At 5:00am the taxi is waiting to ferry us to Changi airport. It’s Singapore’s 51st birthday so there will be lots of celebration later. At the airport, there is a ornamental pond with live fish in it next to the coffee shop. Alex has drawn the fish and discovered it is an archer fish which can spit up to 15.3cm of water to knock down passing flies (lunch).

The flight ,with Silk air, departed at 7:40 with a very cautious pilot and arrived at 8:00 at Kuala Namu where a car is waiting with Eddie, our driver. It took at least an hour to get out of Medan.  Briefly the road was clear and flat, but soon the potholes started and shortly after that we were into rough track.  The track got progressively narrower and rockier.  After driving 140km in 5 hours, Mega Inn, Tangkahan is finally in reach.

The house at Mega Inn had a thatched roof and lots of Geckos living in the light shade eating all the mosquitoes there was a terrace and over all the house was nice. To get to the house however a swaying, rickety bridge had to be crossed. To cool down after the drive we swam in the river. Alex went the furthest but the monkeys stayed in the trees and relaxed in the hammock until dinner.

Singapore

I’m awake at 8am but when I try to encourage any other clan members to wake up my head is bitten off.  Finally hunger forces action.  De Hollandse Club is not doing breakfast due to catering changes so we decide to go to the Adam Road hawker center.  It’s very nice but the kids are still in weetabix mode so we move to the french cafe and have marble cake opposite the Botanical Gardens.

we use the Metro to Orchard and walk along Orchard road towards the sea.  A gentleman stops us to ask if we are looking for a specific shop.  We buy flip-flops for me, and then look for a food mall to find ice cream.  If you walk into a mall and can’t find the ice cream shop you ask the security guard.  He doesn’t know where to get ice cream.  2 minutes later he turns up to tell us where to go, how to get there and he even comes up 20 minutes later to check that we got our ice cream.  To say that generally people in Singapore are helpful is an understatement.

Jane wants to see the sea so we take the Metro to the Pier from where we have some nice views of odd buildings.

We eat in the Hollandse Club and go to bed quite early because it’s going to be a 5AM taxi pickup.

Churchdown – London – Singapore

Now that’s not a lot of stuff to take on a 3 week holiday.  Lets hope that holds true for our 3 week tour of Indonesia.  4x hand luggage, 2x hold luggage and one spare bag packed inside.

We have 3 sets (12 total) of boarding passes now but still need to queue for 20 minutes to drop off our luggage.  Good thing we’re here 3 hours before the flight.

Arrived at De Hollands Club, room 12 and 13.  Alex and Emma fully awake and waiting to go to …

Night Safari

This tiger was sleeping and clearly dreaming of eating a small child.  After midnight everyone was tired enough to go to sleep.  Lets see if they wake up in the morning.