We arrive in Singapore at 7.30am 16/11/18 after leaving London at
1055am 15/11/18 the previous morning!! (losing 7 hours in the process… very careless of
us).
Breakfast at Heathrow was at Heston Bloomenthal's restaurant. Very pleasant to eat good English food prior to the expected assault of days of Asian food.
Neither of us had slept on the flight, so by the time we arrived in Singapore we already felt as thought we were pulling an all-nighter and not really in a fit state to be trying to make the most of time in Singapore. This was not helped by the fact that our planning for this leg of the journey was almost non- existent, so we were pretty much starting from scratch.
Breakfast at Heathrow was at Heston Bloomenthal's restaurant. Very pleasant to eat good English food prior to the expected assault of days of Asian food.
 |
| the knife over the counter at Heston's Restaurant. |
Neither of us had slept on the flight, so by the time we arrived in Singapore we already felt as thought we were pulling an all-nighter and not really in a fit state to be trying to make the most of time in Singapore. This was not helped by the fact that our planning for this leg of the journey was almost non- existent, so we were pretty much starting from scratch.
At the airport we purchased a 2 day tourist pass which
allowed us to use the bus and train services around Singapore for unlimited
uses for 2 days. This was a bit of a leap of faith. We had been told that it was easy to use the
public transport in Singapore – but we were not really sure how well we were
going to do with this. It actually
worked out pretty well for us. Travel on
trains and buses in Singapore is pretty cheap (between $1.40 and $2.50 for most
trips, depending on the length of the trip).
You load up your card, or buy a single trip ticket at the automatic
ticket machines at the stations. Then you swipe your ticket as you enter the
platform and as you leave the last platform. The cost of your trip is deducted
from your card. It may have been
slightly cheaper to take the “load your ticket yourself” option, but certainly
not as easy, so we were pretty happy to pay $26 (which included a $10
refundable deposit) for 2 days. Looking back, a 3 days pass for $4 more would
have been better, but we were a bit confused about when we were leaving at the
time that we purchased the tickets.
We left our baggage at the hotel and went out on foot. We were still a bit unsure of how to do this
next bit, so made what was probably a bad decision. We decided to take a hop on hop off bus, but
to take the orange "Fun Z" bus instead of the normal red hop on-hop off one. This is half the price, but we suspect there
is a reason too. The bus came along and we caught it (paying the driver our $50
for the day) and headed upstairs. Out on
the upper level the closed front half was reasonably pleasant, but when we
opened the door to go out to the open air section we were hit by a blast of hot
and humid air that had us reeling, and quickly changed our minds.
There were no headphones and very limited commentary, with
little additional information. Not
really the educational orientation to Singapore that we were hoping for. We did
one loop and got off.
At some stage we admired a building with lots of greenery spilling from it , just near our hotel, and also a robotic lawnmower.
It still wasn't late enough to head back to the hotel, so we walked towards Clarke Quay and sat down by the river to eat
lunch (more expensive than expected as there is a service charge and a GST charge
which are both around 7-10%). Drinks were also very expensive (on a very hot day) and moist towels were
provided and charged for, whether or not you used them. We walked around towards the business
district along the edge of the water, admiring the bronze sculptures of
historical figures from the past of Singapore, and trying to avoid the smoke
from many smokers.
We watched many
tourist boats which probably carry about 40 people. Most had a few only.
View of the Iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel which controls the skyline of Singapore in this area.
At one stage we caught a free bus (seemed to be doing a loop just for lunchtime) and then we got quite lost for a while, eventually finding our way back to the hotel, after walking quite a way.
We were very pleased to find milk for a cup of tea in the 711 on the street, and get into our room, with its tiny bathroom and be able to lie down and have a sleep.
After a few hours of sleep we wandered out and down towards Chinatown and found a multi storey shopping mall with lots of food places. Here we eventually settled on a meal for dinner, and ate as the store operators cleaned up for the evening around us.
We were very pleased to find milk for a cup of tea in the 711 on the street, and get into our room, with its tiny bathroom and be able to lie down and have a sleep.
After a few hours of sleep we wandered out and down towards Chinatown and found a multi storey shopping mall with lots of food places. Here we eventually settled on a meal for dinner, and ate as the store operators cleaned up for the evening around us.
No comments:
Post a Comment