LION CITY

I'VE JUST GOT BACK FROM SINGAPORE, where Mac and I went to attend a "Wine Extravaganza", part of the annual "Wines for Asia" event held at Suntec.





The city state is just awesome. It's clean, well-run and very efficient, but VERY expensive. Hotels cost about SGD300 per night, which really makes me appreciate our wonderful hotels here which provide so much at half the cost.

Our first night there we stayed at the RASA SENTOSA, and it was amazing to see what's happened there since we were last on the island - which was probably about 8 years ago. The hotel itself is very similar to Golden Sands Resort here, and was apparently designed by the same architect.



The view from our room was absolutely stunning; we could see the large liners anchored along the South China Sea ... imagine what it must have been like a century or two ago, with all the Chinese junks and European ships docked there.






Sentosa itself has grown tremendously, and it's real resort-world, with many hotels and things to do. I really take my hat off to the Singaporean Government for achieving so much.





It was much too short a stay, but we managed to make it to Underwater World, which was quite interesting - having said that, as I've been to the one in Miami (Seaworld) and Sydney, this wasn't so impressive.




And the Dolphin Show was rather a disappointment, as it took longer to wait for the show than the show itself.








Peacocks who are "inhabitants" of the island roam freely there, quite tame and used to human contact by now, so you can be having a drink at one of the bars and they will actually wander right up to you! And the gorgeous colours of the male are really quite stunning.





The next day we checked into the Conrad Centennial in town, right opposite Suntec itself, but stupidly left some stuff behind in the closet. A quick phone call to the Rasa before we left for dinner (more about that later) and would you believe it, it was in our room on our return later that evening. What service. I'm impressed.

I also liked the fact that Singaporean taxis are CHEAPER than Penang ones, which is a shame, because I would like to travel more by taxi here but the costs are so astronomical that it just isn't feasible to do so. They are fast and efficient, and even better: no one dares cheat. The taxi from the airport to Sentosa cost just SGD25, which is pretty reasonable.