Days 35-36 Nov 30th – Dec 1st
Our flight from Christchurch landed in Singapore about 5:30 pm local time. It was beginning to turn dark as we headed off to our hotel. Our driver gave us a quick introductory tour of Singapore as he took what he described as the “scenic route”. I didn’t really take that much in. Although it was only six thirty pm in Singapore, my brain was still on New Zealand time.
My first impression was a lot of very tall glass and steel buildings. Impressive, but a long cry from the South Island. We arrived at the hotel. As we stepped out of the car, the heat hit us. Thankfully it was only a few steps to the impressive, air-conditioned atrium. This was by a long way the flashiest hotel we had stayed in.
We were taken to our room on the 10th floor. Described as a garden room. The hotel has vertical gardens, part of the Singapore government’s green initiative.
The room smelt musty as we entered. I thought that a few minutes with the air-conditioning on would solve the problem. It helped but didn’t solve it completely.
We decided to see what the hotel had to offer. Specifically, Diane wanted to check out the swimming pool. Situated on the fifth floor it gave a great view of Singapore.
After that we decided that a beer and something to eat was in order, then bed.
The room still smelt musty the next morning. Diane said it was making her feel slightly sick.
We went down for breakfast. During breakfast I had one of the more surreal experiences of my life. Eating breakfast in a hotel 1° north of the equator listening to Dean Martin singing “Let it Snow”. Sorry, not going to happen mate. We ate breakfast. It was a very good buffet.
After breakfast we asked the hotel if they could do anything about the musty smell in our room. The hotel agreed to give us a different room.
We has to delay changing rooms as we had a tour of Singapore arranged. The tour was slightly disrupted because of road closures for the Singapore Marathon that was taking place that day.
The tour took us to the Sri Mariamman Hindu temple. Then on to a Buddhist temple, The Buddha Tooth Relic temple. This temple holds a tooth reputed to belong to the Buddha. We didn’t see the tooth. We then went on to Chinatown and “Little India. We finished up at the National Botanic Gardens
After the temple we moved on to “Little India”. If i am being completely honest, it wasn’t all that much different to many Indian areas in the UK. Just a lot hotter.
We then moved on to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. They have an incredible range of tropical plants and probably the largest orchid collection in the world. They also have a temperate house. It is like the tropical house at Kew, except in reverse. It is air conditioned rather than heated.
After we arrived back at the hotel we moved rooms. We were given a room on the 15th floor. The views were spectacular.
I particularly liked the opportunity to look out over Singapore while you were having a shower or a bath.
Our great-niece, who used to be a stewardess with British Airways recommended a place for us to eat this evening. It was called Syifa Satay. A few years back Singapore decided to ban street food vendors. It was done in the name of keeping the city neat and tidy. Street-food vendors were corralled into controlled locations. There are probably other locations, but Syifa Satay is located in an enclave called Glutton’s Bay. There are about a dozen stalls selling various types of street food, including Italian???
The satay was excellent.
We had decided that the “restaurant” was close enough to the hotel to walk. In the evening, the temperature dropped a little, making it pleasant to walk. The cityscapes on the way back were stunning.
The MerLion (above) is the city’s symbol.
We arrived back at the Park Royal Pickering. We had a drink while we admired the view from our room. Then we went to bed.
Singapore was beginning to grow on me.
A Scotsman in Suburbia 