Through a tour, we learned that Singapore is a small island off the southern tip of the Malay peninsula . So, what used to be dense, swampy rain forest is now a thoroughly modern metropolis having first been colonised by the British in the 19th Century. It became home to migrant communities from China and India. So, all this makes Singapore a pretty diverse city with some fantastic food! The town plan was first implemented by Stamford Raffles. He created particular areas for the various communities: Chinatown, The Colonial District, Little India. We stayed near Little India at a five star hotel Singapore is world renown for, so we were placed in a great spot for exploring all the different communities.
We began in Chinatown and we explored the shops and the Buddhist temples, including the ornate Buddha Tooth Relic temple ; home to hundreds of Buddhas of various sizes and different states of repose. Singapore is a retail heaven and we managed all of about 30 minutes before we were talked into buying a new digital camera. Wandering the streets for a few more hours, then we felt it was time for lunch. We checked out a few of the hawker markets, which are food housing stall upon stall offering inexpensive yummy food. It’s a very confusing experience when we tried to choose which tasty dish to pick! There were so many, and they all looked so good. We did the easy thing, we joined the longest queue! It was a Thai stall and we ordered a couple of delicious dishes.
Later, we set off on a twilight walking tour (the one where we learned the history of Singapore) of the Colonial District, where we were obliged to try the Singapore Sling. After a few of those, we were quite loopy, so we left the tour early and headed back to our hotel for the night. Not bad for our first day in Singapore.