¹ – Debit card I’m using abroad and for internet shopping is connected to an account that has just a few euros on it. When I want to buy something, I transfer the money to it using online banking. This way, even if someone stills the data you left online, he can’t rob you of anything.
I strongly recommend this practice.

After quite a bit of fuss to get the visas (getting them from Serbia is getting more and more difficult) Ana and I went to our honeyweek. :) Chosen destination: Paris, France.
My first option was to drive-through Central Europe, visiting Budapest, Prague and Vienna, staying in each for few days and then getting back to Serbia. However, given the fact that Ana was close to 7th month of pregnancy (I’m in for the most interesting and exciting summer of my life ;)) at the time of travel, we changed it to just one city.

I tend to write extended posts whenever I travel, both to help other visitors and to have a reference for myself, during possible future visit. Michael’s post and the comments in it were very helpful – I hope this post will prove just as useful.

Commuting

My uncle lives in Paris; actually in Pontault Combault, small town about 20km from Paris. That was really helpful for us, as none of us speak French very well and having someone in the first few days to guide you is great. For instance, my cousin Suzana (their daughter) advised them to get us weekly travel tickets (for which my uncle did not even know). The tickets are amazing savers: for €31 you get one week of unlimited travels through Zones 1–5, which includes Metro, RER and Trains, plus all the buses. Pontault Combault is in Zone 5 thus you can imagine how much area such ticket covers. From PC to St. Lazare station (central Paris) RER E train needs 25mins. RER goes to Versailles as well (line C).

RER is similar to metro – the difference is that metro (14 lines) operates in Paris alone, while RER goes to suburbs and near-by towns. Additional train lines cover wider Paris area. They interconnect nicely and all of them operate extremely on time. There was not one instance that anything was late or early – each train gets in 15s more or less from advertised time. Coming from Serbia, that’s unthinkable.

In general, get this ticket and forget about any other commute expenses. You need a photo and at least a postal code and area where you are staying in Paris (tickets usually require full address, but this would do). Pay attention to keep the ticket away from mobile phone and keys, as it can easily be de-magnetized. Exchange for new one is easy on any station, but save yourself the hassle.

Space…lots of it

I have seen large streets, I have seen large parks…but I have never seen 2×6-lane avenues in the dead center of the city. When you stand at Place l’Etoile and look along the Champs Elysee or from the top of Arc de Triomphe, it’s an amazing view. Huge streets, under straight lines. Then you walk to Concorde and again stand amazed at the amount of open space. It’s breath-taking.

Do not make a mistake – wear extremely comfortable shoes because you will be walking very, very much. Ana and I probably did something like 100km over the course of 7 days. Paris is amazingly flat (apart from Montmartre) and it’s inviting to hike around.

If you care about architecture and historical background, take a look at Walking in Paris articles horribly coded web site, but good content from Paris Eiffel Tower News.

Getting around

On the first day, locate the map/visitor shop (there are plenty of them all over central Paris) and pick up Michelin’s pocket map to Paris. It’s has a map of larger Paris streets, all the metro, train and RER lines as well as all the bus lines. This will help you get a sense of direction, where things are.

In parts with lots of small streets, like Montmartre, you will need a more details map if you want to find precise route. We did not have much problems, as you can always ask. But make sure you ask in French first. First it’s polite to at least try to communicate with people on their own language and second – you have a lot more chance to get an answer. Even if they don’t speak english, they will try to help if you say Bonjour, parlais-vous anglais?. In popular tourist attractions, chances you will encounter more foreigners than local people, so it might be easier.

From this point, it’s strictly your preferences that will guide you. Do you want to stroll, visit museums, Latin Quarter or Montmartre, experience French cuisine…

We did a bit of everything…until I manage to write about it all, here are 200+ photographs from the trip.

LotR is put on stage at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, a theatre with a very colorful and rich history spanning 4 centuries. It’s located just off the Covent Garden, on Catherine St. A lovely building and a huge auditorium inside. I purchased my ticket over a phone just 3h prior to 19:30 show. It was a ticket for the balcony. Having been only to Serbian theathres, I would describe this “balcony” more like one story over the roof. The stage is clearly visible and sound and speech are perfectly carried up, but it’s impossible to see the faces. Even with looking glass which cost 50p to pickup and use.
If you go, buy your self a lower seat (30+ pounds).

