Accidentally went to the beach. Fun day! Feb 27

I hopped on the Metro this morning intending to go to the harbour and see if I could book a ferry trip part way to my next destination but no they just go to a little island close by which didn't help. I think there is another harbour I could check though. Anyway, I looked around while I was there and was planning to take the Metro to some other interesting place.

When I turned around to leave I saw this cable car coming out of the top of the World Trade Center and I though "Why don't I go up there and ride that to see where it goes?" Some people should be laughing right now because they know how much I don't like those.

I bought a round trip since it was only $2.00 more just in case. Then I made a very bad decision. They cable went both ways out of the trade building so I chose the city side before the water side because I thought I might want to end up on the water side.

I was alone in the car so I could talk to myself out loud as I thought about being splattered all over the highway below.

There was a park there you could walk in on this side but I decided to get back on and ride the other way before I lost nerve.



There was only one pole between the building and the water side so the cable was fairly saggy I thought.

Some views from up there.

Looking down on a cruise ship. It might be the only one I ever see the inside of.

Many ships waiting for a berth.

You can't see what's in the area from the end of the cable but when I asked they gave me a handful of brochures and I spent the rest of the day finding out.

The whole area is called Sentosa and it turned out to be amazing. First stop at Siloso Beach.

Apparently the sand was brought in but they have a very nice beach and you could spend the day right here. There are lots of restaurants and facilities. Here are some volleyball nets.

Beach guard stand.

Floating bridge to a little island which is where the zip-liners land.

Here you can see the zip-lines and the landing nets.

Here comes somebody now.

Other attractions on this beach are a simulated parachute jump, a climbing wall, a flying trapeze and a luge ride that you take a chair lift up to. Apparently there is a wave pool somewhere too.

Just a view.

And another....

The beaches are connected and I walked over to the next one called Palawan Beach. It looked much the same but is more geared for smaller children.

You can see a little island in the center with twin lookout towers on it. This piece of land is the southernmost point in Continental Asia.

This suspension bridge takes you across when the tide is in.

Just for the record, I am standing at the back of that island.

A view from the little island. This beach has The Song of the Sea water show, and animal and bird encounter park and a water feature for babies to play in. There were free buses to take you up and down the beaches.

I already thought the place was amazing and I was nowhere near done.

There was a third beach which I didn't go to. By now I knew there was a free sky train which I could use to go back to connect with the Metro I had come down on. Yes! No return trip on the cable.

There were three stops on the sky train going back, each not far from the last.

The first was the Merlion Plaza. Merlion is the symbol of Singapore.

There were waterfalls, pools and nice gardens there.

The next stop was at the Imbiah lookout. The area is quite elevated and there are escalators and stairs to get you higher.

Now that I have the map I can see that this is where I came in on the cable car and it is also where the Luge ride leaves from to go to the beach.

It is defiantly one impressive complex. They whisk you where ever you want to go for free. There is all kinds of access to the park and lots of underground parking.

This is the tiger tower. I gave it a miss as I had already been up in the air too much today.

On this tower the circular part comes down to ground level to let the people out.

Here I am in the Easter Egg Patch.

By now I am very tired of walking but decide to take a look at the last stop since I am there. Would you believe that Universal Studios is here also. It didn't seem like they had sound stages but they had shows and rides that showed off some of the film industry's technology.

Rides like this with the red track traditional roller coaster (right side up) going at the same time as the blue track with those people hanging in harnesses from the underside of the track. You can bet I wasn't on that one.

It was quite like Disneyland but with movie themes. I did a few of the rides and shows and walked around for a couple of hours and headed for the hostel. It was pretty expensive to get in to the Universal theme park but once in everything was paid as many times as you wanted. Even so, if there hadn't been a huge discount for seniors I wouldn't have gone.

This candy shop was full of people. What compelling advertising.

What an amazing day, especially considering I had no real plan. This would be a great place to come with kids too.

There are a couple of casinos and several resort hotels connected with the park too. Something for everyone.

