New Asia - Singapore

It was a sunny morning when we board Philippine Airlines flight PR502 from Manila to Singapore. We arrived at Changi International Airport at 11:45am. We proceeded to the shuttle service counter Summer View Hotel at the arrival area for our transportation to Summer View Hotel.

As we travel by couch from the airport to the hotel, the clean and green landscape along the way catched my attention. It was impressive! I've never seen a city as clean as this. I would describe it as a modern city in a forest becuase of the lush greens and trees.

Cable Car Summer View Hotel is located along Bencoleen Street, within walking distance to the business district of Shenton Way, Suntec City and the shooping belts of Orchard Road and Bugis Junction. Travel from airport is only 20 minutes. After our lunch, we walked along Rochor Road going to Bugis Village and Bugis Junction. You would find a lot of shops all over the place including their wet market.

Musical Fountain At 4pm, we went to the Bugis MRT Station to City Hall then changed flatform to the North-South line going to Ang Mo Kio. From Ang Mo Kio MRT, we took bus service 138 to Night Safari.

We arrived at 5pm and enjoyed a taste of snacks from Bongo Bongo Burger Bar near the entrance. Park's entrance fee was SGD15 and SGD10 for adults and children respectively. The Night Safari is a wildlife park built to be viewed at night. It offers a unique experience of exploring wildlife in a jungle at night. It was superbly designed creating an illusion of animals roaming freely around the forest.

Night Safari Entrance There were tram rides at SGD5 each along two loops , East and West Loops. The tram passed by the animals of Himalayan Foothills, Nepalese River Valley, Indian Subcontinent, Equatorial Africa, Indo-Malayan Region, Asian Riverine Forest, South American Pampas and the Burmese Hillside. It was the first time we were able to view a very rare collection of nocturnal animals in their naturalistic habitats. We also followed some trails around the park.

At 8pm, we watched the animal show at the Entrance Plaza.

Early next day, we enjoyed a sampan ride along the cool waters of Singapore river getting a nice view of its skyscrapers, the Merlion, Boat Quay and Clarke Quay, Merlion Park and Parliament House.

It was still early and only few shops were open at Clarke Quay. We searched around for some stuff we could bring home. We walked along the river bank to the Raffles Monument and to the Singapore River Victoria Building. From there, we took another taxi to the World Trade Centre.

We took the cable car at the World Trade Centre Cable Car Tower's Mid-Station. Adrenalin got into our nerves as the car left the station. We enjoyed a view of the city skyscrapers, the Keppel Harbour and the Sentosa Island. We visited the Images of Singapore and the Butterfly House. We also took an elevated monorail ride that ran around the Island dropping by each of the stops. We explored the Siloso Beach, Fort Siloso and Underwater World, a collection of rare marine life. We also watch the dolphin show at the Dolphin Lagoon. At night, we never missed the spectacular Musical Fountain Show. At 7:30pm, we went to the cable car terminal back to the WTC.

On the third day, we travelled to Johur Bahru, Malaysia and Batam, Indonesia.

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