April 2004 - We took Singapore Airlines to Jakarta, this gave us a stopover in Singapore and a chance for me to purchase a new Nikon D70 camera. I had been trying to get one for a while... It was first released in Feb while I was in Vancouver, but no one had any.. I found one in Bangkok in March, but it was more than I wanted to pay. In April they were released in Australia, but as with most imported goods it was around $500 more than the US price.

We had a two day stopover... well, at least one and a half. We checked in to our hotel and and made a beeline for the nearest shopping district... picking up a big ice cream sandwich on the way to cool down.

I like Singapore, though admittedly there is not that much to it. It's much cleaner than Bangkok, and the shopping is as good as HK. It wasn't long before I'd found a couple of cameras and was playing the business card haggle game.
This is where you argue with a shopkeeper for the lowest price and then get him to write it down on the back of his business card. Then you go on to the next shop and show the card to that shopkeeper, who will promptly groan in dismay then offer you a slightly better price. Get in on a card and move on! Works well, unless the shopkeepers are all family or something. I got a great deal before dinner time, which left the whole next day free to explore.

Even though it is an island, Singapore is not renowned for its beaches, like say Langkawi in Malaysia or Phuket in Thailand. What it does have is the little resort island of Sentosa, located a little way south of the main island.
We got there via a cable car that travels over the small waterway between the islands... I was ofcourse happily taking every available photo oppurtunity with my new camera.
In the picture above you can see what Sentosa looks like as you approach from above. The half lion/Fish statue is called a Merlion and is the national symbol of Singapore.

Once on Sentosa we walked through the nice park where the Merlion lives and (you guessed it) took a few more photos. We then walked onto Sentosa beach proper where I took the picture below as well as the main top photo.
I was surprised to learn that the sand on these beaches is imported from near Perth in Western Australia. This meant I had come halfway around the world and I was still frolicking on an aussie beach... well sort of.

Next we walked up to a nearby resort hotel where we enjoyed a well earned cold drink. We then took a small tour on the little train they have running around the island where we learnt a little about the history of Singapore during World War II, when the island was occupied by the Japanese Army. After that we returned via cable car to the mainland and did a bit more shopping. The last photo shows the bay between the islands on the return trip.