Feeling Poorer during Singapore trip

People feels that Singapore is getting too expensive. Do you think so?

After our 30 days in Indonesia, our next stop was Singapore.

What a difference a day makes!
After the bedlam, chaos and frenetic activity of Medan we arrived in Singapore – it was like stepping on to a different planet – clean, organised, manicured and ordered.

We had 2 reasons to visit Singapore, one to see the sites and the other to meet some of Paul’s old workmates from the Philippines’ who have now moved to Singapore. We were met at the airport by our guide for our visit - Paul’s old team mate Pretty Pink Mitz (PPM)! Unfortunately PPM is not known for her sense of direction and before we even left the airport, she managed to get us lost trying to find our way to the train to the city!

For the first day and a half I partook in some retail therapy. Singapore has an incredible number of shops – where as London has Oxford Street, Singapore has Orchard Road. The difference is Oxford Street is a road of shops, Orchard Road is a street of malls, they go on and on and on – clothes, electronics, gadgets, tailors and boutiques, Singapore has them all from top end brands to bargain basement. After all that shopping we headed to the Long Room in Raffles to relax and have a famous Singapore Sling – we closed our eyes to the fact that each drink was the same as one day’s budget on Lake Maninjau but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

The weekend arrived and PPM became our full time tour guide taking us to Sentosa Island and Singapore Zoo and wildlife parks. Sentosa Island is a mini-theme park and the highlight was a water fountain, light, laser and firework show over the bay. Difficult to explain but a must see on any visit to Singapore. The zoo was also great fun and the highlight was seeing the Polar Bears and feedings some of the giraffes (I’m not sure that PPM was quite as sure about the Giraffes as Paul was though!). On Saturday evening we met up with loads of Paul’s old work colleagues, many who he had not seen since his first visit too Manila in 2003. They very kindly introduced us to some Singapore delicacies and some drinks in the evening. Thanks for the great night - PPM, Dennis, Roly, Rach, Andrew, Mark, Jaz, Nilo, Mel, Louise, and Charot.

We found we didn’t have enough time in Singapore so extended our trip for one more day but still didn’t manage to see everything.

Singapore is a great city – another one we would consider living in. If you can cope with the retail overload there is so much to see and do a very, very nice city! But Expensive.