First up a little trip to the "Night Safari", a Singapore staple and something we'd done previously back in 1998 when we were last here, we enjoyed it then and we certainly enjoyed it again this time. The basic premise is that you travel around a track within a zoo on a trolley bus, at night, and see animals that are more active in the hours of darkness, it sounds slightly naff but it's really good.
The layout of the pens is such that it appears to you that there's nothing between you and the animals but of course there is, special lighting effects and the fact that it's pitch black fool you into thinking that you could reach out and touch the Tiger (if you were stupid enough to want to do that!) Other exhibits included things like a "Bat Walkthrough" where you essentially walk through an enclosure surrounded by huge Flying Foxes, if you're lucky one of them flies down and attaches itself to your clothing, so you can get a closer look! Not something for the faint hearted!
Of course being dark the tour is lousy for taking photos, especially with your phone (no flash photography allowed for obvious reasons) but anyway here's a snap of an Asian Rhino having a little late supper (above).
The next evening we sampled another Singapore staple, "Tiffin" at Raffles Hotel, this is essentially an Indian meal (i.e. curry etc.) in a posh room! Back in 1998 it was a buffet format but now-a-days it's just a straightforward menu that you order from so just like an Indian restaurant back home, the only difference being the plush surroundings of the famous Raffles Hotel and it's dedicated "Tiffin Room", quite spectacular.
As I previously mentioned it was my Son's birthday on one of the days we were in Singapore and I'd booked a rather special restaurant situated at the very top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. This hotel was constructed between 2006 and 2010 so wasn't there when we were last in town but you certainly can't miss it! At around 60 floors in height and consisting of three huge towers with a cap shaped like a ship it's a highly photographed building, an Instagram'ers dream! On the top floor are a couple of restaurants and an infinity pool that looks down onto the skyline of the city, it's a very impressive structure!
We decided to walk across the bay and visit the "Gardens by the Bay" area and specifically the Flower Domes. There are two domes in the park, one for flowers and the other a "Cloud Forest". The structures are essentially huge steel and concrete framed green houses, but weirdly, air-conditioned, the only green houses I'd ever visited that were colder inside than out! This was a good job as owing to forest fires in Indonesia happening at the time, the air was really "smoggy" and the heat + humidity even more oppressive than normal for Singapore!
All in all a great holiday, we all loved every minute of it and have great memories and stories albeit from two different itineraries, Asia and Australia are fascinating and amazing places, we can't wait to get back there sometime, there's plenty more to experience!
