Singapore.  What a city.  Ultra modern, uber clean and seemingly an example for other cities to aspire to.  We only had a couple of days here, so that’s a surface impression, but it’s certainly one of our favourite cities of our travels, and one which we didn’t expect to like. 

Day 181 – To Singapore and the Gardens of the Bay at night

Our journey to the airport was easy enough, with a Grab Taxi ordered for the drive to the airport.  We had plenty of time, and everything seemed like it was running on time, until we got to the baggage desks, and eventually realised that nothing was moving.  Initially we were told it would be a 15 minute wait, but it soon became apparent that this wasn’t the case, and it wasn’t just us – the entire airport had come to a standstill!  The check in system was down!  Having worked on IT projects and support I could imagine the help desk scurrying around somewhere trying to fix this!  Watching the queues build up and listening to the announcements of flights before ours being delayed due to the system outage, we were cursing that of all the flights, this was going to be the one which was delayed when we really needed to be on time as we are meeting my mother at the other end! 

In the end, after 45 minutes, the systems were back up, and we passed through luggage and security without issues.  In the end our flight was not actually delayed, the delay was pretty much absorbed; well done Hanoi airport! 

Our flight landed on time, and we flew through security and literally picked our bags up off the conveyer as we walked past.  Mum’s flight was also on time, so we knew she should be arriving at any time.  The only trouble we had was that there were two places she could come out, not just one as expected, so we had to split up to cover both.  It worked a treat anyway, Singapore Airport really is excellent. 

After reuniting we followed the signs to the MRT (metro) stop at Terminal 2, and started the three train, one hour journey to our apartment in Little India.  Really easy travelling on fast and clean trains. 

Our apartment was about a 500m walk up the road, supposedly on the corner of another road.  It was called the Ritz@Farrer, which is quite funny.  We were probably fooled by the name into thinking that this would be a large apartment block, with the name written on it, so we were looking up.  After wandering around a bit more and passing a few more of the many Indian restaurants, we came across this rather ominous sign outside one of them, reminding us of the fear some of the locals have of the Coronavirus and the lengths they are going to stay healthy…

We eventually saw a small door with the Ritz@Farrer written on it.  Here it was!  A smallish block with four apartments per floor.  We were nearly at the top, on the fifth floor, granting us nice views across the park and to the blocks beyond.  Pretty cool at night.  The apartment was totally adequate, a great, if small, space to spend a few days. 

Having dropped our bags off, we were keen to get out and see Singapore at night, so we launched back to the MRT stop and headed for the Esplanade and the Bay.  There’s a food court here, which offered lots of hawker stalls selling a range of Singaporean and Asian foods.  We had a Laksa, Pineapple fried rice, chicken wrap and a local Singaporean dish which I couldn’t say at the time and now cannot remember.  It was all good though. 

After this, we headed to the Bay as the sun was setting behind the city.

The famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel was also looking pretty good across the water, with the Lotus flower shaped Art Science Museum in front.

We couldn’t see the 8pm light show that was meant to be happening at the time, but we could hear an orchestra outside the Esplanade, which we listened to for a while. 

Then we hot footed it over the Helix bridge, into the Gardens of the Bay, which were beautifully lit up.  The Supertrees Grove with the massive metal tree shapes, covered in plants, is lit up to operatic music, including Pavarotti, a few times every evening, and we enjoyed it sat below these trees.  Quite magical, and you can’t help but be moved by Pavarotti!

We moved on to towards the MRT station home, and came across all these colour changing eggs on the water. 

We wandered down to the boardwalks to have a closer look, coming across this odd massive floating baby sculpture on the way…

We found the riverside and wandered along amongst the weird glowing eggs.

The MRT journey home was simple, and it was gone 10pm by the time we got back.  Bedtime for all!

Day 182 – Singapore Botanic Gardens

Singapore isn’t called ‘The Garden City’ for no reason, so after a wonderful change of porridge for breakfast, we set out on the metro again to the Botanic Gardens, which are right outside the Botanic Gardens MRT station.  These gardens are massive and free (except the Orchid House), with lakes, meadows, children’s areas, rainforest walk, wetland, and various other gardens with plants from around the world. 

We started off heading past the Eco Lake, where we were treated to loads of turtles, herons and a swamp hen within minutes. 

Then we headed into the Children’s Garden, where there are mazes, tree top walks, a mini waterfall and trails to entertain little ones.  Ours were a little old for most of it, and knew the facts on the learning trail etc, and sadly, the water park area was shut for maintenance.  They had some fun in the play treehouse with zipline though.

