Explore Fascinating Singapore
This tiny tropical island at the cross-roads of Asia is a wonderful holiday destination, with fantastic shopping, excellent hotels, superb cuisine and an almost-perfect climate. Singapore is one of the world's busiest ports and key financial centers. Here shopping is a dream, one can pick up a phenomenal range of wares, all duty free, from electronics, high fashion, cosmetics and jewelry to watches. Whatever your heart desires, you'll find it, either in glittering malls on Orchard Road, or in the bustling bazaars in Little India.
Once you've had your fill of shopping, there's still lots to do. See Empress Place, walk to the Statue of Sir Stanford Raffles and see the symbol of the city, the Merlion, at the mouth of the Singapore River. Explore Chinatown with its crowded streets and the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple. Then stop off in the Botanic Gardens with its giant trees and over 2500 species of orchid hybrids.
Nothing beats a day trip to the entertainment mecca, Sentosa Island, which offers every form of fun imaginable, from golf, swimming and a musical fountain to its own tropical rainforest, a variety of exciting theme parks and many historical and cultural attractions, including Singapore Museum and Underwater World, the largest tropical fish oceanarium in South East Asia.
In Singapore itself is the Jurong Bird Park, one of Asia's finest aviaries, full of colourful birdlife. A visit to Singapore is also about food - sample cuisines from all over the world here, from Chinese food and traditional Malay dishes, to Indonesian and Indian cuisine, not to mention French and Italian fare.
Only 45 minutes by catamaran or ferry lies the paradise island of Bintan, part of the Riau archipelago, a set of 1000 small islands in the South China Sea. Bintan's main town is an active port of call for junks, cargo ships, fishing vessels and freighters. Bintan is a wonderful holiday paradise, with white sandy beaches, superb holiday resorts and a variety of watersports activities and golf.
