Sultry Singapore - bring it on (and the very last of our blogs) (G will still be uploading her Anzac Day blog for those who are interested!)
When you step out of those sliding doors at Changi Airport it hits you like an invisible wall - the Singapore heat and humidity. But after over 6 weeks of the so-called European Spring we were loving it. Off came the layers and on with the sandals - finally it all made sense that we booked a hotel that had a pool.
We were served breakfast towards the end of our flight from Dubai to Singapore but arrived at 3pm which put Caz a little out of whack (what happened to lunch??). Another welcome advantage of flying business class with Emirates is that a chauffeur awaits you at Arrivals to take to your hotel (of course our driver was holding up Georgina Wilson's name but Caz tagged along as well). No more lugging bags on and off trains or up/down flights of stairs and through undergrounds. Bliss.
We splashed out a little on our Singapore hotel and booked an Executive Room which includes access to a club lounge - hot and cold drinks and snacks all day and open bar with canapés etc from 6 - 8pm. We headed up for drinks and some much needed food. Really if you couldn't be bothered heading our for dinner you could easily satisfy your hunger here. But Clarke Quay is literally across the bridge from our hotel so we strolled over for Thai on the waterfront. Georgina soon learned that a "mild" curry in Singapore speak would be considered "hot" in Adelaide. It was such a great to be able to to sit outside on a balmy evening and enjoy a relaxing albeit super-spicy meal together.
Saturday started a little slowly then we sorted out our MRT passes for Singapore's metro. First stop was Marina Bay Sands to see what all of the fuss is about. Marina Bay Sands is a very, very famous Resort complex opened in 2011 which has become a Singapore icon. A little ho hum for us we're afraid but ticked off the list. We headed 'across the bridge' to Gardens by the Bay, a stunning park of reclaimed land in central Singapore which has 3 waterfront gardens. These gardens are also a recent addition to to the city of Singapore opened in 2012 with two of the gardens still under some level of construction. The real reason we wanted to visit was to see the 2 conservatories the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. The Flower Dome Conservatory is the world's largest columnless glasshouse (yes, the trivia continues right to the end!) and features 7 different "gardens" within it. The Cloud Forest replicates the conditions found in tropical mountain regions at 3,000 metres. Both of the structures and jaw-droppingly amazing in design, architecture and construction, let alone the gardens themselves.Rather than trying to explain these amazing conservatories perhaps G's photos can help:
Gardens by the Bay
The Flower Dome
The Cloud Forest
After enjoying pre-dinner drinks and snacks at the hotel headed off to an open-air hawker market for dinner at Makansutra Glutton's Bay which was a great place to experience the hawker style of eating which is very much a part of Singapore but heading more indoors these days.
Singapore Hawkers Food Markets
Singapore by night
Sunday morning almost disappeared as Caz was still struggling with jet lag and managed to convince the alarm clock that she was just too tired to start the day. Then for some reason we headed out to Orchard Road to hit a few shops (maybe we can blame that on the jet lag too) and after about 30 minutes we proved to ourselves that we definitely are not shoppers. As we weren't burdened with any bags of goodies we simply hopped on the metro back out to Gardens by the Bay to see and climb the Supertrees which we couldn't quite manage yesterday. These structures dominate the gardens landscape and are not only amazing vertical gardens but they are also fitted with also sorts of green technology that perform many environmentally friendly functions for the whole park.
Gardens by the Bay - Super trees
Monday finally bought some normalcy and routine so an a early start saw us heading to Jurong Bird Park. Time for Caz to put her zoo nerd hat on again. It was a pleasure to just walk through casually, amongst some good aviaries but also gorgeous rainforest.
Jurong Bird Park
The late afternoon was wisely spent back at the hotel enjoying the pool again away from the Singapore heat and humidity which is at it's worst at this time of the day.
Tuesday followed a similar path but this time to the Singapore Zoo and River Safari. We chose to use public transport to get ourselves out there which was a pretty big mistake. Even though we set out early it took us well over an hour to get there; early morning wasted. But the Zoo certainly didn't disappoint, nor did the River Safari which has Giant Pandas on exhibit. The River Safari is a river-themed zoo (who would've guessed?) nestled between Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari. Even though a large section was closed for development we were pretty impressed and would recommend a visit if you are heading to the zoo as well.
River Safari & Singapore Zoo
We continued the routine of our days here by heading back for a swim later in the afternoon, this time making use of the tourist bus back to the hotel. The best $5 spent so far. We have read so many positives about the Singapore metro trains but having to use them for 4 days we actually found the lines very frustrating. The circle line is far from it and if you actually wanted to do a full circle around the CBD you need to change twice. Granted they are clean and cheap but we really did spend a lot of time switching lines to get anywhere. Tip for future visitors may be to spend the extra dollars and occasionally use the taxis (they're actually very good value).
Wednesday dawned all to soon for our liking as it signalled our last day as travellers. Indeed tonight we start the final leg of our journey home having seen as much of Singapore as we could and wanted to. But we did manage to squeeze in one last Singapore attraction. In fact this one was on Sentosa Island, Singapore's very own island resort with beaches, golf courses, Universal Studios, and apparently the world's largest aquarium S.E.A. Aquarium which is where we made a bee-line to, thankfully only one train ride and a lovely walk and we were there. Actually Sentosa Island has a really interesting history but maybe that's for another blog (hang on this is our last - never mind, just google it!).
There are a few of you reading this blog who would know just how much we both love aquariums. Honestly we were the biggest kids in town as soon as we walked in. There simply wasn't anything here that did not impress us, from the staff, the interpretive signage to the spectacular Ocean Zone, one of 10 marine zones displayed. We both could've sat here for many more hours than we had to spare. Simply brilliant. What a fabulous way to end our entire trip. Here it is everyone - "if you're ever in Singapore....."
S.E.A. Aquarium
So now we're wondering how to do our final sign-off but perhaps it's best to keep it simple:
We hope you've enjoyed reading our travel tales and seeing some of the images of our trip. We've loved being able to share as much as we could without getting too carried away (hey, don't laugh - we really did try to keep it sort-of brief!).
Thank you for coming along for ride.
Can't wait to see family, friends and inbetweens back in Adelaide.
Caz and Ms G
Our final two pictures below are from our two favourite places on our journey...what a contrast in weather we've experienced over the past 8 weeks.....
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| Favourite City - Barcelona |
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| Favourite Country (no doubt at all) - Switzerland |
Until next time, we wish you safe travels on your next adventure (as we sit down to plan ours!)