Singapore Day 2

Whoa... What a day!!!... Woke up at 7am and believe it or not it's still dark here at that time and if it wasn't for my alarm going off, I'd have rolled over, slept in and missed my tour!!

My first tour today was called "The City Experience" and we had a wander round Little India, Chinatown, the Esplanade, a gem factory and the Botanic Gardens. The Esplande is where the Theatres (funny buildings that look like flies eyes...) and the Merlion are. The Merlion (above) is Singapores half lion, half fish mythical beast. The Botanical Gardens are filled with orchids and frangipanis and all sorts of tropical flowers. One could easily spend hours in this tranquil part of Singapore - partly coz it's so pretty but also coz there's so many meandering paths and very little signage and one gets lost very, very easily... =)

The gem factory was fascinating. Besides the usual display cabinets of gemstone buddahs, dragons etc the walls of this place were covered in pictures similar to the one above. The pictures are made from the small, offcut pieces of bigger gems and are really beautiful.


The preparations for the Chinese New Year are in full swing here. This year is to be the Year of the Pig and there are beautiful, bright decorations adorning buildings, trees and on the streets. The traditional colours of red and gold feature predominantly and contrast well with the lush greenery.


This evening we went on a Night Safari tour. We saw giraffes, hyenas, bison, tigers, rhinos, elephants and deers however it was very dark and therefore very difficult to get any decent pictures from a moving vehicle. I was a little disappointed at this however found solace watching some semi naked men running round and playing with fire... and I had my first taste of Ben and Jerry's... and I bought a little giraffe with magnets in his feet...

So - all up a grand day!! All I gotta do now is repack my bag and be ready for a 14 hour flight to London tomorrow... Eeek... =)

(that eeek was specially for you Stewie... )