The play

As soon as you enter, a elaborate stage awaits you, with huge ring in the center. A wonderful breath-taking setup, without any doubt. There’s a pre-show, that starts 15mins earlier, with Hobits having fun at the stage.

How good it was? Well, this certainly is a huge challenge. For anyone who have read the LotR, it is obvious that it takes a lot of courage to portray this even remotely properly. There is so much going on, that even 12h long movie that Peter Jackson and his team did was not enough and required a large changes in original story.
The same applies here. The story line is different from the movie. It is also very different from the books, most notably in Acts II and III. Really different.

The production is amazing. Lighting, special effects, atmosphere, scene movements, it really is great. There were several “aagh” and “oooh” from the audience during the show. The theatre allows far more singing than the movie. There are so much songs in the book and the writers really relied on them to make a compelling show. Almost all of the characters sing and, boy, do they sing. My personal favourites were performances by Galadriel and Legolas (sorry girls, no Bloom here) . Such a clear and powerful voices, they had me pinned to the edge of the seat.
Unfortunately, sometimes lyrics were hard to understand, when there was a loud orchestra background music.

If I had to take the pick, Act I is the best. The storyline is closest to the book, the stage effects are still fresh and the pace of the story is inviting. Act II is the weakest part I think, where so much things – I approximate more than half the books – were cramped in 15-20mins. However, the opening of the Act II is one of the best character entries in the entire show, if not the best. I won’t tell you what it is, it would spoil the fun and excitement.

Act III was ok, with emphasis on the Frodo and Sam and with fantastic scene of the ring destruction. That really blew me away and was an astounding use of several actors for one character.

Verdict: 3.5/5

Go and see it. You will have a good time. It lasts 3h (with one 20min interval after Act I) and apart from 20mins of Act II everything else is good to superb.

Just bring a few bottles of water with you, as it is very, very hot and humid inside. You can buy water inside too, if you forget to do it. In the lobby, you can buy mugs and t-shirts and other memorabilia. The long-sleeve logo t-shirt is nice and thin, thus it’s ok for the summer. I’m not sure about the cotton quality though – it remains to be seen how it will survive repeated washing.

I’m at the Thistle city Barbican hotel, thus if you are attending the conference and staying there, let me know so we can have a few drinks.

My brother Damir is coming from Sweden and I’m certain the conference would be a great experience. I’m really looking forward to meet more people.

This was far from easy decision to make and I thought about it for a very long time. Eventually, I decided that much higher cost of buying powerful laptop vs powerful desktop will be justified with increased versatility and freedom of movement. The laptop was bought in UK and it proved to be a real eye-opener regarding business practice of some of the IT shops in London. A fishy practice.

Why

I live in Belgrade, Serbia’s capitol city. I was not born here though and my mom lives 300km south, in the small town of Pirot. Chances to go there are rare, due to high volume of work. It would be much easier if I could bring my work with me.
Until recently, I used shitty modem connection (ADSL finally arrived) and in Pirot I also only have modem connection. Some of the stuff I do would be done much quicker if I could get my computer somewhere where I have faster Internet connection (not viable with full tower case).

What

Using laptop as my main and only computer means that it should be blazing fast, durable and stable. I do web design / development work, but that does not mean just web server, editor and Photoshop. It’s IIS/ASP, Apache/PHP, Photoshop, MS SQL Server, MySQL, TopStylePro, virtual machines (through VMWare Player) and all kinds of auxiliary utilities. It also means DVD/CD read and write, movie play with 5.1 surround audio and music listening on external 5.1 speakers. It means bluetooth connections for my phone. And all the other things one could think of doing on the computer.

Important details was that I did not want to drag some large brick around. I toyed with idea of 17″ laptop (since I would mostly be using it at home) but few company trips during which I either used 14″ iBook G4 or 15″ Dell Latitude D600 was enough to convince me against it. First it’s heavy. Second, bulky enough to not be able to open them in bus or plane seat.

Hence, 12–13″ range. Which means small screen, possible lack of all required ports and high price. As designer, I need lots of desktop space. As movie fan, I need large screen to properly enjoy epic spectacles I’m into. Which naturally leads to external display, where I settled in on 23inchers which I still have not bought, which is another story.

Oh, the choice…

Here in Serbia, market offer for both high-class laptops and large monitors is close to non-existing. One can get HP, Dell, Asus and Fujitsu Siemens with hit and miss chance to buy some other brands. 90% of the models are the cheapest ones. There was no Sony, no Samsung, stronger Asus models in traces, few LGs which became obsolete by the time they finally appeared here. There are Apples too, for something like 30% higher price than in UK.
It’s really depressing, hence I waited for a chance to go abroad and buy there. It eventually happened in the first half of May when I went to UK on business, for 10 days. More than enough to lurk around, try out models and decide.

