Monday 12 August 2013 – Still Singapore

At breakfast there is a group of kids doing Hollandse Club summer camp. It’s all in English but the majority of the children are Dutch.

There is a type of black bird here which is specialised in eating the remains of breakfast.

We got up a little too late for a morning walk, but persist and go to the Botanical Gardens. A few months ago a bicycle was stolen here. Very dangerous area.

The gardens are good and we spot some animals, but Alex is not used to the heat and we should have gone earlier. We laze in one of the many hilltop resting places in the gardens and spot the birds which are again experts in clean up activities. This seems to be a Singapore expertise. Alex spots another gecko and also many local mini-centipedes which he can confirm do not sting or bite when handled.

We try for a walk to the lakes where the monitors live, but even the sight of large lizards doesn’t convince Alex.

The MRT has a system where you can reuse the physical RFID tickets. We only use it once of course. The trains are about 50% wider than London Underground and they have not used the additional space to make more seats, but have improved comfort and no doubt greater rush hour capacity. For a Monday mid-day the MRT has almost all seats taken.

Haw Par Villa and the ten courts of hell. Alex hasn’t stopped asking about the punishments (cut in half, boiled in oil, thrown on the tree of knives, etc). Maybe we shouldn’t have taken him there. We like the little car with the dragons head. Everything here is very nicely sculpted and painted.

But it’s too hot and we take a taxi back for lunch and get into the swimming pool. Half the pool is taken all day with swimming lessons, but there is enough space. After dinner Alex and mummy have an evening swim while Emma writes and I finish my programming assignment.

Our table has it’s own Buddha:

Emma and Alex demonstrate the luxury of their room:

I check out and SMS Johnny who agrees to pick us up at 6:30.