Hi Kedi and others, thanks for your comments. I would just add a couple of comments about Singapore as none of us who have reviewed it went into too much detail. I was initially apprehensive that we did not have a tour manager for the add-on, but thanks to Erica's preparation before she went back to the UK with the main group and also to Iris from Buffalo Tours, whose organizational skills are admirable (she was like an army sergeant major!!) everything went smoothly. Iris included a visit to the Orchid Garden at the Botanical Gardens as part of the city tour, which was wonderful and I'm very glad she did it. Apart from the included city tour, which visited the ethnic areas of Chinatown, Little India and Arab Street, we had some wonderful optional excursions:
Gardens by the Bay - this is a marvellous experience: bold, innovative, beautiful and completely unique.
Night Safari at the Zoo - this is a completely separate part of Singapore Zoo to the main site and features animals that are largely nocturnal. It was enjoyable and we saw quite a lot of wildlife, which are subtly lit. However, it was impossible to take decent photos! We enjoyed an included buffet dinner there, which was very good. Unfortunately the night show was cancelled due to lightning!
Breakfast with the Orang Utans - this was truly wonderful and another holiday highlight. We walked through part of the zoo and saw a number of animals en route. Then we had an excellent buffet breakfast and an orang utan family were brought out to join us! We sat close by them and we could queue up to have our photos taken with them - with our own cameras, as well as an official photo which could be purchased. When the queue had died down, we were free to queue up again to take numerous close up photos of a mother, baby and young orang. Fantastic! We then had free time and most of us watched the feeding of the resident polar bear, visited the main orang utan enclosure and got some amazing photos of a rare white tiger. This was a must do experience.
Singapore After Dark was an official JY excursion organised by them before we left on the tour. It was the least exciting of the excursions to be honest and desperately overpriced. As there had been some confusion over whether dinner was included, JY graciously organised an excellent Chinese dinner for us. The other highlight was the visit to Raffles and an included Singapore Sling. Bugis Market was glitzy and tatty, really not worth visiting and the trishaw ride was disappointing as we did not pass any areas of interest - it largely duplicated what we had seen on the city tour and the trishaw company refused to take us to Raffles, so we went there by coach instead!
A number of the group took a bum boat from Clarke Quay, which they greatly enjoyed. The Furama City Centre Hotel is in a great location, near to the Metro and Clarke Quay - there are great restaurants all along the quay. I ate in the hotel a couple of times for lunch and residents get a discount on meals in the restaurant, which has an a la carte menu as well as a buffet.
The final excursion was a trip to Sentosa Island - four of us did it on the final day. It is a large Vegas style resort with a huge variety of things to do, including Universal Studios and Madam Tussaud's. We visited the Butterfly Farm (which had very few active butterflies as it was raining) but we did see a number of interesting insects and reptiles! We then went to the aquarium, which was fabulous, with a huge variety of tropical fish from all over the world. I particularly liked the fluorescent jellies, which were very striking. I got really great photos, despite shooting through glass.
Singapore was the icing on the cake and for me, it made the tour outstanding. In this way, I strongly recommend that you do the add-on if possible, or alternatively do the new Singapore city break - you will not be disappointed! Finally, just to say that it was the extra optional excursions organised by Erica our TM in conjuction with Buffalo Tours, that made the add-on a superb experience. If you're doing Singapore, either as an add-on to a tour such as this one, or as a city break in its own right - ask your tour manager or the agent from Buffalo Tours what extra excursions can be arranged. Buffalo organised a tailor made itinerary for each of us, depending on what we wished to do. Otherwise, unless you have done a lot of research beforehand (or have been there before), you could miss out!
Cheers,
Bob
