Avoiding Culture and Searching Out Dinosaurs In Singapore.

Singapore was probably our most “stop gap” destination so far. We didn’t really have it on our list of places to visit, but a brief stopover in the city state was the most cost effective way of travelling between Malaysia and Australia – especially as our good friend Ryan spanked a bunch of hotel points on some luxury hotel accommodation for us. Love Ryan.As we were trying to save as much cash as possible, we’d booked the cheapest and least convenient flights available, giving us less than thirty-six hours between inbound and outbound planes. We briefly toyed with the idea of visiting the National Museum, China Town and a couple of cathedrals, before deciding that after eight months of travelling we could probably cope with a break from culture and history.  What we really needed to visit was a theme park. Universal Studios was conveniently located a short taxi ride away.  It seemed rude not to. Culture is certainly a cheaper way of enjoying a day, but sometimes, budgets are made to be ignored. We had an absolute blast for the day. Top of my list was The Mummy ride, a ghost train on steroids with fire, holograms, crashes and half of the time spent racing backwards. Floss didn’t like the look of it from the outside, and wisely didn’t join the queue in the first place. The boys were full of bravado, until it all went dark. Ninety seconds later they were wide eyed and sprinting for the exit. The Jurassic Park log flume was more to their liking.

Having totalled the budget on roller coasters, we tried to get back on track with a bit of al-fresco dining at Satay World, a fabulous place in the Marina Bay Gardens turning out amazing food. Refreshed and looking for entertainment, we strolled through the gardens and caught the somewhat odd light show around “Supertree Grove”. These are massive fake trees (there’s some educational nonsense going on about them being a metaphor for helping the city to breath, but we were having a day off so didn’t pay much attention) that light up in time to music. They’re best described as being static fireworks, and I think that we were treated to a bit of Carmen. I enjoyed the comedy of it, but I think that the kids would have been happier with real fireworks and a tune that they recognised.

Exhausted by the day’s excitement, we made our way back to the hotel and happily collapsed into our enormous and very comfy hotel beds. The 4am taxi ride got us back to the airport, and two hours later we were in the air. Brilliant!

We loved the very short time we spent in Singapore. It looks like an amazing and really exciting place to visit. Flying in from Borneo was a real culture shock, and the place is utterly unlike anything we’ve seen so far on our travels. I’d love to go back and spend a few days having a proper look around. Might have to wait till we win the lottery though.

Love roller coasters. Not so keen on opera. Love travelling.

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