It was pretty enough for a wander though, and nicely shaded.  

We passed through the Fragrant Garden, along the Red Brick path and through the Healing Garden to the Raffles Building, where there is a food court, saving us from the expensive restaurants in the gardens.  It’s not well signposted, and we were definitely coming in a back way, but the food court was there around the front.  It was great, selling a buffet of local foods, with the simple option of rice with one or two meat and veg dishes chosen from the many on offer.  Everything we had was delicious and the portions were generous.  The drinks were not so good, and cost nearly as much as the meals!  Aiden’s kiwi juice was more of a slushie…

After eating our fill, we headed on to the Rainforest walks section, which was pleasant, and gave us some sightings of some little squirrels, before coming out through the gardens to Swan Lake.  Here there’s a walkway in the trees, with some roped areas to climb on.

There were very few people on this side, despite it being a weekend.  A wander through the wetlands brought us back out at the Ginger Gardens and to a central hub where we found this guy cooling off in the water.  Not a crocodile as it looks at first, but a large monitor lizard.

We then got three ice creams and a drink for more than we paid for our whole lunch at one of the cafes in the main tourist entrance!  Yikes!

We often find that you can through the rainforest areas and see very little, and then get the good bird spottings near the busy bits, and today was no different – Oriental Pied Hornbills by the carpark!  We were pretty excited 😊

We took the most direct route back to the MRT across the park, feeling pretty tired after our day in the heat. 

For a simple dinner which didn’t involve leaving the house, we took advantage of our apartment kitchen to cook some spaghetti (once Chris and I had returned from the shops anyway). 

Day 183 – Singapore Gardens by the Bay

We returned to the Gardens by the Bay during daylight via the metro.  The Marina Sands Hotel was not as good as at night, but still a very interesting building, and visible from much of the gardens. 

We retraced our steps down to the big baby, before setting out to look at some very odd trees.  Bottle trees or something – probably called that because they look like bottles!

Wow it was hot, and we were out of the shade in the meadowy area to the South.  

We retreated into the air conditioned Flower Dome gratefully, except that was a little too cold!  We’re such Brits!

We nearly hadn’t bothered with this dome, but did actually enjoy it.  A large part was given over to Cacti from around the world (I’m pretty sure they could have tolerated warmer temperatures…) which came in all shapes and sizes.

The dome is decorated with some wooden sculptures like this rather lovely dragon and the running deer…

The rest of the dome is set out in countries and replicates some of the plants and flowers of that region. 

Back out into the heat of the middle of the day.  Phew!  Except now dark clouds were building, so the sun was not baking us.  They got darker as we walked down towards the food court, until they finally burst and tried to give us a good drenching.  Luckily, we were basically there, so a quick dash saw us under the shelter of the food court roof. 

Here we had loads of food choices.  Some sounded delicious, others not so much… I wasn’t sure about Frog Porridge…

By the time we’d eaten here, the rain had passed and we could continue our walk through the gardens, around the lakes and to the ‘Big Fish Aquarium’.  Initially we thought that they were saying was going to be a big aquarium, and wondered where that would fit.  They actually meant that it’s a tank with some really big fish in it.  And they were big, one was most of two metres long!  A pleasant little surprise 😊

The gardens are meticulously designed, and everything is in place.  All the public areas are immaculate and aesthetically pleasing.  I’ve never seen so much effort put into a public place!

We entered the second dome, the Cloud Forest Dome, and were greeted by the waterfall coming from the ‘mountain’. 

In this dome, there’s a large central mountain, with lifts inside to take you to the top, where you walk down through the forest layers down a winding walkway.  There are rooms inside the mountain showing crystals and stalactites. 

There are also loads of beautiful orchids, including some so small you need a microscope to see the flowers! 😊

At the top of the mountain there are some pitcher plants and the Rafelesia made out of lego, which was a little odd! 

To add atmosphere (and presumably for the plants), they spray mist in regularly, which is great from the walkways and makes it all very atmospheric. 

Chris found a friend.

It’s a pretty impressive construction, full of life.  

The final part of this mountain is an educational area about the impact of man on the planet and the issues being faced (and what we can do about it).  I’ll admit it, I cried a bit, especially when Aiden looked up after reading something and looked so sad.  The world will be so different once he’s my age.  What will it look like to his children? 

The Gardens attempted to show us with a film about the impacts of a 5 degree rise in global temperatures, expected by 2100.  No-one will be left unaffected.  We all need to do something to maintain our way of life, even if that life involves never leaving the cities.  SO much to do that it’s all rather depressing ☹.

