Singapore in 2 days

I’d always wanted to visit Singapore, but never really had the chance. Sure, I’d transited through Changi Airport before, but that doesn’t count. This time around, I planned a 48 hour layover in Singapore.

Being my first time in Singapore and with limited time, I decided to skip some of outskirt touristy stuff and shift focus instead on doing a bit of sightseeing around the downtown/city center area. To truly experience Singapore I spent most of my time walking around the the city waterfront. The waterfront promenade is central to so many attractions and landmarks, from ritzy 5-star hotels, to the Singapore Flyer and Merlion Park. Merlion, a half-lion & half mermaid, is like a landmark for Singapore.

Merlion Statue

Marina Bay

Then I did a bit of back-tracking towards areas such as Clarke Quay and the business district.  Then over the helical bridge, and all the way around towards Marina Bay. The promenade towards Marina Bay takes you on the famous F1 course and many restaurants and outside food alleys.

Fullerton Hotel

Part of Formula 1 track

Marina Bay is a modern place and offers a completely different view with the setting of the sun. The buildings are huge that dominates the downtown skyline. Its a nice place to wander around with plenty of shops, casino and you can go all the way up to the roof top garden.

Marina Bay

The cityscape changes dramatically in the night.I spent a few hours in the evening walking around the bay.  Its definitely worth to see the building spectacle at night

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Devonport & Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand

I had the opportunity to explore Devonport , a nice seaside town on Auckland's North Shore. Its a 10 minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland across the harbour from the Ferry terminal. Also, great sights of the Hauraki Gulf to take in from the ferry. 

The town with old victorian style houses gives a taste of what a village in New Zealand might be like.  Mt Victoria, The North Head and Chaltenham Beach are places to visit when in Devonport. Both North head & Mt Victoria  are  volcanic cones and  offer great views of Auckland City, the eastern bays and the Hauraki Gulf.

Davenport is small, compact and walkable.It took me about 25 mins walk  from the ferry terminal along the coast  to Cheltenham beach, which is on the opposite side of the peninsula. 

From there I trudge uphill to  North Head. North Head, is a historic reserve and was used as a defense site and lookout for centuries. It is interesting to walk  up and around  the rugged paths of North head exploring the tunnels,  guns,naval bunkers and other fortifications. The the views of the harbour and city are stunning.  

On the way back I strolled down the main street which is full of shops, cafes and restaurants. I decided not to climb Mt.Victoria and headed back to the ferry terminal.

Main Street

Auckland Skyline from Devonport Ferry terminal

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Auckland, New Zealand

After nearly a fifteen, leg-cramping hours later, I arrived in New Zealand! Immigration at the Auckland Airport was the usual cattle gridlock, however moved on quickly. The customs was quite stringent in the fact that officers asked the same question,if you had brought any food items from other country,  in three or four different ways. But, still finishes with everyone's luggage being x-rayed before exiting the airport.

At first glace everything seems expensive here, but only because I kept forgetting to apply 20% discount to the price (to convert to USD), so it's actually not too bad, pretty much the same as US. I took the airport bus to the downtown, where I was staying. Downtown Auckland is pretty neat. It has large buildings, a diverse group of people, all the hustle and bustle that any typical city has.  I walked through the downtown area towards Mount Eden  which is a dormant volcano and offers some of the best panoramic views of the city and beyond.The entire downtown area is very hilly, similar to San Francisco. So walking can be exhausting. There is also buses that will drop you at the Mt Eden village, from where you can take the trail up to to the summit. It probably took 20 minutes to get to the top. The first thing you notice once you reach the summit is the huge volcanic crater. Its very Interesting seeing the remains of a dead volcano, huge crater overgrown with grass. From the summit you get the most stunning 360 degree views of Auckland. You could see all the volcanic hills that is scattered around the city of Auckland

Mt.Eden crater with the background of Auckland skyline

I took a bus back to the the downtown. The downtown, or the CBD as locally known is dominated by the Sky Tower. This is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere.You can buy tickets for the Sky Tower  and take the elevator to the observation deck . I contemplated going up as the views from 220m up will be breathtaking, but decided against it. The sky tower also offers sky walk around the outside of the observation deck on top of the tower and buggy jumping jumping.

Sky Tower in Downtown

The next day, I decided to walk to Auckland Domain and checkout the Auckland Museum and the surrounding area. I took a wander through the city's main park, Albert park where one would pick up the trail towards the Auckland Museum. 

Albert park is small park surrounded by tall buildings of downtown on one side, and Auckland University on the opposite side. It is a steep but very worthwhile climb to a well-kept and idyllic city-centre park. There are different paths leading different directions, but most lead to the University Campus Walking through the University, I enter the Auckland Domain which is essentially a big park in Auckland with several walking paths, one of them leads to the Auckland Museum which is in the Auckland Domain. A bit of an uphill, but then the view is worth it. Before you enter the museum the view from the steps of the harbor and ships is eye catching. The museum is free to enter and gives an excellent outline of New Zealand's discovery and settlement.   It has a comprehensive Maori and Pacific section including original sea and war canoes and a replica Maori meeting house, with all its intricate carvings. Next to the Auckland Domain is Parnell, one of the oldest suburbs in Auckland. I walked back through Parnell. It has a quaint village feel area, with a stretch of shops, restaurants, and cafes.