For months before, I scoured notebookreview.com and all other hardware sites looking for possible candidates. I can’t even remember for how much models I said “this is the one!” :), only to change my mind two days after. Eventually, I settled with Samsung X11, Asus W3J, LG T1, Sony SZ and…Apple MacBookPro. Oh, Apple…somewhere in the back of my mind, a dark force was calling me to switch. Reasonable part of me told me that Windows on Apple hardware is not ready for prime time yet, but the possibility to use both OSX and Win at the same time was really, really tempting. Even if it was above my screen size target.

So, naturally, I went to Apple Store on Regent Street and anchored at the MBPs. I first wanted to check the much publicized heat issue. Oh boy, was it easy to check – place your palm on top left corner of the keyboard and if you can keep them there for more than 15s, I salute you. Reviews was chock full about the high working temperatures of MBP, but this was just too much. I don’t really care if Apple thinks it to be normal or does they call MBP notebook computer and never a laptop – that thing is scorching.

So scratch Apple. After much checks and tries, I settled on Sony SZ1XP/C, a wonderful beast with some nasty tentacles, of which I already wrote.

Where

Tottenham Court Road in London contains 40 or so IT shops and it’s a natural place to go when you want to buy or simply check the notebooks in person. I think I made at least 3–5 visits to each store, checking and re-checking my target notebooks. Although I initially wanted Samsung X11, somehow it did not lure into buying after hands-on tests. I don’t know exactly what, but I think that the fact it had worse spec than Sony SZ1 and plus being larger drove me off.

Thus I bought SZ1, with free 3-year business next-day warranty being thrown in by the salesman at MBA store. MBA…or Microworld 2000…or I have no idea. While the salesman was very helpful and the entire shopping was a pleasant experience, the stuff that happened later on added a really bad smell to it all.

Since I’m from outside EC, I’m eligible for VAT refund. In UK, that’s 17.5%, which is added to original price. In case of this purchase, that amount was something like £230. Salesman told me that there is an administrative charge of £10 – I got used to the fact that most shops in UK do this and which I classify as screwing the customer. I have already shopped in several UK stores, and I know for a fact that this admin charge is nothing but a way for them to retain some of that money – since few shops do return you entire amount.

VAT refund in UK is similar to any other country – you get a form where seller fills up details about the shopping + shop details. Then, when you go to the airport or leave UK any other way, you pay a short visit to HM Customs which stamps the form and you send it back to the shop by post, along with your details filled in. Sometimes the Customs officer keep the form and send it himself/herself. When it gets to the shop, they pay you back to your card.

I believe you noticed the subtle fact that you will receive the money based on business honesty of the shop. And that is where MBA shopping went fishy. Because money did not show up on my card account for the next 3 months.

As it happens, I made copies of the form before sending it and in August, when I went for another business trip, I brought the papers with me and visited the shop. I asked for the manager, showed the form and ask them what happened – did the form not arrived or there were other problems. The guy went to some other shop, returned after 10 minutes and told me to comeback in the morning, they will sort it out. Sounded fine.

In the morning, he walked me to nearby shop which I thought is the administrative office. Actually, it turned out to be a place where 5 different companies are located, one desk and few drawers. Here is where I started to think something unusual is happening. I thought that the form was lost in post (I sent it form Serbia) – but they actually pulled a very large register and located my original form. It did arrive but they simply filed it and forgot about it.
Second thing is that instead of mentioned £10 charge, they charged me 3.5% of the entire price (with VAT included) which turned to be £50! I complained about it, but the guy told me the salesman got it wrong in the first place. I thought about pushing that issue but realized I have no time to spend for it. He gave me the cheque and told me I can cash it in nearby Lloyds bank office. I went there and the clerk told me that it is personal cheque and that I can only put the money in my accont in the same bank, but I can’t receive cash. The MBA person knew very well that I could not use the cheque (as I can’t possibly open an account in the UK) but still gave me that.

