Sentosa Island

Having spent two days in Singapore exploying the city itself, today I got a cable car over to Sentosa Island, which is a bit of a tourist trap, but great fun. There are a lot of ways to spend money! I went on a chair lift and a luge/toboggan/go-cart ride, went up inside a giant statue of Singapore's symbol, the Merlion, and visited Butterfly World and the Insect Kingdom, as well as sitting for a while on a pretty beach, finally enjoying a glimpse of blue sky.

Singapore is certainly a very varied place, from the huge air-conditioned underground shopping malls, to the little streets of the Indian and Arab quarters, to the grand old buildings of the colonial era, and the rather artificial touristy areas full of restaurants and cafes. The old chestnut about it being so clean and litter-free is a myth, by the way. I saw a normal amount of litter here. And at the moment quite large parts of the city are a bit of a mess because of construction work, either on new buildings or on the underground rail system.

Yesterday I did a short river boat trip, and visited the museum of Asian Civilisations which had some fascinating objects and lots of information about how the civilisations of India, China, South-East Asia and the Arab world all inter-acted over the years, with this region as the hub of their trade and cultural exchange.

I'm glad I decided to stay a couple of days here rather than just dashing through on my way to Malaysia and Thailand. It's certainly grown on me!