Animals, animals and more animals

After a bit of a hectic couple of days, it was time for a small lie in today, which I think everyone liked, appreciated and enjoyed, before a more leisurely start to the day and a late night finish! 

It was time to hit the high seas, or the Singapore River and Marina Bay Area, on a very short but really interesting boat trip, taking in the historic Singapore River, and original dock areas, before a loop of the Marina Bay Area, and back. As ever very picturesque, and very hot! 

A much needed lunch and ice cream needed afterwards.

As ever we pushed our luck, with the hope of maybe getting to the main hawker area, but got caught up in photos of the Marina Bay Area, including the Merlion, so in the end the hawker area needed to wait. It was back to the hotel for a quick swim, freshen up and then attempt to work out how Grab works for 6-seaters, as we had an evening date with some animals. 

 And WHAT a date it was at the night safari. We had heard really great reviews, but nothing really prepared us for just how good it was. The night safari is part of the wider wildlife area, including Singapore Zoo and the bird park, and we arrived with a lot of Chinese tourists to see this unique wildlife experience. 

Upon entry we took to the three walking trails seeing so many animals, so many were out and visible, it was amazing, even the ones you’d expect not to see, like the Leopard and my favourite the hyenas, that cams across as incredibly menacing. Considering we had David Attenborough, David Bellamy and Steve Backshall with us, of course the trails took us so long it meant a run in the extreme heat and humidity to the wildlife show, again incredibly well done and presented. 

Following this, and with many tourists now having left, we brooded the electric trains, modified land trains to see the sites, again the animals all were easy to see and looking great. It was really so good, a must do, which of course the kids, Angus especially loved. However it was almost too good to be true, how many animals we saw, how close you saw them etc made you question a little bit, however the research I have done suggested Singapore Zoo is world leading, I guess it felt more entertainment than educational, but if that helps with the educational element, so be it. Anyways, close to 11pm we finally headed for home, luckily not an early start needed, but five people who really did now feel after two great days of tourism like they were on a fantastic holiday break!

Buses, beverages, botanicals and bellowing bubbles of water

So probably fair to say today was the first real day in Singapore, and what more to do to start it all off then a local delicacy…ok only kidding, a local Starbucks just to make sure that the kids were fuelled ahead of a days sightseeing.

And onto the Big Bus tour of Singapore, which despite the heat and some slightly strange co-sightseers (by that I am not talking about the Robertsons) it was a terrific tour, very informative, and generally hit all the local highlights…and even shot by the Standard Chartered offices! Some of my co travellers were super cool though!

Then we went onto a real highlight of the trip, off to the main hotel haut, the much vaunted Raffles Hotel, where we hit up the Long Bar for Singapore Slings and to throw Monkey Nuts all over the floor, if you can believe, three of our company really liked the later, and two more distinguished of age liked the former! 

Everything was great though, from the drink, fun, and the kids having a go at shaking up the cocktails using the very big machine.

So back on the bus which took us further west to the Botanical Gardens, where we had a few lizard encounters, mixed in with turtles that the kids absolutely adored. Very warm walking back, but everyone managed to do it brilliantly well!

Back to Chinatown for a wash, more Chinese food, then onto the Marina Bay Sands complex to watch the 9pm showing of the fountains show, certainly very impressive, not sure why it took so long for me to know about it!

All in all a great first full day sightseeing, and great first day of Block Leave!

Fresh Feet and Fresh Fruit…what’s that smell?

So we woke beautifully freshly on Day 3…luckily the Jet Lag fairies had been relatively kind to us, and of course, following a Quick Look at the view from the room (see below), the only thing to do was hit the pool.

All five of us got in, of course three people in particular got more into it than others, but a good bit of acclimatisation for the coming days. Given we had a snack breakfast and it was a bit of a lie in, we then sorted ourselves for a bite to eat, which we did at Clarke’s Quay, an area I didn’t really know before this trip. A bit too western and touristy for my liking, but understand it. This was followed by a brief and hot walk around the river and Marina Bay Area, all got a wee bit much for Hamish, but other two did brilliant.

Then, it was time for a short sleep for all before heading on the tube to see Evelyn Low and family, for a great evening of food and what turned out to be interesting Durian dessert! Such a great time to see Evelyn, Brian and family again, although not sure I’ll even try Durian again, it really was pungent and just not the freshest taste…but glad we tried it. Super fun at a super fun venue!

 

Saturdays are not normally a good day to miss!

Well we finally arrived in early evening, having missed pretty much 3/4 of a Saturday, normally something you’d be quite unhappy with, but if you’re heading out for a three week holiday, these are the thing's you cope with.

As ever, Changi airport was unbelievably efficient, and then with a hop, skip, jump and not insignificant pushing of bags and buggies we made it to the hotel at Furama City Centre in the heart of China Town.

Which was a real bonus as five very hungry grits were then able to take on China Town and get themselves their dinners. Happy days, and happy bellies.

Then off to bed, hopefully not too jet lag fuelled.

Summer Holidays and Block Leave, here we come!

Finally, it has arrived, the much awaited, and long excited trip to South East Asia with the whole family. Not without first getting everything work off my table, which was quite stressful in itself!

Anyways, once that was done, and the incredible misses had finalised the packing, it was tooth fix central, pick kids up after last day of Year 5 (Angus) and Year 3 (Amber), it was time to get to the airport.

Amanda and Angus took the taxi with bags, whilst the two youngest and I tried the Superloop. Very efficient and cheap, but god was it slow. Kids were brilliant though, and usb power helpful!

A quick walk at Heathrow airport to meet Amanda and Angus who had successfully navigated the M25 and via a short stop for dinner at Leon and a play at the playground it’s was onboard our B777 Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore for the next 14 hours!