Phuket was of course one of the many disaster zones of the tsunami in 2004, but it is great to see that the island has bounced back and is thriving again. I actually visited one of the worst hit areas which was Nai Yang Beach. The resort that I went to, the Indigo Pearl Hotel Phuket, was brand new and to be honest it was one of the nicest hotels I have ever been to. As we only went for a few days we thought we would spoil ourselves and go to a nice hotel with a kids club, nice pools, next to a beach and beautiful grounds.

Selecting hotels by the way is not one of my favorite activities. It always seems to take too much time and even after all that work you are never quite sure if you made the right decision. I now often use tripadvisor.com for travel reviews and advice and then either book my hotel through hotelclub.com or go to ratestogo.com or wotif.com for last minute bookings.

As mentioned this time I was very pleased with my choice. I have never been in a hotel room that I just wanted to wrap up and take with me. But here the interior architecture was just superb and a lot of attention had been paid to detail. The whole design was inspired by a tin mine and all the products in the room, the textured walls, colours, the decor and details reflected that. I booked the Pearl Bed room and we had a huge balcony with an outside batch and a large daybed with a view over the gardens and the infinity pool. This was perfect for lazying around in the evenings and reading books.

The beach was perhaps not the greatest but for us it was perfect. A cosy little bay with quiet water, nice deck chairs with parasols and residing water in the afternoon so that my son could play soccer on the beach. The water was so warm you could swim there all day and in the evening we enjoying watching the beautiful sunset.

On our second day we decided to discover the island and hired a taxi with driver (about US70 for a day). We had a look at busy Patong Beach which is the place to go if you want to party a lot. This town is full of tourists, restaurants and pubs. I wasn’t too keen on the atmosphere or the beach there so wouldn’t stay there myself.  A few minutes drive away from Patong, we found a lovely minigolf (my son just LOVES minigolf) which was beautifully made and had a dinossaur theme. They also had a lovely cafe where we had lunch.

Our next stop was Kata Beach. This was actually a lovely town with a wonderful beach. Beautiful sand and blue water and lots of waves which are great for boogie surfing. This may be a better place to go if you have older children that want a bit more wave action.

We then proceeded to follow to the south and had a quick visit to Phuket Town.

The next day we went out by bus and boat to see some of the nearby islands like Ko Phi Phi Le island  (Ao Maya beach which is where the movie “The Beach” was filmed) and Khai Island.  Here you will see some of the most amazing scenery and beautiful fish. We snorkelled and could spend a few hours on a lovely spot where we could do some more snorkeling and sun bathing.

We  spent our last day relaxing on our “own” Nai Yang Beach and enjoyed the wonderful scenery of beuatiful Phuket and our lovely hotel. All in all I can say that Phuket is definitly worth a visit. The nature is astonishing, the climate fantastic, the people very friendly and if you enjoy an architecturally designed hotel inspired by a tin mine then definitely try out the Indigo Pearl in Phuket.

Merlion, symbol of Singapore

As you may know I currently live in Singapore and as I have had quite a few questions on what living in Singapore is like, I thought I would tell you more about it in the form of a Singapore travel report. I think I’m going to make this a regular feature on this site and will aim to have travel reports of all interesting cities around the world. Of course I’m not an expert in all of them so if you want to write a travel report for your city then please drop me a note.

Singapore is a city in South East Asia and it is situated just underneath Malaysia and to the West of Indonesia. It is a very small island and presently has about 5 million inhabitants. It is very tropical and hot with temperatures always above 30C. It usually only rains about once a day for about half an hour but there are also periods (like now) when there is hardly and periods when there is more.

The majority of the population are chinese descendants that came to Singapore in the early 1800s to work in the newly established port. Most of them speak mandarin although everyone in Singapore is taught in English with mandarin and Malay also being taught. The other 3 population groups are the malays, the indians and the caucasians. All these groups have a very different culture and practice a different religion but Singapore prides itself on its diversity and everyone here seems to get on well.

Singapore is a very clean and safe place to live which is one of the reasons I like being here. All the streets are really clean and look beautiful and in many places they are surrounded by lush tree and plants.

So what can you do here as a tourist?

Explore the different cultures

Singapore is the perfect place to go if you want to have a taste of Asia, but still like the luxury of a very clean city, people that speak english and fantastic shopping. Although it is a very modern city there are still places in Singapore where you can still experience the  asian culture.

Places to visit

• Arab street: this is the traditional neighborhood of the Malay people. You can find the mosque here and some wonderful quaint streets with little shops.
• Little India:  As soon as you step foot in this part of town, most of the people on the streets are Indian as are the restaurants and shops and you really get a sense of being in India.
• Chinatown: lovely antique shops, temples and many beautiful old shopshouses makes this a fun place to explore.
• Raffles Hotel: this place served as a place of tranquility for the Europeans in colonial times. Today it is a lovely place to explore the museum, browse through some shops, have a drink at the long bar or sit on the outside terrace.

