Singapore: Places to visit

The Republic of Singapore, or better known as Singapore, is an island country located to the South of Peninsular Malaysia. It is the smallest nation in South East Asia. The tourism industry in Singapore is one of the largest and i guess the only industries for the country, with more than 9 million tourists in 2006 alone.

Hereby I'm gonna list out famous places of Singapore, starting from my most favorites to least.

SENTOSA ISLAND

The Sentosa Island is Singapore’s premier island resort getaway with plenty of attractions and filled with events all year round. You can enjoy the Underwater world, Luge skyride, Tiger tower sky, The Merlion (not the famous one), 3D+4D movies, and beach sports as well. I’ve only been able to cover the half part of the Sentosa but whatever it was It was the best one. You better visit this place during the weekend when it’s more crowded.

Getting there : Get to HarbourFront MRT station and entere VivoCity (If you were born rich you can loose some pocket over here, it’s big shopping mall), There is cable car service which takes you to Sentosa.

Find my all Sentosa picture at below url
http://picasaweb.google.com/abhishek.gondalia/Sentosa#

Underwater World

Singapore’s Underwater World is the largest underwater world in South East Asia. It is situated in the Sentosa Island and is said to be a dream haven which showcases the awe-inspiring beauty of a whole different world beneath the seas. It is home to more than 2500 fishes from over 250 different species. In this Underwater World, you will also see one of the rarest creatures on Earth – the dugong Gracie.

The Merlion

Another night visiting place to get some peace of mind. First time when i went there Merlion was under construction due to lightning fallen on it ( Just imagine it!!) The Merlion is considered to be the mascot of Singapore. It is said to be a mythical beast which is half lion and half fish. It symbolizes courage, resilience and strength of the citizens of Singapore. If you are interested to see this Merlion, there is a 8 meter high status standing at the mouth of the famous Singapore River. Don’t forget to get a picture over her. :)

Getting there : Walk along the riverfront from the Raffles Place MRT Station

Find all Meriol and Suntec Pics at,
http://picasaweb.google.com/abhishek.gondalia/MerlionAndSunte

Clarke Quay

This is a very popular hangout place for those interested in Singapore’s city nightlife.  In this area, you can find a lot of air-conditioned shop houses, push-carts selling mementos, bars, discos and restaurants. Besides there, you can also find a large variety of handicrafts and souvenirs here. A perfect place for shoppers and diners alike.

Getting there : Head to the Riverfront from Clarke Quay MRT Station



Singapore Flyer Observation Wheel

The Singapore Flyer is the world’s largest observation wheel which provides visitors with stunning views of Singapore’s urban cityscape. Located on the south east of Marina Centre, this 42 stories high Flyer offers visitors view up to about 42 kilometers away – including Batam, Bintan and Johor.






Night Safari

After the The world's first wildlife park built for visits at night, the Night Safari is not like any ordinary zoo illuminated by the night or a modern version of nocturnal houses found in many zoos around the globe.

Nestled in 40 hectares of lush secondary forest, the Night Safari offers guests the unique experience of exploring wildlife in a tropical jungle at night. Through the use of subtle lighting technique, guests are able to view over 1,000 nocturnal animals of 100 species in vast naturalistic habitats.
Singapore Zoo

The Singapore Zoo is among the most popular tourist destination in whole of Asia. It has won numerous awards in the past and is highly praised for its open landscape design where the animals live in enclosures which are pretty similar to their natural habitat. The zoo is filled with a wide variety of exotic animals such as the white tigers, polar bears, elephants and others. There are also special exhibitions once in a while such as the golden monkey exhibition. Other than that, the zoo also offers one of the most interesting Night Safari in the world. In this Night Safari, you will be able to experience wildlife on a 45 minutes long tram ride or you can also take one of the three Walking Trails to get a feel of the park at night. It’s one in a lifetime experience to be able to watch over one hundred of different nocturnal animals.