After this, really pissed off, I went back to the shop and demanded to be payed in cash and not be walked around anymore. You should see the charade happening then. A new guy showed up, then he called another one, all three of them talked quietly and in a dialect (or language) I did not understood a single word of (it reminded me about Snatch scene when Brad Pitt’s gypsy character is speaking very fast and Turkish asks the other guy did you understand anything he said). After 6–7 minutes of this show, the first guy finally picked up an envelope and payed me in cash.
They actually counted on the fact that with enough fooling around I would give up.

After all this, I strongly recommend to stay out of MBA shops (although the receipt and the bag said Microworld 2000 – could be the same company). The way these people operate is very, very fishy. I wonder is there’s an office one could report such practices, because they are basically stealing the money. They should have payed the VAT to the state, but with my form properly filled and stamped they could keep the money and still say to the tax office (I don’t know its name in UK) look, we did pay it back through this.
The way VAT refund scheme works in UK really opens up such possibilities. It would be better if VAT refunds would always be given back at the airports, and the shops always pay the tax. Sadly, it is not the case.

These days, Belgrade is murky, clouded, depressive city, thus the move to sunny beaches was a great gateaway opportunity. I personally had hellish work weeks before it (and similar would follow) so this short break was really welcome. We stayed in Melia El Mouradi hotel in Yasmine, Hammamet – a tourist resort with huge hotels. Everything is shiny and luxurious and pretty expensive. Since we arrived late at night, there was nothing to see from the bus. Thus I got glimpse of what real Tunisia is like on the way back to the airport. It reminded me a lot to south Serbia which is not very complimenting.

The lovely Mediterranean Sea and wonderful sand beaches are definitely the biggest selling point for Yasmine. This is by far the best beach I have ever been to – although I haven’t been to too many since I prefer mountains over seas. We played beach volleyball, flew the parachute and rode the banana (both driven by motor boats) and generally had a very good time.

Last night we all went to cabaret restaurant Chahrazed (I think that’s the correct spelling). Simple two-part dinner was followed by what most of us thought would be one belly dancer putting (something like) 10-minute show and that’s it. It turns out that its a whole show that would eventually last almost an hour. Frankly, I have no idea how long it lasted. I was so mesmerized by the beautiful girls that I forgot about the dinner, time and everything else. Richly designed and very colourful costumes, greatly rehearsed dancing and beautiful girls (did I already said that?) – completely captivating. When they got up on the tables in the end…let me just tell you that it’s not for the weak hearts.

Sadly, this was not the only thing that followed this dinner. Practically all of us got rather severe stomach problems. I had troubles mere 2–3 hours after the dinner was over, my sister last night (whole two days later). Some got it pretty bad (like fever-high temps), some so and so. But in general, we were all screwed. I’m most sorry that my all-night toilet party robed me completely of the swim & play experience the next day (we headed back in the evening of the next day). I’m still feeling consequences, but it does not hinder (too much) my weekend routine.

Hence – be warned – African food/water is most likely not compatible with us Europeans.

There are other things that I did not like in Tunisia and some that really pissed me off, but I have no wish to write about them now…You see, when I close my eyes I still see this lovely-skinned belly half a meter from my head. And if food poison is the price to pay for this show, I would gladly pay it again.

Sentosa is Singapore’s island gateway, a former WW2 military base turned into fantastic excursion target. To say that is a must-see is an understatement.

Getting there…

I looked for ways to get there. There are planned visits, organized tours and things like that. However, I wanted to learn to get around on my own. For instance, I never used any public transport apart from the cabs, which would be sufficient if it wasn’t for the long taxi queues. The reports at the Virtual Tourist website suggest that MRT is highly enjoyable way of traveling around, thus I went on my own.

Merlion – the symbol of Singapore. This is the biggest one

Closest MRT station to Rendezvous is Dhobi Ghaut, from where using the North-East line I went to HarbourFront station. From there, Mount Faber is short ride away. And then, the only minus-point of the day – the cable car is not working due to maintenance works. :( I was really looking forward to the landscape shots.
Well, to avoid the disappointment, make sure you check the availability of the high ride. If not, you might end up like me – stumbling around the shops, passing long cruise-liner queues, going from one bus terminal to another only to find out that those are for hotel-hired buses. Whenever anyone points you in some direction, it is hard to realize that you actually need to cross the road, back to the MRT exits for Sentosa bus terminals. Nice, air-conditioned (did you doubt they would be?) buses takes you to Sentosa Visitors Arrival Centre in under 5 minutes. Yes, it’s that close. I should have taken a cab.

