Singapore, Day 2

We set out to do some new things in Singapore and so we caught the MRT to Harbourfront and hiked up the Marang Trail to the top of Mt Faber (an elevation of a 24 story building), from where you can take the cable car to Sentosa. I remember doing this on my first visit to Singapore with my Mother and brothers, at age 10. It is still a fabulous trip - we took it again a couple of years ago. 

From there we continued along the path to the magnificent Henderson Waves, a bridge 36m above the road, constructed of local timber surface in undulating waves. This in turn led to the Forest Walk, an elevated steel walkway through the Singapore jungle canopy.

Henderson Waves

It is much more humid in Singapore than in Bangkok, and almost as hot (high 30's). We decided to return to the hotel for a cool down in the pool. The MRT is easy to negotiate, but sometimes does involve lengthy transits within the station to change lines.

Holland Village was next on the agenda. We've been hearing about this enclave of restaurants and cool shops for a couple of years and decided that it was time to see it. We caught a taxi (easy to do at most times of the day in Singapore) but after a coffee and a wander around, decided that we weren't sure what the fuss was about, and hopped the MRT to Orchard Road, the best place, we decided, to wait out the pending storm. I'll check with my Singapore authority when I get back to work and see if we missed something about Holland Village.

There are many different stores to what is available in Australia, making window shopping quite interesting here. There are quite a few english clothing brands as well as the top end stores from around the world. The most expensive, comparatively, are the Australian stores - Havianas (SGD60 a pair!), Rip Curl.

Storm over, and a quick MRT ride to Chinatown, we found our way to Ann Siang Rd, where there was a rooftop bar that I'd read about on the web. Sadly it was closed for a private function, but a gentlemen who had the same disappointed look on his face told us about a tapas bar down the road. Lacking other direction we took his advice and ended up at La Cicala on Club Street. It was a great place for dinner, with excellent staff and great food.

There were many hip restaurants and bars in this district and we'll definitely come back again to try a few more. We stayed in the area on our first visit together in 2006, at The Scarlet Hotel - a very quirky and comfortable hotel made from renovated traditional shophouses.

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