Feeling sombre, we headed to the Floral Fantasy exhibit, which was a pricey addition to our ticket, but sounded pretty cool.  It was a disappointment for the money. 

Whilst the first part was beautiful for most, it was unnaturally staged, with too many flowers.  Just not our thing.  And at only around 100m to walk through it’s just not big enough to justify the ticket price.

The final part is a 4D film of the gardens seen through the eyes of a dragonfly.  Not the best 4D film we’ve been to, but it was mum’s first and she actually quite enjoyed it!  Certainly a new experience 😊.

Floral Fantasy is right by the metro stop so it was an easy ride home.  We managed to make some form of sausage, mash and beans for some comfort food after our long day out.  Yum 😊

Day 184 – Art Science Museum and Mustafa’s

Aiden was feeling a little off today, so we scrapped the idea to walk around the McRitchie Reservoir (with some relief as walking 8km in 32 degree heat was starting to seem rather onerous). 

I stayed in with him, whilst the others headed back to the Marina Bay area to try out the Art Science Museum.  Quite an adventure for them really as I always navigate!  They were of course perfectly capable, especially on the excellently signed and easy to use metro system here. 

The Art Science Museum turned out to be a bit of a disaster.  It’s free, but the free area was pretty boring, with about four ‘art exhibits’ including this bit of ‘space foil’ which is flapping in a fan.  Quite what it was meant to signify was a bit of a mystery!

The rest of the museum requires payment, and quite a lot of it too.  Chris and Evie went into the FutureWorld which Evie loved.  It was really interactive, with lots of games, like one where you can draw something, and then scan it so it becomes part of the art exhibit, like an animated fish swimming around.  The room is dark, with lots of colourful areas of light.  Chris was not as entertained.  His overall opinion was that it was overpriced, but great for an escape from the sun with young kids if it’s not busy.  Despite being Art Science, there was no learning opportunity here.  No science really… Still; it entertained Chris and Evie for an hour whilst Mum wandered around the bay some more. 

On the way back they went through ‘The Shoppes’ at the bottom of the Marina Sands Hotel, which has a river running through it that you can ride a sampan boat on, and all the major designers.

After getting off the metro they went to Mustafas, which is dubbed as the Harrods of Singapore.  They claim to have anything you need!  Five floors of everything under the sun, where they stocked up on hair ties, maths books and stationary for reasonable prices, so it wasn’t really like Harrods!

As we were staying in Little India, and there are huge amounts of Indian restaurants outside the apartment, it seemed rude not to go for an Indian for dinner 😊.  Not cheap, but very yummy, and Singapore hasn’t been nearly as expensive as we’d thought 😊.  There were more signs that the Coronavirus has people feeling a little less neighbourly though…

Day 185 Heading to Malaysia

After packing we headed out to the metro station for the last time, and repeated the three train rides to the airport.  As before, it was really easy.  As was returning the train ticket cards which we had previously paid a $10 deposit on each (we assume this was so that you return the cards so that they can be reused which is a great idea).

There were no delays at the airport this time, so we sped through.  It really is an amazing airport.  We didn’t actually have any human involvement the whole way through, as we passed through check in and bag drop automatically, then through automatic immigration, and finally, automated boarding.  All done with your passport photo and cameras!  Our time waiting to get the flight was quite pleasant, with loads of comfy chairs dotted around, and some pretend shops covering the whole end wall showing little movies about the historic Singaporean way of life every now and then. 

After barely seeming to get into the air, we were landing at Kuala Lumpur, which was a rather different experience! 

We had to queue through immigration as there was only one person on.  Few signs meant we got lost heading to our gate area, and there were virtually no places to eat lunch and only hard plastic chairs.  We nearly ended up having some expensive pasta from Starbucks for lunch (!?!), but saw a café hidden around the corner at the last minute.  Cheaper and offering Malaysian food, it was a much better option.   Although Aiden was not too impressed when he realised his had squid in it.  Big rubbery tentacles…

The flight was easy, nearly four hours though, across to the far side of Borneo. 

We picked up a Grab from Sandakan airport and met the maid for our Airbnb apartment.  All very easy.  The place was pretty good too, with a massive pool. 

We’re in Sandakan to visit the nearby sanctuaries of Sepilok, known for the Orangutan sanctuary.  There is also a Sun Bear Sanctuary here, and some protected rainforests to explore.  Join us there.  Or read about our trip to the limestone tors and flooded valleys of Ninh Binh in Vietnam.