One of the scenes from inside of Merlion

…and enjoying it

From here, do not make a mistake and do buy Sentosa Experience Package for 25$. I’ve seen people not do it, and later paying higher prices to enter the Sky Tower or Merlion. The package includes Merlion, Sky Tower, Fort Siloso and Images of Singapore. All very worthy, more or less – depending on your interests.

Wonderful scene setups from Images of Singapore

Sentosa is choke full of various attractions and can be hard to pick a trail. There are so many things to see, that if you want to see at least the half of it, you better start early. Really early. First buses to Sentosa go around 9.
Me? I arrived after the noon and had no idea what to see first. So, I did what I always do in situations like that: I waited for the first bus, took it, and got down at first thing to see. You see, there are 4 bus lines operating on the island. All are free with the admission ticket. Blue line is the largest one and that is the one I got in. Thus I went to Merlion, the Singapore’s symbol. Nothing much to see inside, apart from the great photo opportunity and a chance to hear the myth of Singapore’s birth.

The letter writer – back in times lots of people were iliterate and this was an interesting job

The signing of agreement which founded Singapore

A little up from there is Images from Singapore, my personal highlight of the attractions. Not because of the history – although I read most of the panels – but because of the wonderful, extremely detailed scene setups. I am always amazed at the level of the detail creators reach, both here and in London (in the Royal Foot Regiment museum for instance). And this place is huge. Really huge. and there so many things see if you are history lover. Count that you’ll spend at least an hour here.
At the exit, there is Tastes of Singapore restaurant, with wonderful choice of food. The staff is extremely hospitable making it more than pleasant experience. I got Indian Thandori chicken with rice, plus strawberry tart and tea. It’s plenty and it’s great. I was there around 2:30, making a middle of my visit, thus the perfect time to eat. I ate too much. Took me 15-20mins to get up from the chair.

Sky Tower

Adjacent to it is Sky Tower – 135m high view on an already hilly island. A rather short ride, but with a wonderful view of Singapore City and Harbour. Be ready to be awed and start up camera mode, as cradle is rotating. No panorama options there and single pictures do not do justice to the view – simply fire up the camera and enjoy. I bought a beautiful wooden lamp in the adjacent shop for 25S$.

Underwater world

From there, I had no idea what next. Musical fountain is not working – probably only great at the night. Thus I entered the Green Line and went to Underwater world. Green Line is the only line using non-aircon buses, but some old open-air ones. Take them as often as you can – natural breeze feels much better than artificial one.
Underwater world is the most hyped-up of all the attractions and maybe that’s why it did not work for me. Yes, it’s great to walk while fishes goes all over you, but it’s too short and…I simply expected much more. Fort Siloso is a short walk above it, completing all the package experiences I bought. If you are WW2 history fun, this is definitely the place to visit. Again, excellent scene setups, 60 or something kept canons etc. I know a friend who would probably have spent half a day there. :)

Fort Siloso

I did a small stroll through the Siloso Beach but did not got wet. It was 5:17 at that point and Dolphin Lagoon is on the other side of the Island. However, faith decided that Red Line bus was at the station which went directly there. I jumped in and after about 6-7mins was there and barely got time to find my ticket and enter for the last show at 5:30 pm.

Siloso beach – slowly getting its future shape

Now, this was my second favourite. It’s not much of a show, but the dolphins…man, if someone told me that bright-pink dolphins exists I would not have believed it for a million years. They look so unreal that you got to see them to believe. During the show, you have two chances to raise your arm and be picked to touch them or even be kissed by them. They are so cute, so smart, real pleasure to watch them play around. Really, really rare opportunity – do not even think not to visit them. If you come here just to see them, it’s worth the time. They are that cool.

Pink dolphins. Pink!

Now, at 6pm I decided it is time to go back – I’m in Singapore on business reasons, after all :). I don’t know what are regulations, but Sentosa is so nice that I would have slept on the beach and continued the exploration tomorrow and even went for a swim – although water is not very attractive…or so I heard.

Few tips

• If you need to change the money, do it in the town – rates for Euros are 1.9, while in the town is 2, 2.03 or something like that. 10S$ loss on 100€
• If you carrying the backpack, then bring lots of water. On the island, half-liter bottles are 2S$. And you will need lots of them – I drank like 3l. Cheaper in the city. Again, maybe even not that cheaper for you haul 3l from the city.
• Dolphin Lagoon and Underwater World share the same ticket (can be bought on both places) but go for the Dolphin’s first. Last show for them is at 5:30, while Underwater is open for few hours more. Dolphins are precious, do not miss them.
• Do not even think to go without a reserve batteries and less than 512MB card. You will constantly shoot and you will not resist the urge to shoot movies in some places, especially Underwater and Sky Tower. My Canon Powershot S1 IS proved its worth again there and in the end of the day I had room for 3 photos more. Again, nothing less than 512MB; 1GB is safe storage capacity.

