Singapore ... lovely place ... incredibly clean

Hey from Singapore!(Adam): Wed 01/11/2006 8:57 AM

(.....continued from Thailand page......)

Anyway now we are in Singapore. Lovely place, very clean. In fact everything here is spotless, it's as if the whole city was built 5 minutes ago. We have spent a lot of time in shopping centres so far, mainly because they are so big here it's impossible to find ur way out. Seen a lot of sights, mostly old colonial buildings from the days of the British Empire. We are staying in Little India so there are a lot of Indians hereabouts. Highlight so far is the Singapore Zoo, its kinda like London Zoo where instead of cages they try to have free ranging enclosures as much as possible. We saw lions, tigers, bears, antelopes, giraffes, orangutans, chimpanzees, baboons, snakes, alligators, hippos etc etc. The best bit in the zoo was this enclosure called the fragile forest which u can walk through and get really close to the animals. Inside there were lemurs, parrots, deer, tree kangaroos and bats! The bats were amazing. They are Fruit Bats or Flying Foxes, the largest species of bat in the world. We went up onto a viewing platform and they were all hanging in the tree right next to us eating fruit. Some of them had a wingspan of over a metre! I was trying to get a pic of one with its wings open but i got distracted by a lemur that jumped right onto the handrail next to me.

The Zoo was pretty good but the best bit was going on the Night Safari. Coz most of the animals are nocturnal they don't do much during the day so this part of the zoo opens after dark at 7pm til 11. We took a tram ride around all the enclosures to see the animals doing their stuff. After that we saw a show they put on with some of the animals to show the abilities which help them survive in the dark. Most impressive was the Serval, a member of the big cat family but a lot smaller than the lions and tigers. It catches low flying birds by leaping up in the air, we saw one of them jump to about 8 or
9 ft. There was also an otter that supposedly sorts out rubbish for recycling, they dump a load of cans, bottles and paper on the floor and he is meant to put it into the correct bins but he refused to cooperate so the trainer had to do it herself. The other major disappointment was not seeing a flying squirrel, they were in another walk-in enclosure but we walked through twice and didn't see one. Apparently they grow up to 130cm in length and can glide the length of 5 football pitches! But i wouldn't know coz none appeared.

Anyway so we have a few more days here in Singapore. We are going out tonight with a friend of Carly's who lives here. We are also going to take a trek into the rainforest as Singapore is one of only two cities in the world that has rainforest within its borders (can't remember what the other one is i think it's in Brazil).

Anyway all of u take care, until next time

Adam

The next installment! (sorry about the length!) (Carly) Wed 01/11/2006 9:25 AM

Hi everyone! (.....continued from Thailand page.....)

Now we are in Singapore. We arrived Sunday afternoon and spent the evening in a shopping/entertainment centre called Chijmes. It was pretty impressive as there is a beautiful ex-convent inside which has been restored. We had dinner in an Italian place with great food but were disappointed to find that the prices are closer to London than Bangkok! We are staying in an area called Little India which is full of Indian people, restaurants and shops. There are also decorations everywhere for Deepavali which is pretty cool. On Monday we went for a trek around lots of the sites. We saw the famous Raffles Hotel where the Singapore Sling was invented, St Andrew's Cathedral and lots of beautiful buildings from the colonial times. Singapore is lovely and clean! There is no litter anywhere the buildings are kept the colour they are meant to be. There are also lots of statues and memorials here which make it more interesting. Of course we also saw the Merlion Statue, one of the most distinctive symbols of Singapore. The statue itself is lovely but on top of that it is on the very edge of the island against a back drop of skyscrapers which means its great for photos! After we'd seen all the sights in the area we ventured into one of the shopping centres. There are loads of different ones here and lots of them are connected making them even bigger! We went into Raffles City, City Mall and the Suntec Centre. They are full of shops, eateries and entertainment and so once again we found ourselves in the cinema watching 'The Prestige' which was very good. When we left the cinema we found a huge French supermarket and stocked up in supplies! Leaving the Suntec Centre was a bit more complicated as it has lots of different towers and on our first attempt we found ourselves on an island surrounded by busy roads with no crossing! Still somehow we managed to find our way back through the huge centre and after about an hours walk we found the hotel again!

