Days 63 - 65, 11th - 13June. Singapore, Gardens by the Bay again, Chinatown,Universal Studios & homeward bound

 Day 63, 11th June

Something has gone awry again with my dates….We had a good sleep last night – the bed is super comfy, but both of our necks have been really sore and we are still waking between 1& 3 in the morning, but then getting back to sleep and sleeping until about 8 or 9 am! Might as well enjoy it while we can ha ha. Went down and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant,then we decided to go back to Gardens by the Bay and do the two paid domes– we have done them before in 2019, but we’re keen to go again and since the time was so tight last night,  we wanted to have the time to enjoy them today. We caught the MRT train again – it’s pretty easy once you work it out, and it’s impeccably clean with signs saying you will be charged $80-$200 if you vomit, no food allowed no pda’s- public displays of affection!, No smoking and no durian fruit?! I think it’s because it has a really funky, strong smell kind of like the old fashion cat flea collars.

We went through the huge shopping centre nearby where the helix bridge runs past and bought our tickets $53 pp for the two domes, which also has the Avatar exhibition at the moment. We also got the little open air golf buggy that takes you the 15 or 20 minutes up to the gardens which is $6pp return so worth it. We did walk last night but it was pretty hot today. Got up there and wandered through the first dome then onto, I think it was the flower dome which had all the avatar exhibits. There are some pretty cool parts to the exhibition with holograms and movies – they have done a really good job of it. We even got ‘Avatoared’!  The flowers were bigger, brighter, and more exotic than any anywhere we have seen, they are so beautiful and both the  domes are air-conditioned so it’s great.

After that we walked our weary feet back to the MRT and back to our hotel. We have found we are getting pretty tired after the two months of travel and walking all day every day, so while we have a bit of time here in Singapore, we find it good to do something in the morning, then go back to the hotel, have a little rest, get the energy back up and go out again! 

We decided to go to Chinatown this afternoon – we have been before, but Graeme was keen to have a look at the Tin- Tin shop again. So we worked out the trains and followed the lines. You really could eat your dinner off the floor of those trains! Although, we were told we had to go back and empty the ice out of our empty juice sealed bottles if we wanted to take them on the train as you’re not allowed anything in them – fair enough it’s just there are not many rubbish bins around anywhere, and considering everything has to be spotless, that can make it a little tricky. Everybody is extremely lawful here though  – nobody does anything they shouldn’t, everyone is very moderate, calm, polite, and they don’t seem to break any rules. Would be easy to live here in this society, as people seem happy still, just very considerate.

We walked around Chinatown, It was hot, but nowhere near as humid as it was on our last trip here so we just walk really slowly. Had a look around at a few places but a lot of the stalls and shops were closed as it was about 6 pm by then – most of them stay open till 7pm, but a lot of those are more eatery type places. We found a nice outdoor restaurant with a big fan over our head and had a couple of local cold big beers – very nice! And a few wontons with a couple of dumplings, as we weren’t very hungry. Graeme tried a bit of extra chilli oil, but it was oh-la-la hot! Even for someone who likes chilli ha ha😳🥳.

We caught the train back to our hotel again, and just relaxed drinking our aperol and lemonade! It is disgusting how fast we are drinking those bottles! We will be high and dry when we go home I think 🤔.

Day64 - 12th June

Today we planned to go to universal studios as being a Monday, would hopefully be a bit quieter given that it was the school holidays. We had to purchase the tickets yesterday online and the express passes were sold out, so we had to buy the ultimate express passes which were $100 PP on top of the 82pp standard tickets. These get you on the fast track on every ride without any limits, you can repeat the rides as many times as you like. We thought well that was worth it – what we didn’t count on was torrential rain all day!!

It has been so warm and dry the last couple of days and of course it had to change today and the tickets are not refundable so you have to just go and make the best of it. We caught a taxi as it was only $14 otherwise you had to get two trains and the bus. The drivers are very courteous and we got there in about 15 minutes. The sky absolutely opened on the way there – I don’t know how the driver could even see out of the windscreen. 

So our first port of call was to stop and pay $5ea for rain ponchos, but they did the trick. Had to be really careful as a lot of the tiles were super slippery and I was in jandals. We managed to do the dry indoors rides – transformers was pretty good. We did that indoor rollercoaster twice and the Mummy wasn’t bad either. Then there weren’t too many more rides we could do other than Sesame Street, which is great if you wanted to see Elmo and Grover! Ha ha, and we also did a Shrek movie which was in 3D, then went to a kind of simulation of a grade 4 cyclone (although are definitely was not! We have been in one), but they had a small dinghy up above us, and we were right at the front on the end because of our passes – I kept saying about how wet the floor was around us as I was suspecting what was coming up… Sure enough right as they got the wind going and the fire on the water I turned to my right and saw the staff member hold up a poncho to cover her front, so started to pull mine up as they had made us take them off, turning to Graeme to warn him, but too late. A huge amount of water came from somewhere, and completely soaked us, especially Graeme. He was absolutely saturated across his face and shirt 💦 . It was kinda funny, in fact, it was a lot of funny and thank god it wasn’t cold outside! We flapped our clothes a bit to try and dry them, as much as we could and put the ponchos back on outside, so we had a kind of dryer system going on naturally!

We went to the one diner to get some lunch – they only had burgers and chips, and the burgers were disgusting, had some kind of Malay/Indian yucky sauce on them. Actually, we have noticed the greatest number of people here today were definitely Indians, followed by Muslim Malaysians and then Asians and a few Europeans. Have to say the Indians are really quite rude and only look after themselves, a lot of pushing etc. On the whole, though, everyone was pretty good given that it was so wet everywhere you went. 

