Hello everyone!  We have just completed our first tour, held in the Raffles Place and City Hall areas.  Throughout this tour, we were able to see the contrast between the old and the new with towering skyscrapers shadowing traditional buildings such as those that make up The Fullerton Heritage.  Although it is mainly a financial district, there are still plenty of interesting things to see here!

We started our tour by travelling to Raffles Place station via the MRT, Singapore's world-class train system.  Coming out of the station we were greeted by two sculpture: Salvador Dali's 'Homage to Newton' and Fernando Botero's 'Bird'.  Both sculptures were bigger than we thought they would be!  According to the sign on the 'Bird' sculpture, "The bird is traditionally associated with peace and serenity.  The three-dimensional Bird by Botero also signifies the joy of living and the power of optimism."

                                                 'Bird' by Fernando Botero

Heading towards the waterfront, we arrived at The Fullerton Heritage -- a series of carefully restored Art Deco buildings which house a myriad of neat dining outlets as well as other activities.  The four places which make up this series are the old Customs House, Clifford Pier, The Fullerton Hotel and The Fullerton Waterboat House.  The Customs House on Clifford Pier is home to many of the coolest restaurants and bars.  New developments nestled among these historical buildings include The Fullerton Bay Hotel and One Fullerton, a shopping mall overlooking the waterfront.  We stopped by Frostbite for delicious, flavorful popsicles before making our way back to Raffles Place station.  Some strange flavors sold at the gourmet popsicle shop include coconut rambutan, raspberry bubblegum and watermelon lemon!

                                             Customs House at Clifford Pier

Just one stop away at City Hall station, we hop off the train and arrive at Raffles City Shopping Centre.  In the basement of the mall, tons of creative little snack kiosks can be found.  Some favorites of ours include Once Upon a Milkshake, Best Fries forever and awfullychocolate.  We ordered nacho cheese fries from Best Fries Forever, which serves many different flavors of fries cut and fried to order.  They really were some of the best fries we've tasted!

A little while later, we're using the CityLink underpass to get to Suntec City Shopping Centre, home to a koi fish garden and the Fountain of Wealth.  On our way there, we stop by Il Gelato di Bruno for Italian gelato and Hershey's Chocolate World to take a look around.  How could we not go in when there are entire walls filled with Reese's and other delicious Hershey's products??  There must be at least 30 flavors of Hershey's kisses in there.  You can even buy one of the world's largest Hershey's bars, which are about two feet wide, one foot tall and 2 inches thick!

                                                              Reese's!

With newly bought chocolate, we continue on our way to see the Fountain of Wealth, which is the world's largest fountain.  It is located outdoors where passers-by can get a view from above.  There are also laser light shows from 8 to 9:30 every night, making the fountain one of the area's brightest attractions.  Feng Shui masters claim that those who touch the water from the fountain will receive good fortune.  Suntec City itself is a great place to see the influence of Feng Shui.  The fact that the five buildings appear as a left hand when viewed from above and the Fountain of Wealth are both some examples of this.

We soon start to get hungry and we know the perfect place to grab a good meal.  We hop in a cab and off we go to Lau Pa Sat Festival Market -- one of Singapore's largest and most popular hawker food centres, famous for it's satay (skewered barbecued meat served with rice cakes and a spicy peanut sauce).  Other popular local dishes that can be found here include chilli crab, fish head curry and rojak, which is a salad of fruits, vegetables and fried crullers tossed in shrimp paste and sprinkled with peanuts.  With our stomachs full, we head home to rest after a long day out.

                                                                 Satay

NOTE Unfortunately, we had to cancel some parts of this tour due to unforeseen circumstances (a.k.a. rain). with this in mind, we will be including the things that got rained out this time round, such as the Fountain of Wealth, in another nearby tour.

REFERENCE

• MRT:  Mass Rapid Transit.  Trains arrive every 5 minutes or less and run from 6am to midnight every day.  Tickets can be bought for a dollar or two.
• Malls and Shopping Centres:  Almost everywhere you go on the island, a mall is just a stone's throw away.  
• Underpass:  An underground pedestrian tunnel used to get from place to place.  These are convenient and are found mainly in the city area and at MRT stations.

To view the entire photo set, click here.

Thank you for reading!

Hello readers!  As we have very recently opened this site, please be patient while we prepare for the first tour, which will be Raffles Place and City Hall.  We will try to do at least one tour every two weeks or so, so there should not be too long of a break in between each one.

If you have suggestions of places to go that are not already listed or if you would like to see something in particular, please let us know through our links or leave a comment in the comment box!  Also let us know if you would like to subscribe to our site.  By subscribing, you will receive an e-mail each time we post a new article.

Enjoy reading!