Yesterday we went to the Zoo and the Night Safari.

We also used the MRT for the first time and were very impressed with it. When you buy a single ticket you get an electronic card (like an oyster card) which you tap onto a reader. The ticket price includes a $1 deposit which you get back when you return the ticket to a ticket machine after use. The stations and trains are spotless, probably a lot to do with the $500 (about 170 pounds) fine for eating/drinking in them. When we got to the zoo it was pouring with rain but we didn't let this ruin our day! We saw all of the usual animals so I won't bore you with everything! I particularly liked the pygmy hippos, because they were much cuter than big ones and there was a baby one swimming around in the tank with his parents. We decided that if we had to be animals in a zoo we'd want to be orangutans because they get toys so they don't get bored and they looked like they were having lots of fun swinging around in their open area. Another highlight was the proboscis monkeys which have very long noses and look a bit like Pinocchio! The best bit though was probably the Fragile Forest. Inside this enclosure there were butterflies, birds, bats and some small animals roaming around. We spotted some mouse deer in the bushes and saw the fruit bats hanging around eating. On the observation deck we were within touching distance of the bats (of course we were not silly enough to try!) and I spotted a tree kangaroo sitting on a branch. The lemurs were the most friendly though, one jumped right onto the railing in front of me! It made me jump as I was leaning on the railing and though he was trying to jump into my arms!

After a quick dinner in Bongo Burgers (actually a lot nicer than it sounds) we entered the night safari. There was a tram ride and we sat on this while a guide pointed out the nocturnal animals as we passed them. We were very lucky as we saw two rhinos very close up (they are usually quite shy). We got off at the Leopard Trail and it was quite spooky making our way through the trees in the dark! There was another enclosure with bats and flying squirrels but unfortunately the idiots in there at the same time as us didn't realize that if you make a lot of noise they won't come out! We saw lots of big cats in this area but I thought their enclosures looked a bit small. Back on the tram we saw giraffes, lots of elephants, a couple of male lions and tons of different types of deer! We went to the ‘Creatures of the Night show' where the highlight was a Serval (cat) which jumps up to catch low flying birds. We saw him jump at least 7ft in the high – pretty impressive! They have recycling otters in the show too but unfortunately they got distracted by some food in the bushes and so the presenter had to recycle the paper, plastic and tin for them.

Wow now I'm up to date! Very sorry about the length of this! Tonight we're going out with Peggy (a friend of mine from Uni) which should be good! Then tomorrow and Friday (weather permitting) we'll try to explore Sentosa an island with rainforest, beaches and lots of attractions.

Well that's all for now!

Love Carly xxx

The next installment! (sorry about the length!) (Carly) Mon 13/11/2006 3:55 PM

Hi again!

I couldn't start this email (from Beijing) without telling you about our night out with Peggy! It was lovely to see her and we had a great time. The club we went to runs dance lessons and teaches set dances to each song in their 'cheese' set. This meant that in the club there were loads of people all dancing the same!The hardcore guys stood on platforms on the dance floor all night without a break! The really funny part though was that when there was an instrumental session or a song they did not know the moves to they stood still! A group of guys took a shine to Adam and started directing all their moves at him in "I will follow him" from Sister Act. Peggy, her friend and I were in fits, we could hardly stand up it was so funny!

We spent our last two days on Sentosa island. Its great they have everything; beautiful beaches, good views of Singapore, a Merlion which you can go inside, 3D cinema rides and a luge. The best bit though was the Magical Fountain. This was a night show using fountains, music and lights. A green monkey took us on a journey through his magical world with the fountains creating a screen for the lights to be projected onto. We also went to the southernmost point in Asia which is on this island.

(continued on Beijing page......)