Day 3 Singapore

The hotel breakfast, like the airport transit lounge, catered for every possible international taste – everything from Chinese pickles, fried rice and wontons through cold meats and salad to cereals, fruits, a full American breakfast and a selection of pastries. Consequently, we ate far too much and it’s a good thing we planned to spend the day walking around…..

We left the hotel quite early, the Chinese food court was only just opening up, a few sleepy souls at breakfast. It was amusing, though, to pass a building site and see the entire workforce exercising together before beginning their day!

We walked across garden-trimmed bridges, through Chinatown and to the old harbour at Clarke’s Quay – now converted to trendy restaurants and an adult ‘playground’ with extreme swings and a reverse bungee jump. We walked down Orchard Road, past the luxury boutiques and hotels – all dressed up for Christmas, stopping in a café to cool off and rest for the next stint. We walked along the river past the parliament and old colonial buildings, visiting the Asian Cultures Museum and Merlion Park – which has a large statue of the symbol of Singapore – a creature with a lion’s head and fishes’ tail.  We stopped again and I had a green tea smoothie, which turned out to be a mistake. I ordered it because I remembered the lovely green tea ice cream that we had in China, but this was too strong and too sweet. I’m not sure it was how it was meant to be, though,  because the girl who made it was squinting to read the recipe as she did it…..

From Merlion Park, there is an amazing view of the Harbour Marine Development – three skyscrapers with a boat shaped garden connecting them at roof level – the iconic view of modern Singapore. The whole city will make an excellent case study for my year 11 geographers – for sustainability and ‘greening’. So many of the newer buildings have unexpected gardens climbing up them – or inserted between floors – and the water and transport management systems are outstanding. I wouldn’t mind living here for a while…..

We took one of the ‘bumboats’ back to Clarke’s Quay, learning about Singapore’s history and watching for the engaging bronze sculptures along the Esplanade and river walk.  Then we returned to Chinatown, with the market in full swing – so that Rob could practise his haggling skills for some more electronics.

By this time, our feet were aching a bit and the sky was beginning to look a little threatening, so we returned to the hotel to collect our luggage and head out to the airport for our overnight flight to Sydney.

As on the way into the city, we watched the people as much as the scenery – nearly everyone had a phone or tablet…one girl had two – one each hand! There was one older gentleman with a Louis Vuitton bag, knitting a pink cardigan  - and a grandmother and mother entertaining a very young baby – but otherwise everyone, literally everyone, was plugged in to some sort of device.  It’s the same here at the airport – other than those sleeping in the ‘Snoozing Lounge’ – and what a lovely idea that is! - every single person is plugged in – thumbs waggling or head nodding or just glued to whatever they’ve downloaded for the trip.  It makes me feel very old sometimes that I remember when you had to put quarters in the arm of a chair to watch a little tv or actually turn the pages of a book!