So, back in Singers for a week before winging our way home; first thing's first, satay at the fabulous Lau Pa Sat hawker centre, nothing like it! (see above) and so cheap (compared with restaurant food in Singapore) We had quite a few things planned for our time on the island and it was our Son's 25th birthday so, of course, we had to celebrate that in style, more on that later.
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!
Here are some Hyenas (above), they don't look scary on the TV but close up and only separated by a pane of glass (which you can't really see at night) they are formidable looking beasts, wouldn't like to chance my arm with a pack of these bone crunching puppies!
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 had a pre-dinner drink in the bar on the top floor adjacent to the pool, I snapped this photo (above), it's a jaw dropping place to dine! The photo below is of the building itself from the opposite side of Marina Bay, amazing and apparently they're going to build a fourth tower!
The dinner was a huge success, fantastic food and delicious wine and after we'd consumed our fill and exchanged gifts we headed back to our hotel and slept very well indeed! We awoke early to greet our last day in Asia (for a while at least!) Our flights home weren't until midnight and so after stowing our suitcases with the hotel we headed out for one final adventure.
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!
The displays were amazing, like the Eden Project in Cornwall on steroids! Including waterfalls, overhead walkways, artificial cave systems and all automatically watered and kept at a cool 20
degrees as the temperature outside touched 40! I hate to think of all the energy this must consume but knowing this place it's probably powered totally by left over chicken satay skewers..
On a totally unrelated track, while running around town I stumbled across a throw back to our Oktoberfest experience last year, a Paulaner micro-brewery! I snapped the picture below, a little slice of Bavaria in steamy Singapore, most surprising and a little odd, in a Disneyland kind of way, but really nice to have an ice cold Pilsner!
Our trip was coming to an end, eventually we headed back to our hotel, picked up our luggage and, with some sadness, hailed a cab to the airport. The flight home was uneventful, we all got a decent amount of sleep and arrived at the crack of dawn into a misty Heathrow airport, glad to note that at least the grass was a little greener than we left it!
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!