Enjoy the nightlife

Although Singapore seems to have a reputation of being ‘boring” the city is working hard to get rid of this image. The formula 1 race is now held here once a year and 2 casinos are being built. There are already many nice cafes and restaurants here.  I just love to go outside in the evening with minimal clothes on when the temperature is so lovely and sit at one of the many terraces outside.

Places I like:

• Clarke quay: if you think that Singapore is not a happening place then visit Clarke quay. A very bustling part of town with many trendy restaurants, bars and nightclubs. One place I like there is the 1NiteStand comedy bar where they have excellent stand-up comedy and life bands.
• Although I now prefer Clarke Quay this is still a fun and happening place where many expats and tourists hang out.
• Dampsey Hill: this used to be where the former british army barracks were, but it has now been turned into a trendy area with upmarket restaurants and specialty shops.
• Holland village: a fun and casual place to meet up for drinks, coffee or visit one of the many restaurants.
• Raffles Hotel long bar: traditionally THE place to go for a Singapore sling.
• Hawker centers: if you want to eat the Singaporean way try one of the many hawker center where you can eat very cheaply.

Enjoy beautiful nature walks

Few cities are as green and luscious as Singapore. There are many places to go for a stroll and discover new trees and plants. Here are some of my favourites:

• Singapore botanical gardens: beautiful big park with wonderful gardens
• Bukit Timah nature reserve: for those that want to be in the jungle and have a more challenging walk
• McRitchie nature reserve: lots of lovely and peaceful walks here.  From here you can also do the Tree Top Walk which gives you a different perspective on the Singapore’s trees.
• The Singapore zoo is a beautiful nature walk all by itself. The zoo grounds are wonderfully lush and of course it’s fun to encounter some amazing animals along the way.

Lots of activities for the kids

Singapore has a lot of interesting activities for children

• Forest adventure: a fun and challenging course accross trees and over water. Children love this!
• Sentosa Island: too many activities here. Some examples are: The luge, butterfly garden, laser show, trapeze, underwater world, dolphins, images of Singapore museum, beach, airlifts, dinossaaur walk, etc. If you are traveling with kids then this would be the best place to stay.
• Zoo and Night Safari: I believe that Singapore’s zoo is one of the best (if not the best) zoo in the world. Both zoo and night safari are fantastic so that will be a tough choice to make (or you can just do both)
• Wet and Wild and Jurong Swimming complex: fun places for swimming, complete with lazy rivers and slides
• Jacob Ballas children’s garden in the botanical gardens: a lovely free playground for the kids with water, cubby houses, slides etc (and shade for the parents to sit and chat). The botanical gardens also have a lot of ducks and fish that children love to feed.
• East Coast Park: this is a park next to the sea, although you should not expect to do a lot of swimming here. People come here for walking, rollerblading, cycling but there are also lots of activitties like a fair, watersports, sailing, taiqi, fishing etc.

Go Shopping!

Singapore is famous for its shopping which is the people’s favorite pass time. There are so many malls here that I don’t think I will ever be able to visit them all. Check these ones out:

• General shopping: The most famous shopping street in Singapore is Orchard Road.  Ngee Ann City is the home of Takashimaya, a big Japanese superstore. You will find many of the major brands here, and also the great book store Kinokuniya. You can walk from Ngee Ann City to Wisma Atria where there is a great variety of shops. Paragon is opposite Ngee Ann city and has a good variety of shops also. Another favorite is Singapore’s newest mall Vivo City which is close to Sentosa.
• Sports: for sport shoes and lots of other sports articles go to Queensway shopping centre. But my personal favorite, as many of my local sport friends will know, is the The Velocity Sports Mall at Novena square for some great deals on Adidas clothes.
• Computers and electronics: Lots of variety of electronics and computers at Sim Lim Square. Another good one (less messy) is Funan DigitaLife mall. A good place for bargaining for electronics on Orchard Road is Lucky Plaza.
• Singaporean: for chinese products head to the Yue Hwa store. Arab street is good for baskets, textiles, mats and dry goods. In the Tekka Centre you can buy gold, (muslim) food and clothes.
• Children: The Forum shopping mall tends to be focussed on children but it is very expensive.

Close to Singapore

One of the great things of living in Singapore is that it is so close to a lot of other interesting places and you can take advantage of that as a visitor too. Malaysia, Indonesia (Bali), Thailand and other interesting countries are only a few hours away. So if you would like to visit Singapore but still would like some relaxing days on a nice beach then you can combine it with a tropical beach in one of those countries. The closest to Singapore is Bintan Island which is a small Island in Indonesia. It’s very easy to get there from Singapore with a 40 min trip by ferry.

Of course I’ve only scratched the surface on all the things you can do here. To know more you will need to buy a good guide book like Malaysia and Singapore (Eyewitness Travel Guides).

I hope you will find the time to visit Singapore and feel free to leave your own comments below. If you want to get more travel reports or keep up to date with all other articles in this site then you can subscribe to the RSS feed or get any updates by email.