We took the underground subway to the city and arrived at our station Lavender to be greeted by the oppressive heat and pouring rain. Completely unprepared for this weather we set off in to the rain. At least it was warm! Within a couple of minutes a random woman gave me her umbrella....wow, what kindness...a great start to our stay. We dumped our stuff at the hotel and headed out to little India and found a vegetarian curry house for a delicious dinner.
After a slightly rough night, in not the most salubrious hotel (although at least the air conditioning worked well), we set out to explore. We headed to the Marina Bay Area, to see the famous hotel and the gardens in the bay. Unfortunately we set off on the subway during rush hour.... However when we got to the mall at Marina Bay it was completely empty as we were there before the exclusive shops opened. We walked around the empty waterfront on the double helix bridge and around the strange looking art and science museum, taking in the views looking back across to old Singapore mixed in with the new city. We then crossed over the sky bridge, through the Marina Bay Sands hotel to the gardens in the bay. This is a series of gardens with several large domes which house indoor flower gardens and other plants, but also the very impressive super grove of gigantic trees with creepers and ferns slowly climbing their way up the structures.
Freya and Aaron on the double helix bridge.
Looking up at the Marina Bay Hotel all 57 floors
It was hot, so we headed to the children's water garden. This is an area of fountains and sprays for kids (and adults who are supervising!!) to run through. It was great to cool off and Freya loved playing in the fish fountains.
Water fountains and sprays in the children's water garden with one of the garden domes in the background.
Freya playing in the fish fountain
Next we headed to Chinatown to find some lunch. It wasn't quite what we expected...it was much more cosmopolitan with lots of different culinary delights. We chose Vietnamese. By mid afternoon the heat was too much, so we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. We emerged again just before dinner and headed to the Arab district checking out the mosque and the old buildings, before finding some dinner at one of the Turkish restaurants. Another great meal.
The next morning we went to check out the old fort canning on the hill, then briefly checked out one of the many shopping malls along Orchard road, before heading back to check out of the hotel. We headed to the airport mid afternoon and after checking in for our flight we headed to the airport swimming pool and swam and hung out for the rest of the afternoon before boarding our flight. The swimming pool at the airport is just awesome....so much nicer than spending hours in the departure lounges.
Plenty more of Singapore to explore and delicacies to eat. Next time....hopefully at a cooler???? Or at least a less humid time of the year.
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