Auckland Museum

In the evening, I walked down the Quay Street and west to the Viaduct harbour. The Viaduct harbor  was developed for the America's Cup . Great sights of expensive sail boats including the home of the America's Cup yachts and the Maritime Museum. 

Home base of Team New Zealand

The harbour is a bustling place where you can stroll .There are plenty of restaurants and yuppie type bars to choose from and a seascape of berthed yachts/sail boats to look at, thousands of them. And then one can wander over the little bridge towards the Wyndham quarter to the fish market and another 10 or so restaurants/cafes

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24 hours in Edinburgh, Scotland

Traveling from Newcastle to Edinburgh is simple enough, as there is a high speed train service from newcastle central to Waverley station, and it takes just 2 hours. I arrived in Edinburgh around 9am.When coming out of  Waverley, the main train station in Edinburgh,  you can see the castle sitting up on a rock above the city centre

I walked up the Royal Mile, the main street leading up through the old town directly to Edinburgh castle.The Royal Mile is the main thoroughfare through Old Town, and consists of streets that existed since the 16th century where various Edinburgh landmarks can be seen such as the High Kirk of St. Giles, John Knox’s House, Scottish Parliament and Palace of Holyrood house. All the streets in the old city are cobbled, giving a real sense of what it would have been like.

I finally made my way up to Edinburgh Castle. The Castle is huge and was crowded, but worth seeing. The views from the top were amazing

Streets in Old Town

Statue of the economist Adam Smith,

St. Giles Cathedral

Next stop, naturally - when in Scotland  is to do The Scotch Whisky Experience. The Whisky Experience is just down the road from the castle. It has the world's largest collection of scotch.Unfortunately it wasn't open yet, so I had to skip it.   Along the  Royal Mile leading upto Edinburgh Castle there are numerous 'closes' which are kinda like alleyways that often lead to steps going down to the next 'level' of the town. There are multiple levels to the city .

Then I walked downhill towards the bottom of the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace. This is where the Queen stays when she is in town. Also along the mile are the souvenir shops, cafes and bars and tailors ready to make a kilt for you.

Scotch Whiskey Experience

Next I walked across the other side, to the New Town, making my way to Princes street, which is one of the main thoroughfares in Edinburgh and the main shopping street, there are some nice views of the Edinburgh castle. Wandering down into the Princes street gardens is a nicer walk away from the traffic. These large and beautiful gardens form the barrier between the Old Town and New Town

There are no shortages of pubs in Edinburgh. Lotz of traditional looking pubs

I spent the entire day walking through Edinburgh and visiting as many nooks and crannies of the city as I could. Edinburgh is beautiful, it somehow manages to seem huge and compact at the same time. It is filled with well-maintained old sandstone buildings and every other building looks like a castle or some such. 

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Durham, North East England

Durham is a small university town in north-east England near Newcastle. It is home of the University of Durham, one of the ancient universities in England. On any train along the north east railway line running from London to Edinburgh, the train pulls into the small Durham station to the view of the splendid Durham cathedral and castle. Both castle and cathedral are on the Unesco World Heritage list. Durham has a beautiful medieval charm with a famous cathedral, castle and a cozy city center.

Durham Castle & Durham Cathedral 

The Durham Castle sits atop the hill adjacent to the Cathedral. It is both an ancient castle and student accommodation.The Castle is a university student residence during the time Durham University is in session, but functions as a B&B when the  university is on break with rooms available for anyone to stay. It is very cool and quite an experience to actually stay in an ancient castle which is about 1000 years old. Apparently one of the Harry Potter film was filmed in the Castle's Dinning Hall. I am not a Harry Potter fan, so no idea which movie it was. The downside of Durham castle is that you can't just explore it by yourself, as it is a fully functioning part of the  university.

View of the castle as you approach

River Wear

Narrow cobblestone street around the Durham Castle

Durham Cathedral and the Palace Green

The center of Durham is very, very small and surrounded by the wear river on the three sides forming a peninsula with the Romanesque Durham cathedral sitting on the top dominating the view. Durham is very hilly, so be prepared for inclines and cobbles. There are many small stairs and shortcuts to take to get to the top. The majority of the city center along with the castle is part of the ancient University of Durham.It is made up of magnificent cobbled streets that run between Georgian houses, most of them are now university student halls, and ancient bridges crossing over the river.   They house the university library. The students take classes in the castle, so sometimes the castle is closed for visitors. Although small, still very enjoyable to wander around and relax. 

Durham Market square

The other significant point of interest is the Durham Market Square. Just off the square is the Town Hall, and some sort of open air market . The city itself is doesn't have a lot of people, except for the the university students who tend to stay around the center.The small streets around the market square has lots of shops and cafes.There are lot of good pubs and restaurants that are frequented by students. 

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