Singapore Stopover

This was the start of our two months travelling in Europe, so what a better way to break up the journey than a couple of days in Singapore. I had been to Singapore many times on business, but Di had only ever seen the airport, so this was a chance to see some of the sights.

Tuesday 8 August 2017

The hire-car arrived to pick us from home up right on schedule, and the drive to Taree was uneventful, except for crossing the bridge, where there is always a queue. The train also arrived on time. The trip down was as expected and we arrived at Central Station in Sydney on time. We got a taxi to the Ibis Airport Hotel, eating in the hotel restaurant, which is always expensive, but the food was OK.

Wednesday 9 August 2017

Up very early to get the shuttle-bus to the International Terminal. Having checked in on-line we managed to avoid the long queues and simply dropped off our bags and picked up our boarding passes. Once air-side, and through immigration and security, we found it difficult to find an ATM to get some money out, but we ended up getting it at the money changers.

We ended up talking with the head cabin attendant who sat down next to us in the terminal to charge up his phone. He knew George Heard, one of my gliding instructors when I flew at Mangrove Mountain. The eight hour, fifteen minutes flight did drag on a bit - as they always do. Getting through customs and immigration was straight forward. They now take your thumb prints when you enter and check them when you leave. Great way of checking that it is the same person.

We got a taxi to the Furama Riverside Hotel and the driver was very knowledgable and chatty and we also found out that it was the country's birthday and that there would be marches and displays later in the day. We settled into the hotel and watched the celebrations and had a very quiet evening. Di slept and I think I watched some golf in TV.

Singapore - the Furama Riverside Hotel

Thursday 10 August 2017

We took a taxi to the "Gardens by the Bay" to look at the beautiful orchids. Well worth the visit.

Singapore - Gardens by the Bay, 3 acres of air conditioned gardens

Singapore - Gardens by the Bay - orchids

Singapore - Gardens by the Bay - mass orchids

Singapore - Gardens by the Bay, succulents and drift wood sculptures

Singapore - Gardens by the Bay, drift wood sculptures

While there we visited the tallest indoor waterfall and took the lift to the top before walking down using the sky-walk. Even Di walked it. Good on her.

Singapore - Gardens by the Bay waterfall

Singapore - Gardens by the Bay Skywalk

Singapore - Gardens by the Bay Skywalk from the top

We walked over to the Marina Bay Hotel. Absolutely massive.

Singapore - Marina Bay Hotel

From here we got a taxi back to the hotel. After a break we walked the two kilometre walk to Orchard Road, mainly to have some dinner. Ended up having some pasta. The walk back was long and hot. We decided that we should take the hop-on, hop-off bus the next day, so purchased tickets at the hotel before having another quiet evening.

Friday 11 August 2017

Our start to the day was held up by a thunderstorm passing through, but just after eleven we walked round to pickup the hop-on, hop-off bus running on the yellow line. Because of the rain we stayed on around the complete circle and then round to the Botanical Gardens where we had planned to walk, but another thunderstorm put an end to that.

Singapore - Botanical Gardens in the rain

Back on to the next bus and into the city where we changed, after a bit if a delay, to the red circle. This took us around some interesting places, such as Little India and Chinatown, where much of the old Singapore has been retained.

Singapore - Chinatown by bus

We only had our room booked until 6pm, so we went back had a shower and packed up. We left our bags at the hotel while we got some dinner there and listened to a very good girl singer. Around 8.30pm we got a taxi to the airport. There we had to wait a few more hours as our flight was not leaving until nearly 2am.

Google Sites

Report abuse