Singapore River

We spent our last afternoon in Singapore making use of some more freebies by taking a Singapore River cruise. Having just celebrated it's birthday and with the Mid Autumn Festival commencing the river was at its prettiest with decorative floats in the river and across bridges, etc




Some of the highlights included:
Merlion Park




The bumboats




Sky Park




Raffle's landing site




Alas, it is now time to head back to our hotel and get ready for the plane flight and our trip back to reality! Although we are looking forward to the opportunity to catch up with Grandma Latimer at Tullamarine.

Gayle

Location:Singapore

Funny signs

While in Europe we came across some signs that made us look twice.




Dads first day driving the English country roads plus this sign made us all nervous.




The last thing we expected to see on the English roads



We saw this poster in the streets of Venice and it took us a while to decided if it was real or not... we decided 'not' in case you were wondering.




Saw this advertisement in a Slovakian mall and we just laughed.




Well this sign had us dumbfound in Amalfi.



This sign was at least honest advertising in Turkey

Sometimes you just can't believe what you read.

Jake

Location:Europe

European Number Plates Quiz

If you have ever been to Europe you will notice that all the countries have the same number plate (except a few) but they have their own country initials on them in the blue box on the left hand side under the circle of EU stars.
We thought that this would be a good quiz for all you at home. See if you can name them all.
The answers are after the sign off, please try not to cheat by looking




A




I




P




L




F




MC




CZ




NL




E




B




H




DK




S




HR




CH




IRL




TR

Jake
A- Austria
I- Italy
P- Portugal
L- Luxembourg
F- France
MC- Monaco
CZ- Czech Republic
NL- Netherlands
E- Spain
B- Belgium
H- Hungary
DK- Denmark
S- Sweden
HR- Croatia
CH- Switzerland
IRL- Ireland
TR- Turkey

Location:Europe

National Museum of Singapore

During our hop on, hop off bus tour we hopped off at the National Museum of Singapore. The museums main gallery is the History of Singapore gallery which covers from Mr. Raffles to the present. The free tour started at 2:00pm so we spent 1/2 an hour looking at the special exhibition from the Victoria & Albert Museum, London on the history of wedding dresses. Luke and I were soooo interested.

The tour group consisted of the four of us, which was really good, we walked up some stairs then down a spiral ramp which was probably about three flights of stairs. The first gallery was about the early history of Singapura and then about the English 'discovery' and what Mr. Raffles did for the town of Singapore. Mr. Raffles helped the elder of two brothers win the seat for Sultan. This formed a treaty between Singapore and England but like Australia, England wanted the lot.



This then brought us to the next section, the Japanese occupation. The Japanese took Singapore in WWII because, like now a days, it was a very big stop over point between north and south and east and west, so it was in a very strategic position. The Japanese propaganda told Singaporeans that they had saved them from the white ghost. When the war ended Singapore reverted back to being an English colony.



The last part was about the independence of Singapore. Initially it was planned that Singapore achieve independence as apart of Malaysia. But there were problems with agreeing with details - apparently if you read the Singapore history books it will say they felt like they where being kicked out but if you read the Malaysian history books they'll tell you Singapore opted out. So Singapore became independent seperately. This is what kicked off the Australian/ New Zealand like rivalry between Malaysia and Singapore. There was a lot of side galleries about people who helped and wanted the independence and democracy of Singapore.



The tour was absolutely free and it was one of the best. The tour guide was extremely informed about everything, she only showed us the highlights and what we needed to know while answering our questions. Interestingly she does it as a volunteer and has a full time job during the week. The museum was exactly what we wanted from it and compared to the expensive colosseum tour it was amazing.



This is Merlion the famous Singapore mermaid cross lion creature. The word Singa in Malayan means a mystical animal and Singapura means land of the mystical animal but white man changed it to Singapore for easy pronunciation.

Jake

Location:Singapore

Our second day in Singapore

Today we decided to take advantage of the free hop-on, hop-off bus tickets that we got as part of our stopover package. Even better one of the stops was right outside our hotel.

Our first ( unplanned ) stop was at the Botanical Gardens where the bus stops for 20 minutes. This gave us just enough time to walk to the Orchid Garden.



Then it was back on the bus to the Museum (see Jake's post). We couldn't have asked for a better guide. She only has 1 and 1/2 hours max to cover the history of Singapore so her tour was "highlights, highlights" which was just perfectly matched to the West museum visiting style.

Then it was a short walk to a Singapore must-do - a Singapore Sling at Raffles Long Bar.




After having our drinks (and shelling a handful of peanuts and tossing the shells on the floor) it was back on the bus to the Funan Digital Life Mall. This is a 6 story shopping centre devoted entirely to computer and electronics. We spent a little while hunting out some bargains.

Back on the bus again for our final stop - Chinatown. We couldn't have picked a better night to go. It is the start of the Chinese mid Autumn festival so Chinatown was in celebration mode. As well as being beautifully decorated the roads were closed for musical and cultural performances.








We finished our night with a very delicious meal of Singapore Chilli Crab, Peking Duck, Kung Pow Chicken and Cumin Beef. Yum! And, even better, our lovely waitress demonstrated how to make the Peking Duck pancakes and get into the crab.








Gayle

Location:Singapore

Singapore Night Safari

Once we landed in Singapore for a two night stop over, we were seriously jet lagged. It was 6:00am Singapore time but our bodies were still on midnight Rome time and all we wanted to do was sleep. So we took our shuttle bus to our hotel and checked in, hoping to get a long nap but of course they were still cleaning it and wouldn't be done for another hour. We walked through the shops and over bridges before having a coffee and hot chocolate that was so expensive I could swear I heard Dad whimper as he handed over the money. At SGD 25 it was a bit more expensive than in Australia but super expensive after our cheap (no more than $2) European hot drinks that we have been having for the last few months.