None of the outdoor rides opened while we were there, which was such a pity as we would’ve got on first, but by then we had had enough as the ran wasn’t going to stop, to allow the outdoor rides to open and we were happy to go to the shops they had there – the usual very overpriced, but nice stuff. Bought a few things then we decided to head home. Found our way over to the taxi rank and waited maybe 10 or 15 mins before they came in, which was fine as it was underground and covered. Back to our hotel and funnily enough Transformers is on TV, one of the movies at the moment! Was still a good day.

We decided after putting our feet up for a little bit, that we were go down the road from the hotel where Graeme had seen a strip of Japanese restaurants. Picked one that look nice and was very popular with the locals. Had to get them to help us with the menu as it was very different to what we are used to, the way it was written! First course was very very finely shredded  raw cabbage with a balsamic vinegar type dressing and then you put a creamier one on top. It wasn’t bad to be fair, and even Gray ate some! Next came the main, which was a very lightly crumbed prawn and some tenderloin pork in a roll, cut into strips – it was delicious and came with a small bowl of sticky rice. Then there was a mortar and pestle that you used to grind up both black and white sesame seeds, then you poured this type of thick sweet soy sauce that had nutmeg and herbs in it, over the sesame seeds and you dipped your meat in it. There was a little bowl of sticky white rice to go with it – it was all very nice, then a scoop of green tea ice cream for dessert – an acquired taste and smells really funky!

We went for a wander through one of the big shopping malls after dinner and just slowly walked back to the hotel. The Pan-Pacific Singapore has been really good and a top-notch hotel with staff that are exceptional – anything you want help with they will do if they can. Into bed with sore feet – 17,000 steps again today!

   

Yip, we got SOAKED!

Day 65, 13 th June, Home day

I had spoken to the hotel – their checkout is an extremely generous 12 pm normally, but they gave us till 1pm today as we have got a long day with flying home tonight. This allowed us to have a leisurely breakfast, pack up and sort out our bags as we have bought a few things in the last couple of days, knowing that we wouldn’t have to lug more weight around in our suitcases once we got to the airport. We dropped our bags down with the concierge at 1pm then headed out for a wander around the riverside precincts that we hadn’t been to before. They were more in a business district and very upper-class kind of hotels and restaurants – like really swanky! Then we went and found a restaurant as we had got really hot  walking around for a couple of hours in the heat – it was 35° today, so a cold beer and some hot chips to share were just the order. I tried a tangerine flavoured beer as it was also a microbrewery and advertised this beer – it was really delicious, although when I found out it was $18 Singapore dollars, it should’ve been! The bowl of hot chips had some kind of truffle and sweet fairy floss on the top, it was in the best I’ve ever had I think. A really expensive place but was just what we needed. 

It was nice and cool in there so we had a good 45 minutes or so then we wanted to the Merlion, which is a famous white statue that has a fountain inside its mouth –it’s the head of a lion in the body of a mermaid. The water pours out into the bay and it is said to be lucky to be photographed with it. So there were a lot of people – again, the majority were Indians – one told us that they stop over in Singapore on the way home as it’s not too far. 

Then we boarded a river cruise on a small old wooden boat – the back of the captain’s T-shirt said they have been doing it since 1987, and I don’t think he had moved from that seat since then ha ha! The cruise was okay but it $30pp it was grossly overpriced as it just went up one side of the little harbour and then back on the other side. But we did see the old part of Singapore and all the brightly coloured little buildings, along with many outdoor cafes and bars that would open in the evenings.

Walked back to our hotel and sat in the lobby for an hour to cool down until it was time to get our taxi to the airport. Taxis are really cheap here. I think the dearest one we have had has been $24 to the airport but mostly they are around $14-$15 a trip. Into terminal 3, as we have Singapore air going home who codeshare with Air France, which is what our tickets were booked under. This time we went through and were on the other side with in 10 minutes as security is right before you get to the boarding gate, not right after Immigration. We decided to go and have showers in the lounge as we were pretty hot and sweaty after all our walking around so had those and then just relaxed for a couple of hours until it was time to board. Screening was really quick which was good– so quick compared to the carry on in Paris the other day. That’s the benefit of not travelling on a Tuesday or a Thursday through Charles de Gaulle with all the protests going on that we were told are shutting everything down!

We found ourselves on the top deck of the plane as it was a double decker A380, thought it would be really good, but it was old and quite crappy really. The seats were really hard with little padding, no storage space, and very strange, tight foot configuration. The reason we had booked the flights home in business was so we could sleep, but it was like lying on a hard board, so we only got about 1 to 1 1/2 hours sleep overnight. We flew out at 8:30 pm and arrived into Sydney at 5:35 am – it sure was a red eye because of the lack of sleep! The crew though were lovely.

Danni came and picked us up after a bleary eyed check and realising that we had already landed, she was racing to get there but we were fine, waiting out in the express car park and watching the sun come up with beautiful colours. She drove us home, about 1 1/2 hours to get back to Robertson to mum and dad and the dogs – so lovely to see them all after two months away! Pip especially has grown so much as she was only 4 months old when we left.

It’s been a wonderful trip and we have brought home some fantastic memories with us, but like many, we were ready to stop living out of a suitcase (my pet hate) and you get tired when you are on the road every couple of days after you’ve been away for so long. Think it’s good when you are happy to come home – it means you’ve had a good time, but appreciate what you have when you can sit still in your own surroundings.

We managed to stay out for 32 hours with just the 1 1/2 hours of sleep on the plane, so we’re feeling quite delirious by the time we finally got to bed! I think that is our new record for staying up!