Getting there : Go to Choa Chu Kang MRT Station, and take SMRT Bus 927which will bring you straight to the zoo. Or, you can choose to go to Ang Mo Kio MRT Station and board SBS Transit bus 138

Jurong Bird Park

The Jurong Bird Park is famous for its open-concept bird park which houses more than 600 species of birds. It is also the largest of its kind in Asia Pacific and has the world’s tallest man-made waterfall. Remember to check out the events in order to attend the world-class All Star Bird Show which the park is famous for.





Find all Collected pictures of Zoo, BirdPark and Night safari at,
http://picasaweb.google.com/abhishek.gondalia/ZooBirdParkSingapore

Day with animal.

I actually started with a lovely animal, chakli ;-) ha ha ha. However, the initial plan was to stick my head on pending documents for office but I could not resist myself from having a glimpse at the Madagascar movie and it all started from there.

The starting was amazing, especially the penguin made me watch some of the scenes twice or thrice. If there is anything that made me laugh like kid then it was those little black and while penguins. I enjoyed Madagaskar-1 and guess what 2nd part is even better.

Then plan was to visit Singapore, zoo. It is too far from where I live (little India). I took MRT to Ang ko hu, then long bus journey in bus 138. I think I over-reacted the distance as it was like from my Baroda office to shiv sagar. The whole trip was like an exam for me. It was testing my patience, patience that was testing my ability to live without cracking joke around, having fun, teasing someone, beating friends. I got pretty bore there. I do not know what people can enjoy in watching animals. Alternatively, may be that I am already used to watching one at home. [Sorry honey ;-)]

The only thing that keeps alive here is chicks;-0, songs, and movies. The evening as good ;-)... oh oh... before you start racing horses of your mind, let me clear it. I am talking about night safari. Got attention of few Italian, some Saudi. They were goooood. Everything about the night safari was great except the time. Once you are in you will never want to come out. It is a must visit place if you are in Singapore.

Bolt. No man I am not about bolting anything. It is about the ending part of the day. It ended with one more animal. Watched the animation movie bold. Cannot compare with Madagascar of course. In addition, the last animal for the day was same as first one, chakli.

View all pictures at by clicking this linking -> http://picasaweb.google.com/abhishek.gondalia/ZooBirdParkSingapore

It was a better day.

Merlion and Suntec visit: Singapore

I was not in that much mood to plan any visit today as there are lot things pending. Ya but how could I miss the IT fair. I was planning to buy an external drive from there. So here we go toward one more dream destination. SUNTEC city. My wish to enjoy the surrounding made me choose to visit there by bus. Bad decision.
Reasons: Today was Sunday, never travel by bus on Sunday in Singapore. They move like turtle, too slow. Second reason: it kept raining so nothing was much visible. Third and the last: I didn’t get the seat. ;-(

I could have reached faster by running there but anyways reached suntec city. I was expecting some crowd, healthy crowd. My wish granted. It was amazing! I identified some differences between IT fair of India and Singapore.
1. People here come really for buying things not just to watch girls on counter and collect free pamphlets.
2. Here girls are also interested in buying many things, so many changes to feel good. ;-)
3. In India, you do not have to wait in queue if you really want to buy anything. Here you might have to wait for 1 hour just to make payment.

It couldn’t hold me there so I decided to move around. I came to know that merlion and Singapore flier is just nearer to this place. I decided take a walk. Beautiful scenery just kept driving me from one place to another. At one moment I forget where I was going.

Reaching merlion, black clouds of disappointment peed on me. The lion was on holidays. I remembered news in the morning before 15 days that due to lightning, merlion is badly damaged and need a repair. Psss…. Still the atmosphere, warmness, and beautiful girls kept me there. As usual given my camera one everyone with whom eyes met to take some snaps for me. ;-) Music show near merlion was the last thing I enjoyed.