We got our key and went to sleep for 4 hours only to wake up even more tired than before. Mum and Dad booked us to go on to the night safari at Singapore Zoo. We kept busy until 6:00pm when we got on a bus to the safari. While on the bus our guide for the night explained what the amazing decorations around Singapore, but mainly in Chinatown, are for. It is the Chinese moon cake festival or Mid autumn festival in the Chinese calendar. The festival is celebrating a Chinese story about a power tyrant who shot 9 of the ten suns of Earth down with his bow so that only one remained. He wanted to be immortal so was going to eat the peel of the fruit of immortality. His wife knew her husband was corrupt so she ate the peel to stop her husband. Once she ate the fruit she flew up to the moon to hide from her husband. To celebrate they eat moon cakes,hence the moon cake festival.




We arrived at the zoo and got straight in line for the tram ride which is the highlight of the safari. The tram ride takes you through the main animals of the zoo from the lions to the barking deer and even the tapirs. The commentary wasn't the best but it definitely was good to know what animal you were looking at. The walking tracks around the safari are based on either the types of animals (big cats, small lesser known animals) or area of animals (south Asia, African rainforest) we completely ignored the wallaby trail, see if you can guess why.


The weirdest animal was definitely the tapirs. The tapirs are the thinnest relative of the pig and with its tiny trunk it looks like an alien. It's black and white body looks like it does nothing for camouflage but it breaks up it's body in the dark rain forest nights.



Our tour guide took us along the fishing cat trail which is around the smaller lesser known animals. It's called the fishing cat trail because the highlight of the trail are two fishing cats that pounce on nearby fish.


We finished the night by watching the fire show. The show was mainly based on fire breathers and dancers but also had a blow pipe demonstration where it reminds you of that scene in Indiana Jones where he blows in the pipe so the dart comes out the other end into the tribesman's mouth. But ignoring Indiana Jones the show wasn't that bad, the best trick was where one man would start a fire and the rest would keep it going by blowing on it.



It was a fairly good day but we are still trying to get over the jet lag.



Jake

Location:Singapore

We get our gladitor on

Since we had a day up our sleeve before we depart for Singapore we decided "why don't we go back and see the Colosseum". We decided to catch the first courtesy bus from the camp to get to the train (which was so packed it wasn't funny) so we could beat the crowds. We walked along to the Colosseum to find there was no line at all. It definitely pays to get to the Vatican and Colosseum early if you ever come to Rome. We got to the front in under two minutes and booked 4 spots in the earliest english guided tour.




Well it definitely wasn't the best tour ever, it was actually fairly crap, the speakers our tour guide was talking into got heaps of static and she was speaking too quietly to be heard. But if you could hear her, she explained the seating arrangements in the amphitheater. How the Senate sat down in the bottom seats for the best view, the commoners sat in the next seats up (this area was really crowded) and up the very top were the slaves and women because they were the least important.




Our tour guide then told us about the most famous types of gladiators and the type of games played. The animals could be in three different sort of duels, animal against animal, unarmed and naked prisoner against animal and hunters vs animals but never gladiator vs animal. There were heaps of animals put in the duels from lions, rhinos, crocodiles and even giraffes. Luke was mortified when he heard about the giraffes. The animals in cages were hoisted up from under the stadium using winches. They also hoisted up 'sets' for the games in the same way



This is where the animals were kept they have made a reconstruction of the battle ground above it.

The types of gladiator were all fairly mean. They were all heavily protected except for one that wore just a kilt. The common weapon was a sword but the unprotected gladiator used a net and trident. We were fascinated when we were told that battles weren't always to death when they were defeated they could plead for mercy from the crowd.


The reconstructed part was where the battles were held

The last thing she took us to see was where you could see the ruins of where the colosseum got it's name. The roman emperor Nero built a colossal statue of himself. When he died the features were changed and it was moved to outside the amphitheater because Nero was a very hated emperor. This is why it's called the colosseum because it had this colossal statue outside.



An entrance to the seats.

Well this will be the last blog from Europe as we are leaving tomorrow. Oh don't cry because we still have a few more blogs from our adventures in Singapore, you can still continue with being jealous again.

Jake

Location:Rome

Roaming' in Rome

I know we have written about the traffic before, but after all it has been a big part of our life 'on the road' for the last three and a half months. We have been amused, confused and at times have had our nerves frayed by our traffic experiences.

Since arriving in Rome, Pablo was taken to the nearest auto lavaggio for a wash, vacuum and general spruce up and has since been parked forlornly in the car park while we have used the more sensible alternative - Public Transport. So this post has a more pedestrian perspective.

Of course there must be traffic rules in Italy. The policeman in the photo below is clearly enforcing some of them.





However we quickly learnt not to stand on the side of the road at pedestrian crossings waiting for the traffic to stop for you. You will be waiting all day. Traffic will stop at pedestrian crossings - but only if you make it! To do this you must bravely and assertively step from the curb in front of the oncoming traffic which will then dutifully stop, or in the case of motorbikes swerve - but only one by one if you are directly in their path. I suggest you don't take on a bus the first time you try this.

I am bravely demonstrating the technique below.




Parking techniques have also been a continual source of bemusement during our journey. But the citizens of Rome have also taken the art of parking to the next level. It sees any free space is fair game - pedestrian crossings, corners, even traffic islands. Trust me, despite looking like they should be on the move, all of the cars below were driverless, and not a parking ticket in sight.







Gayle

Location:Rome, Italy