I think I may have mixed up the day of the week and the date in my last blog entry - lack of sleep on the flight from Copenhagen caused that! I have today's blog entry dates right.
We finished our first day here by going to China Town on the train and mingling with the locals as we ate dumpling noodle soup, in a very crowded food hall in quite hot and sticky temperature. There is so much choice for food here, we always find it hard to know what to have.
Yesterday we did lots of walking around the shopping malls in Orchard Road. You need to have huge bank accounts to shop here - I didn't buy anything! There are so many shops selling exclusive designer label goods. We enjoyed ourselves mixing with the locals as they shopped. We finished up having dinner in one of the food courts - delicious hand made noodle soup - totally different to the soup we had in China Town.
Today we ventured further, catching the train to see the Gardens by the Bay. It is an ultra modern park spanning 101 hectares built on reclaimed land and has only been open for about a year. Within the complex, there are two giant domed conservatories with a huge number of plants. In one of them, you walk on walkways high up amongst the plants. The environment changes, the higher up you go. There are waterfalls and different air temperatures and atmospheres and different plants at every level. The second dome displays a selection of flower gardens from around the world. This includes typical Australian flowers and plants, including the Kangaroo paw. The domes were lovely and cool, which was a welcome respite from the humidity. Thankfully, today was not as hot as yesterday. Early this morning there were some showers which may have helped cool the temperature.
We also visited the most prominent landmark in Singapore - the Marina Bay Sands, which is an absolutely magnificent resort complex consisting of three hotel towers with a boat-like observation deck across the top and a huge atrium style foyer right along the three towers. The complex includes hotel accommodation, apartments, restaurants etc and of course - more exclusive brand name shopping! To stay there, live there or shop would all require very deep pockets indeed. Our only mission was to go up to the observation deck to see the views over Singapore. The experience complimented our Shard experience in London (oh, and the Shard is taller by about 20 stories). We had great views over Singapore and also could see the huge pools and gardens further along the boat shaped deck on the top of the hotels. Luxury indeed. We go for much more modest accommodation!
We had a late afternoon snack of steamed dumplings, before coming back to our hotel to sort out packing for our return home tomorrow. We are finishing the evening with a drink and nibblies in the club lounge at the hotel, where they treat you like Royalty.
Tomorrow we have to go to the airport to catch our flight home. Boo hoo. Why can't holidays go on forever?
