Singapore

24th September

Relieved, we finally dropped off our excessive baggage and went for a wander along the river into town as far the iconic boat on skyscrapers that is Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

We got heaps of comments on Eddie in his baby backpack, maybe there aren’t big round here? Note to selves- open baby backpack outlet in Singapore if things at home don’t work out! # Brexit. In the afternoon, we checked into our mezzanine studio room and had a brief powernap before heading back out for food. We missed the lightshows at 8 whilst enjoying a beer by the river, so wandered back via the permanent brightness of orchard road.

25th September

We allowed ourselves a leisurely morning the next day as Eddie napped and we watched the rain from the hotel before heading to the gardens by the bay. We eventually got started by pootling through groves of ‘supertrees’ (epic metal trees intertwined with plants and vines), then explored the domes- one full of flowers filled with enthusiastic selfie takers and then the more impressive to our minds, the cloud forest with its central column of planted walkways from which spouted mists to water the forest below.

We topped it all off with a light show at the supertrees then a wander along the skywalk between the trees during the second showing, watching the lights over the rest of the city and the trees as they twinkled to music, followed by satay and cake to top off another excellent day.

26th September

Adams birthday!

He wanted to go for a walk and see monkeys, so we went to MacRitchie Resevoir park and it did not disappoint! We spent ages searching and did see some jumping through forest, before noticing of course the best place to see them were the park house benches where everyone eats and they try to steal it. We went from there to the treetop walk- a massive suspension bridge over a forested valley brushing past the emergents in the canopy. From there we headed back out of the park via a viewing tower to Adam food place for a cold drink before the MRT back to town in time for the marina sands light show. An odd thing to look at before it lights up, looks a bit like a dummy sticking out of the ocean, but awesome once it got going! Adam ended his birthday hugging his porcelain friend, unfortunately not for the same reason as previous birthdays. Somewhere between jungle expeditions and Asia his stomach had rebelled. 

27th September

After yesterday’s walk ended up a tad longer than planned, we took a bit of a recovery morning of swimming followed by a brief and very warm foray into Chinatown. We quickly bailed for another swim and a nap then headed to the island of Sentosa for the evening. Replacing the more expensive forms of transport for MRT and a walk across the footbridge we arrived in time for the crane dance lightshow. It was a strange little spectacle, with mechanical cranes with screens for bellies which did a funny courting dance, before falling in love and becoming real cranes and flying away. A bit like pinocchio but with cranes. From there we stumbled across yet another light show, with the famous (apparently) Merlion rotating through all its various light outfits of the year. A little paddle in the beach finished another awesome day.

28th September

Our last day in Singapore, and there was one key activity we had yet to complete- a trip to Raffles long bar for the classic Singapore sling, as given to us for our birthdays by Lucinda (thanks!). Eddie enjoyed his leather lined high chair as we were wafted by ceiling fans (now electronically powered, as opposed to strings attached to the toes of the staff as reportedly used to be the case). A little contrary to the colonial glamour expected, it’s very much expected that you munch your way through unshelled peanuts while you sip your ‘feminine’ (it was apparently developed as it was frowned upon for women to hit the booze in public so an enterprising barman made it look like fruit juice) pink cocktail and lob the shells on the floor, meaning you crunch whenever you walk.