Doug and Kerry Hudson in Singapore, South East Asia

Singapore was our first destination in Asia. The first thing that impressed us upon arrival from South Africa was the incredible airport. Apparently, Singapore's Changi International Airport has won the prize for the best airport in the world for the last eight years. It is not hard to see why. The facilities are fantastic. There are so many plants that at times we felt like we were strolling through parkland, not a bustling international airport!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Singapore, although it was in no way a culture shock like Bangkok was going to be. Despite our limited time there, and despite our jet lag, we managed to fit in quite a lot of activity:

dining out in Chinatown, all lit up for Chinese New Year,
resisting the tempting curries in Little India,
the National Orchid garden,
a night safari at the zoo,
a boat trip on the river,
a self-guided walking tour of the historic quarter, including the landing site of Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore,
and the obligatory Singapore Sling at the legendary Raffles Hotel!

Doug's highlight was shopping at the Funan IT mall, a shopping centre entirely devoted to hi-tech gadgets. It has to be said, that Kerry has never seen Doug so excited about shopping before! First stop was the photography shop called 'John 3:16', (no joke, anyone understand the biblical reference?). It has to be the best photography shop we have ever seen, with loads of cut-price stuff. Doug bought a tripod for his camera there. Then we visited a bookshop devoted to computer books, all at ridiculous prices, at around a third of the UK price. We don't know how many computer shops we visited, but it was a lot! We have decided that we'll need an extra suitcase when we return to Singapore! This shopping experience typified Singapore for us: modern, brilliantly organised, obsessed with electronics and spotlessly clean.

Kerry particularly enjoyed the huge variety of orchids at the Orchid Garden. We saw the Nelson Mandela orchid and the Princess Diana orchid (aaah!) But also the Baroness Thatcher orchid (boo!)...

Alas, we only had three days in Singapore before it was time to move on to Thailand, and the bustling, crowded, tree-less, polluted chaos that is Bangkok.

World Trip >> Asia >> Singapore

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006