Me.

Our first of two full days in Singapore, and we're staying in an area called Kampong Glam, otherwise known as the Muslim district. That being the case, there's a bloody big mosque at the end of the street that (just like in Istanbul) belts out prayers from loud speakers at ungodly hours of the morning. Having just come from Malaysia (whose population is predominantly Muslim) we've been staying near a few of these lately - can't bloody escape them.

The chick who runs our hostel (like a prison - rules galore) pointed out this street on the map as being the most beautiful in Singapore. You be the judge.

From Singapore's 'nicest' street we headed into the central city and straight to the iconic Merlion. This mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish is used as a mascot of Singapore. Singapore itself is an island city-state covering 700 square kilometres. The entire island functions as a single metropolitan area in which five million people live and work, making Singapore the third-most densely populated country in the world.

The Merlion overlooks Marina Bay, and now the Marina Bay Sands - those three tall buildings with a boat plonked on top.

Marina Bay Sands is an integrated resort, and features: a 2,500-room hotel, a massive mall (with a canal running through it, on which you can take rides similar to the gondolas in Venice), an even more massive convention-exhibition centre, ArtScience Museum, two large theatres, seven 'celebrity chef' restaurants, an ice skating rink, and the world's largest atrium casino with 500 tables and some 1,500 slot machines. Dear me. That thing on top is the 340m-long SkyPark, with a capacity of 3,900 people and a 150m infinity swimming pool (the world's largest elevated swimming pool) sitting at almost 200 metres above the ground. Image of the pool and SkyPark here, and an alternative view of the towers shot from the bottom of them here. The three 55-storey towers were still under construction last time I was here in March 2009. The entire complex was originally planned for opening later that year, but multiple delays pushed that back to a phased opening over the last couple of years. Anyway, we asked our hostel chicky / prison guard (I've already been told off once for leaving my bag on the dorm bed, which I think is a fucking ridiculous rule so I do it on purpose now) about the options available for visiting the top of this thing for a little look-see, and she seems to think that any ol' Tom, Dick and Harry can go up but I'm not so sure about that. Either way, we're planning to check it all out tomorrow.

Shortly thereafter we got the usual daily downpour that lasts between about 30 and 60 minutes (45 minutes today).

We continued along the banks of the Singapore River, first along Boat Quay past several pubs, restaurants, and some pretty pissed off New Zealand lobster, and then over to the colourful Clarke Quay. This area is a nightlife hotspot with several bars and clubs located here, though it's pretty dead during the day.

Then we took a shortcut up, through, and over Fort Canning Park - a small hill about 60 metres high right in the middle of the city. Nice!

That shortcut took us to Orchard Road - the retail and entertainment hub of the city. The long one-way road is flanked by multiple malls as well as upmarket restaurants, coffee chains, cafes, nightclubs, hotels, the House of Condom, you name it!

Tourists. I agree with the stop sign.

Orchard Road is elaborately lit up every year for the Christmas season, and gets swarmed by the frenzied Christmas shoppers.

While wandering along, Kristina spotted what turned out to be the longest escalator we'd ever seen. We ventured up to get a better view over Orchard Road, but instead we found another three such escalators going up, up, up.

This is what we eventually found at the top - some rooftop bars and restaurants, and a pretty sweet view over the city!

After figuring out how to get down from the roof, we headed back to the river for some night shots (and to test out this new wide-angle lens of mine ;)

Singapore is a pretty bloody nice city - probably one of the nicest you'll come across. Its streets are free of litter, its air quality is much better than anywhere else in Southeast Asia, beautifully landscaped parks are abundant, it's very modern and its people are friendly and welcoming. Chewing gum is prohibited though - bit of a bummer that. As of 1992, the import and sale of chutty is a no-no (unless it is of "therapeutic value", whatever that means). This law was created because people disposed of gum by sticking it under places like chairs or tables hehe. I always carry gum in my backpack, and completely forgot about it when passing through customs yesterday though they didn't pick it up on the X-ray scan. I should sell it - these two days might pay for themselves! That law would leave me pretty screwed when it comes to all the cycling I do. I often get a dry throat on the bike but chewing chut takes care of it.

Marina Bay Sands looking quite futuristic by night. Hopefully more on this dizzying complex tomorrow.

Little India. Comes complete with Indians, Indian temples, and Indian restaurants, including the one on the right where we ate while surrounded by jungle animals and Tarzan swinging in the background.

The daily downpour was right on schedule again today - 2pm, and lasted the usual 30 minutes.

From there we ventured deeper into the bowels of Singapore, and found this hehe. I would expect this from China or North Korea but not Singapore. So why the beefed-up security...

This is MacRitchie Reservoir, part of a much larger nature reserve occupying almost 3,000 hectares. The reservoirs in this reserve are Singapore's primary water supply, and that sign above was outside what looked like some sort of small processing plant. Singapore clearly doesn't want anyone messing with their H2O. Anyway, there are several walking trails and attractions throughout this patch of urban rainforest, but with our legs pretty tired and that sky pretty threatening, we didn't wander too far.

Bit of a shame really because it is bloody nice in here!

Singapore was founded as a trading post of the East India Company by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. Several buildings such as hospitals and malls etc. bear the name Raffles as a result.

And this is the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel. The Singapore Sling cocktail was invented here, and so a cliché thing to do in Singapore is to come here and suck back a Sling. However, it'll set you back a whopping S$25 (about US$20)! I had one last time I was here, but we didn't bother this time round. They are bloody good though, but not S$25 good.

From there we headed back into the centre of the city, this time to the other side of Marina Bay from where we were last night.

Remember this futuristic looking thing from last night? Marina Bay Sands.

We found out that S$19 gets you to an observation deck at the very top (59 storeys high), but what we really wanted to do was swim in the pool up there which overlooks the city from almost 200m in the air. Alas, as of just two months, the pool is now for hotel guests only so we didn't bother with that either.

What we did do though was scope out the mall below and grab some dinner there. This place is massive! Spread over three floors, it just keeps going and going! Recall I mentioned yesterday there is a canal that runs through the length of this mall that hotel guests and shoppers can take rides on hehe. A little over the top but so is everything else to do with the Sands.

So that was our last whole-day of the trip. We've got about half a day to kill tomorrow before boarding a plane at 7pm bound for New Zealand :)