splendid singapore

Our first day in Singapore began somewhat inauspiciously - having arrived at our hostel at 3am following a late-night flight, we were shown to our 28-bed dorm room which resounded with the noise of guys snoring, and after passing a rather broken night's sleep both Jess and I were greeted by the sight of fat men wearing only their underpants asleep beneath us in our bunk beds...! Nevertheless, the hostel was beautifully clean and our lovely breakfast of toast with homemade peanut butter, homemade dark chocolate spread and homemade chocolate and coffee spread set us up for our first day of sightseeing!

Our first stop was St. Andrew's Church, which was quite pretty but we both agreed that the splendour of European churches and cathedrals has heightened our expectations, so neither of us found it hugely impressive, although its cultural background is certainly very interesting.

We then headed to the Raffles Arcade, in which there are lots of expensive shops. We fell in love with the Michal Negrin jewellery and trinkets.

 

Next stop was the stunning Raffles hotel. There was a wedding reception being prepared in the ballroom, but we managed to steal a sneaky peek inside! 

We crossed the road to the Carlton hotel, which is famous for its artwork, and the stunning glass chandelier in the lobby certainly attested to its reputation. They were offering a durian-themed high tea buffet, although the smell was enough to put us off!

We walked past some pretty temples with lots of fortune tellers outside on our way to Little India, where we had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant called Big Bites. All of the items on the menu looked amazing, but unfortunately we couldn't understand most of the menu, so decided to opt for a banana samosa, aloo bhaji and mango lassi, which were absolutely delicious.

 

We walked off our lunch along Orchard Road, wandering in and out of endless shopping malls. We discovered an amazing Japanese ice cream shop called Marvelous Cream, which sold sweet waffle sandwiches - Jess had a caramel and vanilla one, whilst I went for berry and milk flavour, yum yum yum. The mall also had a really cute bakery counter with girls wearing pink and grey frilly aprons, and you could decorate your own cake there - we were very tempted!

We walked back to our hostel past the art museum. Like lots of the buildings here, it was covered in national flags as it's National Day next week.

 

We had a wonderful seafood dinner in a very romantic restaurant called IndoChine in Clarke Quay - it was perfectly situated right next to the river, and we of course drank Singapore Slings!

 

 

After dinner we walked along the river to the swanky Fullerton hotel, where we walked past a bride being photographed on the bridge. Having remarked all day about the cleanliness of the city, we screamed and screamed at the sight of three rats on the way back to our hostel - fortunately we made a quick escape inside!