To view more pictures see,

Missed my valentine

I hope you heard the story about butterflies. They are just so much attracted to the fire that they fell into it and losses their lives. Going in heaven they would be feeling “I miss my life”. That’s not the story actually, that’s the truth. The truth that applies at least to me. Every Indian dreams to go out of the country. Why? To earn money? F**k money. After coming Singapore I realized I don’t need money at the expense of distance with my honey. Ya. I mean it. There’s nothing too fancy here. Just after two days I don’t see a single thing that amazes me.

Live life large. People over here eat &%#$*. Missing family, friends and everything. I now realized why India is called such a great country. Here you don’t get to walk as you want on street. Finding a fruit store is like finding a needle in desert. You don’t get tea, Indian tea that sets you up for the day. You got no one to talk for the entire day. I can’t fire my stupid jokes on colleagues anymore. Can’t tease anyone anymore. Once I wanted to go to pee while coming back to hotel from ‘little india’, but I couldn’t. They might charge 100$ for that. In india you can do it everywhere… wow…. Just find a corner and release yourself.

It’s only after leaving honey back home I realized I miss her so much that I feel, I can’t survive without her. Going through harder days, possibly the hardest days of the year. Miss ya honey, my valentine. Althought everyday is valentine day when i'm with here!!!

Day1: Few hours away from getting ahead by 2.5 hours

Yes I’m just that away from getting into the ‘Out Of India Club”. 90% of Indian s/w engineers dreams of it. And may be around 50% people would be getting this opportunity. Today is my turn. Does anybody know why we Indian s/w engineers have such craze for going out?
For me there were three reasons:
• First and foremost: one milestone achieved.
• Then $. ;-)
• Then I would say Scrawling the world around.
• And the last award goes to …. Get rid of something that was pinching me. (Too personal)

Dream has come true at a cost. Cost of leaving my lavu. Leaving chaku alone at home was giving pain at last moment but…. ya.. This ‘but’ is holding me back. Another price I paid was in the form of my sleep. I lost my sound and peaceful sleep for last five nights. May be I was a little tense. Anyways, I tried holding those drops from felling down at the time leaving honey but few came out when I got back to my seat.

At the right now I am at airport and I still feel that I’m dreaming. Ya literally dream. I just feel all this is happening around me is happening in my dream. I’ll wake up in the morning and everything will go away. My plan was o red some stuff at airport but all these different people are drawing my attention. The first one I saw was a Hibro, then some thai, some muslim beauties, some shekh with loongie (just like arun) then some Europeans then few beautiful air hostesses and few more ohhh... la... la... girls. Watching them was a treat or may be more than a treat. The one just came right now is mother all beautiful ladies. Ok... I think I’m running away from my topic.

Missing honey and office already. I’ll take a break right now. See you after the break.

Amazing… I think I should have changed the topic name. It should have been BEAUTIES. Some of them were looking so soft and delicate that if I’ll touch her she’ll break down like a mirror. If chaku’ll read this she’ll kill me o I’ll stop now.

Ok as a first time visitor there were many things I came through for the first time. Changing the currency didn’t take time I got to see Singapore dollars for the first time. Luggage check-in process wasn’t that hard. Ya it took a time to find out Counter of JET airways. Then I stood in line to get boarding pass. Vohhhh! You got my point. The attendee was @#$@#$@#. My dictionary to describe beauties ends here. The way she saw me I realized this must be my dream only because I don’t think I am that handsome attract a girl like that. Anyways, leaving her with sorrow heart I went to immigration form filling up line. And again got one beautiful pair of eyes stuck on me. She was may be air hostess in yellow dress. I couldn’t figure out which flight she was from.

Finally after completing immigration form with a beauty beside me, I went through security check with crossed finger. Coming down near the departure gates I called diku and at my home. Still no sign of boss around, may be he is in the mood of surprise or last minute entry like a hero does in movie.

My flight is still 23:00, and I’m tired। Tired like hell. Still 1 am half hour away from getting ahead by 2.5. Ya Singapore is 2.5 hours ahead. And I’ll be leaving for Singapore tonight. See ya later.