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.

When you arrive in Singapore your first impression is that it’s so spacious and empty, and your second idea is that it must be a small airport. But it isn’t.

Immigration is friendly and efficient (as long as you don’t loose your piece of paper) and the limousine service ($60 anywhere in Singapore) is expensive but ultra efficient – even if Johnny the driver doesn’t know where the Hollandse Club is.

Tired children at Changi:

We are there before our rooms are ready, but we are invited to use the club and start with a drink (we skip lunch – body clock is clearly wrong). We check out some towels for the pool. Alex discovers the slide and we all swim to kill the heat.

Once our room is available we have a sleep and wake up for dinner.

The receptionist says the night zoo isn’t very good, but we taxi there in any case. On the way to the entrance Alex gets his lizard overdose (lots of little ones waiting for snack on a lit sign).

We take the tour on foot and I have to say that this is one of the best zoo tours I have ever done.

Cat with pointy ears

Note: Bit of a rubbish post – likely to get updated tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

The A380 (800) is enormous and ugly. And it is very quiet. It rocks a bit under certain conditions, but otherwise it is a good economy class flight.

Plenty of films and games on the entertainment system and we all sleep shortly after dark. Emma gets sick in the last 2 hours. I think the 12 hour flight is a little too much for her and she needs a bed.