Pchum Ben holiday part 3 - Singapore
on Phnom Penh Pal (Cambodia), 23/Feb/2013 05:59, 34 days ago
(NB These Pchum Ben holiday blogs were meant to come one after the other but that didn't quite happen. We went to Singapore in October...)After the joy that was Melaka (blogpart 1andpart 2) we got on the bus back to Singapore already having had a great holiday. The border crossing on both occasions was brilliant. Quick and easy with just a short walk from the bus into passport control for exiting one country, a wee drive to the next passport control for entering the next country and then you were on your way.street art in ChinatownChinatownWe stayed in a lovely hostel in Chinatown but it was a bump back to reality with the price. Our three nightstayin Melaka, in a private room, was the same price as one night for two beds in a 16 bed shared dorm. Ouch. However, thehosteldid have a massage chair that you could use for free and an endless supply of bread and Nutella. Silver linings!our hostel was just up this streetAll the Chinese medicine stacked up outside......the Chinese medicine shopold meets new in Chinatown dragon headsthe Buddha's tooth temple - we didn't actually go inChinatown was, again, a photographic highlight of the city, however Little India in Singapore was far more visually exciting than in Melaka. We happened to be there when Deepavali (Divali), the Festival of Lights, was being celebrated.the entrance to Little Indiathe entrance to Little Indiacolourful houses in Little IndiaDeepavali market stallDeepavali market stallDeepavali market stallsLittle India's Deepavali decorations lit up at nightThere are endless things to do in Singapore, day and night, but most are fairly costly and, after doing so much in Melaka, we were happy to take it easy. One thing we did do was go to the Changi Museum, which is dedicated to Singapore's history during the Second World War. It was an interesting museum but more exciting was getting the train, and then the bus across town to the museum. Public transport doesn't exist in Cambodia so it was a real novelty. And it's all very nice, clean public transport too.Another nice thing about Singapore was that we could walk around and feel completely safe, even late at night. Both of us feel safe in Cambodia but you do have to take care of bags in case of opportunist bag-snatchers, and I don't like to flash my big camera for similar reasons. One night we wandered down to the riverside to see the Supertree Grove atGardens by the Bay. This is right besideMarina Bay Sands - an uber expensive, fancy pants hotel that is forever advertising on TV (with a terrible, but very catchy, jingle). As I googled the web address of the hotel I found, on wonderful Wiki, that it is the world's most expensive standalone casino property at $8 billion, including the cost of the land. Turns out fancy pants doesn't even begin to describe it! Anyway, they very kindly don't charge you for walking through the hotel (at a walkway half way up the building) so we did that. And it's also free to take photos, so we did that too!The Singapore Flyer (bit like the London Eye) with the gardens to the rightMarina Bay Sands hotel on the left, and the Singapore Flyer againSupertree Grove - they have a light and sound show which was very pretty. And free.I assume you can see the Singapore trend developing...The flower shaped ArtScience Museum, infront of the hotel and part of the hotel resortwe thought the ArtScience museum was rather reminiscent of thisart installation we saw in Buenos Aires a few years agoOn our other full day we bought a picnic and went to explore the Botanic Gardens. Neither of us are particularly interested in gardens but we couldn't miss a chance for a bit of nature (even if it is 'structured' nature.) What a delight grass is, I tell you. picnic with a view spot tiny me in the picture!I could be mean and say he was trying to find the gardens....After the gardens we walked down to Orchard Road - the fancy shopping district of Singapore. It's only expensive if you buy something.We're not in Kansas any more Toto!We narrowly missed out on the free limo back to the airport.We'd decided to get an early flight out of Singapore so that we could have an extra night in the city and fly back to Phnom Penh in the morning and go into work straight away. Great idea - on paper. Not so great when you realise that you have to wake up at 4am and then pay for a taxi (rather than get the bus) to the airport. However, Singapore airport is delightful - where else do you wander through orchids and fish ponds?Way back at the start of these Pchum Ben holiday blogs you may remember that, after a few hours in Singapore, I was beginning to worry that I might never want to return to Phnom Penh. At one point (in Melaka) while looking at what we would do in Singapore I even startd looking at a marketing job at Singapore Zoo. And people know I'm not a big fan of zoos. However, while we enjoyed Singapore, it was really nice to return to the familiarity of 'the Penh'. It may be dirtier and more chaotic but it's home and I love it.