Good advice

My piece of good advice for travellers is that the open-top bus tours of cities are a great way to see the sights. They are very informative, not too expensive, and allow you sit down (which is quite important in hot countries). I took one of these tours in Lisbon earlier this year which was amazing. The tour of Edinburgh also comes highly recommended.

The bus tours of Singapore are no different - they are well organised and informative. However, the main problem with Singapore is that there is very little for sightseers to see. I now know where there are a few more shopping centres of which I was not previously aware. I have also learnt how Singapore’s insecurity over being a small country leads it to build large things. However, none of its buildings can exceed 280m high, otherwise it blocks the airspace. Singapore is currently planning the world’s largest ferris wheel. It will be sponsored by Singapore Air and will be called the Singapore Flyer. That sounds a bit familiar to me - just think of the London Eye. The Singapore Flyer should be ready in 2010. Unfortunately for Singapore, China is also planning to build the world’s largest ferris wheel, which will be bigger than Singapore’s will ever be. This will be finished in 2008, in time for the Beijing Olympics. Singapore’s big wheel will never be the biggest - that’s a bit of poor planning.


Here's the Raffles Hotel - the main tourist attraction in Singapore: