We started our day by of course, having our breakfast. The thing I like most about being in Asia is that they serve rice for breakfast. Woo hoo! For all my Western friends, rice is breakfast of the champions – not cereals. Cereals are for the faint of hearts I would say. Anyway, so after my fried rice and chicken for breakfast we started our city tour which would turn out to be the worst ever. I don’t know what’s it about Asian tour operators but they have this stupid idea of bringing the tourists to a local shop/souvenir/jewellery store where they would get a commission from whatever their guests will buy. We’ve never had that when we had our European trip last year because in Europe, you get all your penny’s worth as they will maximize your time by bringing you to the REAL tourist destinations of their place and they don’t count malls/shops as one. Well it’s not like we’ve booked this tour for ourselves, it’s just that it’s already included in the package that we took and if we don’t go to the city tour we will have to pay USD25 per person – what kind of crap is that????
Anyhow, the stupid tour took us to the Merlion park for some photos:
And then to a Chinese Temple:
And then to a chocolate shop which we planned to skip and just to stay inside the coaster but the tour guide told us that we MUST go to the shop even if we’re not going to buy anything. Then the 4th stop was at a jewellery factory which once again we didn’t buy anything and I was kinda pissed with all the attendants there who will try to sell anything that your eyes will land on, even if you didn’t do it on purpose. At some point, I think I told one of them to just leave me alone as I have no intentions of buying anything. The 5th stop was to have a view of the cable cars going to Sentosa (how lame is that????) and then they dropped us off at the ORchard Road as the last stop of our tour and we’re supposed to make our own way back to the hotel. Nice hey?
We had our lunch at Food Republic and then went for a quick shopping (I bought an Ipanema slippers as my feet was already killing me, didn’t realize it was an Ipanema until my cousin pointed that out to me). In the evening, we went to Marina Bay Sands to watch the Lion King. Again, Singapore bit me in the ass – the signage around the city is confusing and most of the time wrong. As soon as we got off the Marina Bay Metro station, there was a sign going to the bus stop headed to Marina Bay Sands. We followed the sign and realized that there was no foot path towards it and continuing on our journey would probably leave us dead in the middle of a highway. I could see the Marina Bay Sands building from the Metro station so we just decided to walk which wasn’t that far but for someone who’s been doing nothing but walking all week long, it’s a tiresome job. Inside Marina Bay Sands, again the signage were confusing. A straight arrow doesn’t mean that you should go straight, it means that you have to go down one level using the escalator which the arrow is slightly pointing towards to. It was annoying, really. Anyway 5 minutes before the show, we arrived at the Marina Bay Sands Theater lobby miraculously. We were supposed to have dinner first somewhere but because we got lost, we went straight inside the theater hungry and out of breathe.
It was a relief though that the show was AMAZING! It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a really good play (because most of the plays I’ve seen here in Dubai were all crappy) and this was by far, one of the best I’ve seen. The small stage wasn’t a problem for all the props that they’ve used, the actors all had a good, strong voice and the live orchestra was absolutely wonderful too. It was the highlight of my Singapore trip. Finally, something worth remembering about this trip.
After the show, we had our dinner and I ordered Singapore’s famous chicken rice:
Now I’m not really sure why they go all gaga about it but it was bland for my taste buds. So no, chicken rice is not for me. We went straight back to our hotel after dinner but not after I took the photo below:
Singapore city skyline is much much better than Dubai’s.
The next day is our last day in Singapore and I will then experience the worst thing that can ever happen to you while you’re traveling. Boo hoo!