This street is near my hostle. The crowd is outside a bar where they have a soccer match between India and England on TV. The crowd goes right across the street, getting the game by osmosis I suppose. When cars come down the street they slowly move apart and then fill in again. Soccer fans!

I am posting a day late because I was too tired last night.

Singapore looks nice. Feb 26

Yesterday I booked my bus for this morning just around the corner from my guesthouse at the bus stand in front of the Times Square hotel. How handy is that?


Later in my guesthouse lobby I enjoyed the antics of the crazed office cat. He is not napping in the out basket but simply getting a plan for his next attack.

I saw these flowers as I headed over to the bus at nine AM this morning.


I was warned by a travel agent that these buses were not good quality. He said I should go to a company way across town and pay triple the amount for the good bus. Fortunately, I was too lazy to do that when this set-up was so handy. I paid 45 Ringgits which is about $ 15.00 US.

It was possible that he could be right because I was just coming from countries where anything goes with the buses.

Well, to my surprise and delight the bus was wonderful, with executive seats and lots of room. A very nice bus. The trip took six hours including a smooth stop at customs for a Visa stamp which didn't cost anything.

The highway and the driving were good. We passed towns along the way and where there were no towns there were coconut palms. Millions of them in the valleys and on the hills. They are going to make some coconut oil I think.

Here are some young palms.



And some old established ones which are lush and green.

I loved the look of Singapore as we drove in. I just grabbed one skyline picture from the bus. I have three days booked here but after I check it out a bit tomorrow I may add a few more.

There were no crappy looking areas to be seen along the way in. Anything which was even slightly unsightly, like the area under an overpass, was covered with trees and plants and looked beautiful.

I am sure there are poorer areas, in fact, where I am staying in Little India is one. Even though the area is old it is not derelict.

The motorists obey traffic laws and even stop for pedestrians on cross walks. I have become so accustomed to running for my life at times that I did it today and the fellow in the stopped car just smiled.

OK, I will admit to being a somewhat seasoned traveller now. I was just thinking that mere months ago I would not have just showed up in Singapore and gone to a hostel booked online in the Little India inner city area and not given it a second thought.

Tomorrow I am going to get me a map and go mix it up with some subway trains.

More of KL as the locals call it. Feb 25

This is my corner store. It has theaters and play parks and is the biggest mall in Malaysia.
I didn't even go inside.

I started my day at Chinatown. The thing which looks like a slide in the background is a roof over the main shopping street.

An old building just outside the China town market area.

Silk cherry blossoms at a restaurant.

Looking at one of those crazy narrow buildings as I head into the Central Market.

The entrance to the Central Market street.

There are some stands outside but it is not like the markets I have become accustomed to. This one, in the white building on the left is air conditioned and pretty upscale.

The gates of the Palace.

They don't allow tourists at all but we saw the changing of the guard.

The driveway is very long and you can't see much of what is down there.

There are two mounted guards outside the fence........

and two guards on foot.

Here we are at Little India.

The main shopping street is very decorative. They welcome tourists but it is evident that the community also shop here.

I ate at a buffet there. There were no heat, mild heat and hot choices. I chose the no heat options which were hot to me. Nuff said!

Hibiscus flowers on the lamp posts in the park area. I looked it up and as I suspected it is their National flower.

Here is a flower on a nearby Hibiscus bush which is kind of wilted because it had been recently planted.

Independence Square where the Malaysian flag replaced the British one in 1957.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building built in 1897 is now used as government offices.

It resembles the Mosques of Cairo.

Another beautiful building near the square.

Anglican Cathedral of St. Mary built in 1894 is the oldest church in Malaysia.

Well that was my day.

I talked to my travel agent in the late afternoon and he didn't come up with anything so I booked a bus ticket for tomorrow morning to Singapore. That just means I will probably keep booking the travel piece by piece as the best flight prices seem to be with the local airline of the country you are in.

I was hoping to get some kind of a plan so I could book the flight to Canada but I will keep looking and trust it will work itself out.