The flight path program on the plane showed we had arrived but it was lying – we spent the best part of 40 minutes circling outlying islands in Malaysia and Singapore before we eventually touched down at Changi airport around 5pm. We had already decided to catch a taxi – for less than $20 after a long flight with all of our luggage, why wouldn’t you. Out taxi driver, who it turned out had been to Australia and a lot of other places was quite chatty and provided a running commentary about everything we passed and where we should go. I had arranged to meet a friend who was in Singapore that evening so we delayed their arrival at our hotel so we had a chance to shower and relax. As it turned out they went to the wrong hotel – same chain, just the wrong location. Ours was next to the River, rather near Raffles and only a short stroll to Chinatown.
We wandered along the waterfront looking for a restaurant that would satisfy everyone. I was really keen for some of the infamous Singapore crab but finding a restaurant here that catered to vegetarians, carnivores and seafood eaters was a challenge. We settled on a Mexican restaurant and while the food was fine- I had crab burritos and chili lime skewers, the prices were high end but the food wasn’t. Probably a hall mark of the tourist centric riverfront. Nevertheless, we had a great evening regaled by tales of our companions’ trip to Malaysia. We turned in quite early in the evening and I slept like a log.
The next morning I woke to an energized Dan who had been up for hours, strolling through downtown Singapore and around the marina taking photos. He was keen for a swim. As was I, although I did need to wakeup first. After a quiet dip, as everyone else in the hotel was probably asleep or at breakfast at 8am, we showered and contacted our dinner companions to see if they wanted to meet us for runny eggs and coconut jam toast for breakfast. We had sensibly decided the previous evening to extend our checkout until late afternoon so we could shower before heading to the airport.
After enjoying our favourite new breakfast treat, which I had with incredibly strong tea this time instead of incredibly strong coffee, we bought a jar of coconut jam to bring home. The proprietor sensibly advised us to pack the jar in our checked luggage. A lesson we had learnt only too well after trying to take a bottle of pomegranate juice out of Turkey in our hand luggage. Liquid or semi-liquid foods are still liquids and need to be dumped at the security screening point.
After breakfast we headed back to Chinatown to find the cluster of collectible and vintage stores we discovered a month ago on our whirlwind tour of Singapore. This time the two collectible stores were open and Dan had a fun time browsing. One of them was almost all anime statues and the like, including some of the almost pornographic female characters. I find it quite curious that most of the female amine characters have EE or F sized boobs. Not even Wonder Woman’s boobs are that big. Much to my chagrin, the vintage store was closed. Apparently the owner may or may not have been turning up to open later in the day. Disappointingly, there were some quite interesting jewelry pieces in the window. Asian vintage stores tend to have some interesting and unusual pieces once you wade through the glitz and gilt. Especially Hong Kong and Singapore where there was plenty of British cash splashing around in the 20s and 30s when some of the most exquisite jewels were fashioned. Of course the social influence of colonialism is a whole different story.
After Dan was done with the collectible stores, we wandered through Chinatown market, looking at the wares. Conscious of how overloaded my pack already was, I only bought one thing – a silk printed scarf which wouldn’t have tipped the scales. We then headed to a new hotel in downtown that we had all been impressed by. The building structure itself looked like it was built from layers of corrugated cardboard. It was like a green oasis with hanging gardens spilling over the structure. The only distracting part was the brightly coloured pods hanging off the building every so often – they served a purpose in providing a more private and shady outdoor area for guests but it was the colours (clearly included to reference the gelato row houses of nearby china town that jarred with the muted tones of the rest of the building. Our companions had previously visited and found that members of the public could travel to the open shared leisure area of the hotel about 10 floors up. Beautiful gardens, the pods that featured cushions and acted much like a Bedouin tent or meditation space and fresh breezes all meant a cooler relaxed space with less of the stifling humidity on the ground. The hotel’s infinity pool was also on this level but was only open to guests.
Despite the fact we had only had breakfast about two hours before, we decided we wanted to have lunch at a hawker centre just once more before we left. Our companions had challenged themselves to spend more than $10 at the centre and they struggled. Yes – food in the centres is that cheap, as long as you don’t buy alcohol. Even with Dan’s ravenous appetite and want to try as many different foods as possible, he struggled to spend $15. I had a combination that included hoi sin pork, veges, noodles, soup, a couple of extremely refreshing lime and cucumber drinks.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel. I had initially planned to do two extra things – go shopping for fabric in Arab Street and go to Raffles. We had already decided against Raffles as we were tired, hot, sweaty and dirty and had also heard from a couple of sources that it hadn’t really held its former glory as much as you would expect. I also decided it was way too hot to go to Arab Street. I already have a pile of fabric at home and besides we need to have a reason to come back to Singapore.
Instead I took the much more appealing option of lazing about on the pool deck (well floating in the pool as lazing around on the pool deck isn’t really my style – it’s hot and this is a bikini body that is definitely best hidden by refracted waves of water (and covered in something more extensive than a bikini). Dan didn’t last long, heading back upstairs for a snooze after his incredibly active morning. I swanned about for another hour or two and then it was time to pack up and head to the airport.
Yet another helpful taxi driver – this one spent some time discussing with us the laws and possibilities of home ownership in Singapore. First only citizens can buy property. Secondly, all the land is leasehold. Thirdly, there is a sort of ballot system not the free for all we have. This seems to be good in that not all the property can be purchased by investors but it also means a lengthy wait to be able to purchase property as well. Everything in Singapore is apartments but unlike some of its neighbours Singapore doesn’t pack them in like sardines, retaining a strict garden city state approach to building.
When we arrived at the airport the leaving procedure was a little more arduous with plenty of queues. The importance of retaining your immigration card stub was brought into focus. The young girl ahead of us had seemingly misplaced hers and the immigration officials were ready to take her away for an interview. We eventually arrived at our holy grail destination. As we were travelling home on a Qantas flight (despite the fact it was codeshare) we were able to enter an international lounge in another country. The new Qantas lounge in Singapore is pretty swish and the food selections were wonderful – local noodle dishes, pasta, salads and some delectable desserts as well. We didn’t have too much time but we took advantage of the free spread and chilled out before our flight to Sydney. The pilot managed to land us quite early and the flow through Customs and immigration was incredibly quick. Of course what that meant was that we were ready to fly home about four hours before the flight I had booked for us. And these days Qantas pretty strictly enforces the rule that you can’t change flights if you booked the cheap ass fare. And yep you guessed it that’s the one I booked and the hosties was intractable (despite the fact there was more than likely a half empty plane heading back to Canberra on Sunday morning in the first week of January. Eventually after struggling to stay awake in the Qantas lounge we made it home without incident and drifted in and out of sleep just moments later. Another holiday sadly over. All that’s left to do now – pay off the credit card and plan the next one… maybe Asia I think….
Christmas themed activities – 24 War museums and model shops – 3 Design experiences – 3