I was in the Rendezvous Hotel, which placed me in walking distance to a wide variety of interesting stuff. Orchard Road – the main shopping area is 1 min away. Lots of other malls are located near-by. 15-20mins away is the small bay with dozens of small restaurants offering what looks to me a very similar menus. Don’t get me wrong – there are hundred or more different meals with Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese etc flavors. To me they are not that much different – the most interesting stuff I found was the yummy combination of sweet and sour tastes. And the waiters in those restaurants are intercepting you while you walk, almost dragging you into their premises, showing menus with pictures in your face. Do not go there if you not in the good mood, you might punch someone. Believe me, they are worse than street salesmen.
I also ate far more fruits here than at home – for S$3–4 you can buy the plate with variety of different fruits, already cleaned and sliced. No hassle, pure joy.

This is Singapore – you can see how much is being built

One of my favourite meals from Kopitiam

Another funny thing: here, you have taxi queues, with dozens of people waiting for a cab ride. Something entirely out of space if you are from Belgrade where you have nothing similar, only bunch of people waiting for public transportation. :) Here, taxi seems like a regular public transport – I half expected to see a monthly taxi ticket desk. Cab is far from expensive here, but it’s unusual in any case. Also, do not even think to look for a cab after 10pm by waving on the streets. None of them stops – better look for a taxi stand, most easily found near the hotels. Or dial a cab – each vehicle has the number written on it. Just don’t wave to a cab with SMRT written on it; smrt in Serbian means death. :)
But whatever you do, in 10pm you will have a hard time to catch the ride. It’s quicker to use bus or MRT than taxi, but then you have to know which routes go where.

MRT = Mass Rapid Transit. Very clean, very efficient.

Every large metropolis is filled with shopping centers and Singapore is prime example of that. Centers are located one next to each other, in the underground passages, inside of large hotels – everywhere. One thing is striking – prices are not shown anywhere. You have to call the clerk and he will come with portable calculator and tell you the price. As soon as you see this happening, never accept first offer. Express your interest but don’t buy and you will hear the price drop. Ask for similar stuff and then say that previous thing is better, but… Another price drop. Start to leave and in more cases than not he will pull you for the sleeve telling you even lower price. I had several cases of dropping price from 25 to 18, 14 or even 12.
Personally, I hate such things. I don’t like to play price games. It only means that the damn thing is overpriced in the beginning and I’m only wasting time.

Funan – IT mall

Plaza Singapura mall

Shopping malls. Raffles City is really beautiful

When I go through the shops, I never buy anything in stores with annoying clerks calling you like you are their best friend. This is best witnessed in SimLim Square, where you can buy cheap cameras, computer parts and other IT stuff. Let me browse the shop myself, don’t follow me like hound dog. If I need you, I’ll call you. Example: a friend and I were looking for some camera bags and tripods and in one store they had really cool, inexpensive tripods. But the assistant was so obnoxious that we practically ran from there. In another store with kids stuff, two of us moved around for like 30 minutes. No one asked us anything – the cashier lady patiently waited. In the end, I bought the beautiful wooden praying mantis, even though I had no intention of buying anything – I was just keeping company to a friend who was actually looking for the present to his nephew.

Orchard Road – the place to shop

In the evenings, the heat and humidity worsen, but the city lights and nice arrangement of plants and trees shine in all its beauty. If you have a good camera with wide angle lenses, bring your tripod and make astonishing photos. Good places to shoot are around the Marina Bay. From Esplanade side you can shoot at Fullerton Hotel and many high towers around it, while from the Fullerton side you can shoot the Esplanade itself with another set of sparkling towers.

Singapore is a great place for night photography

In the end, this is one of the “nice to visit but I wouldn’t live there” places. The weather is really unbearable here and I did not slide not one 1% to getting used to it. Every time I went outside I melted. Other than that, it’s a really nice city, especially if you like oriental food and can enjoy the differences in them.
There are plenty of things to see, one of which is Sentosa Island, which I’ll cover in another post.

I posted way more photos on Flickr, so check them out there.

February 10th, 2005.