. We were planning to visit the cable car which goes over to Sentosa Island - again a trip we couldn't fit in last time. Having negotiated the Metro which is super clean and efficient and amazingly cheap, we got to the very glitzy Sentosa station for the cable car which was closed for maintenance so we went over on the monorail instead.

The Island felt a bit like a cross between Alton Towers and The Prisoner. All staff say 'have a nice day' and wave as you go by and there are little trains driving along with recorded messages outlining the beverages and attractions at each stop. There is constant music playing and the cute sandy beaches have palm trees and pizza / burger bars.

It seems that Air Singapore owns most of this as we could have had discounts of we'd travelled with them to get there. They are building a huge theme park at the moment which should be open next year - yippee!!

We visited the fort at Siloso point which was a WW2 fort with gun emplacements, underground bunkers, etc. It's been reconstructed as a museum of the fall of Singapore and the experiences of the people living on Singapore as well as the people fighting. Well worth the visit - underground bunkers with air conditioning were very welcome! There were some excellent info films and it was very interesting to see something about the experiences of the ordinary people of Singapore rather than just the British. Back to the beach for a cool beer (& chat to squirre) and then onto the mainland and a quick stop at Raffles for another very cold beer (couldn't manage a gin sling this time) and the peanuts (not good as I broke a tooth - hope it holds out for the trip) before finally going on the Singapore Flyer at sunset.

Now I'm sitting in the hotel with Keith gently snoring in the chair. Hope to upload this once we get to Australia as I haven't had negotiateegoriate the hotel system. Just a quick trip down Orchard Road for breakfast in the morning & then off to the airport for the next stage.

Nov 4, 2009

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