Singapore
Sunday, August 5th, 2007Hi all,
I am sitting at a computer in a backpacker hostel in the Joo Chiat area of Singapore. It is the evening before we leave and Esther has just got Mollie and Isaac up to bed (10.20) while Jacob and Luke play one game of pool before they are sent up.
It has been great staying in a hostel, and I am not the oldest resident either, although there are no other children. One of the things that I personally have missed living in Thailand is the chance to spend time with non-Christians and it has been great to have a chance to do that this week. We have been here since Monday and have done the usual things.
Walking around Little India: We wanted to visit here to stock up on Indian food as we have really missed that in Chiang Mai. We found a place full of Indian people and thought that that would be a good place to start so ordered chicken biryani and several other dishes with nan bread. After a few minutes we were served 3 identical “dishes” on palm leaves, basically rice with other sloppy bits around the edge…no cutlery.
Remembering our manners we ate with our right hands until somebody spotted that we were going to starve at the rate we were going and brought some forks and spoons for us to use. Much faster!
Esplanade: We strolled along the Esplanade admiring the Durian shaped theatre and the skyline of Singapore at night. Very civilised.
Science Center: This was a great and had a really good range of activities.
We could have spent longer in there but were lured away by a chocolate binge in the shop. We discovered that the chocolate in Singapore is the same as in the UK and is modestly priced and I must admit that we have had a mild kind of frenzy whenever we see such things as mars bars, crunchies, twixes, maltesers. if you have not been deprives as we have been you will not understand the pleasure experiences in this find….wonderful!!
Snow City:
Close to the science centre was the very cold snow city where, after donning suitable protective clothing, we entered the sub-zero building to sledge down the snowy slope on inner tubes. Fast and fun, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves until a large school party arrived and queuing became nasty.
Buses and trains. We got travel cards and became very familiar with the buses and trains here. Our children learnt for the first time the art of waiting for a bus, with no reassurance that it would ever arrive, reading a timetable and understanding which bus to get. These are essential life-skills that have been denied them hitherto and so we did some catch-up and all passed with flying colours. Jacob is checking for freshness here…
The main reason for coming here was to meet up with the Jupps and Smiths who were here playing in the Festival of Praise conference at the Indoor stadium here. They were staying on Sentosa Island so we travelled over there for three days to spend wonderful times with them, and we really appreciate their friendship. It was well worth all the effort!
On Friday and Saturday evening we travelled to the stadium to enjoy the worship led by our D? boys and also by Don Moen, a nice surprise as our family really enjoys his worship CD.
We went to the Dolphin show and aquarium on Sentosa. The latter was excellent and very well organised and presented. We all loved the touch pools although Mollie got soaked by a ray flapping its fins.
Yesterday we spent the day at the zoo which met with all expectations.
It was great to have Orangutans roaming free in the zoo and the polar bear was spectacular, and enormous! Highly recommended.
It is late now and we get up at 4.00am tomorrow for the flight home. Over the 70s and 80s music playing on the stereo I can feel the thump on the floor of the nightclub below. This is a red-light area of Singapore and the small green door of the hostel is flanked by night clubs which are very busy from 9.00 onwards. Despite the interesting location we have enjoyed the warmth of your welcome here and would return gladly.
Well, that’s all from me. bed beckons..good night. Andrew.
For more photos see http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewmaybe/Singapore