Starting to think about home

It is hard to believe I am almost finished the work in Singapore.  It seemed like I was waiting forever to get here and now I'm making lists of all of things that I need to see and do in Singapore before I leave:

• Shopping on Orchard Road
• Visit the Orchid Gardens
• Go to the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel
• Visit the Singapore Zoo
• Visit Changi Village
• Go to the Asian Civilization Museum
• Visit St Andew's Cathedral
• Visit Garden by the Bay
• Pick up souvenirs
• Look for a Samsung Galaxy Note (still haven't decided, but am close to thinking I need (well more like I want) one.

It's Easter weekend and I didn't manage to find a get away trip.  There were some options but because it is a very busy travel weekend in Singapore, the flights were really expensive. I am trying to find something for next weekend - maybe Siem Reap/Angkor Wat in Cambodia - if I could ever get a travel agent to respond to my email enquiries.  I will have to put that on my list for this weekend to actually find a travel agent and go in.

The weather here has gotten hotter - I think I'm actually starting to notice the subtle differences between 30 degrees and 33 degrees.  Seems like that isn't much, but it definitely feels cooler at 30 degrees.  This weekend is supposed to be 33 (feels like 45 degrees with the humidity).   Just back from the store - less than a 10 minute walk there and I need a shower!  It feels like you are walking in a sauna - almost can't catch my breath.

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter!
Melva

They assured me there were no calories!

As promised here are some of the pictures of our very decadent brunch yesterday at Raffles Hotel!  We could have done it for a little bit cheaper ($158 instead of $178), but the thought of enjoying brunch at Raffles won.  Raffles is a beautiful old hotel that has been restored to it's former glory.  At one point it had the best view of the ocean, but you'd actually never know that today as Singapore has a lot of reclaimed land along the waterfront.  Raffles is now a bit of a walk from the water front.

The Singapore Sling was apparently created at Raffles at the Long Bar - where you can go and enjoy a $26 Sling eating peanuts and throwing the shells on the floor.  Our Sling was enjoyed on the terrace of the Bar and Billiard Room as part of brunch.

Colleen, Danielle and I enjoying our slings

And now for the food - it was amazing and there was soooo much!  Did I mention the never ending champagne?

Course 1

Course 2 - Scottish and Canadian Oysters (flown in fresh), Maine Lobster

The Dessert Bar - your whole meal is planned around leaving room!

Milk Chocolate Raspberry Cake/Mousse

The Dessert Bar

These were custard desserts served in a real egg cup

My desserts :)

Danielle's desserts!

If you're ever in Singapore, I highly recommend this experience.  The waiters are lovely and so attentive - down to remembering our names throughout the afternoon - I was "Miss Melva".  It felt like we had stepped back in time.

The rest of the day was recovery - too much champagne and too much food.  I managed to get a swim in later in the day, but that was it!  All in all, a lovely day.  Thanks Colleen for the suggestion!

Melva

To finish the week....a fish spa!

It's been a long week workwise - too long of days and too short of nights for my liking.  To finish the week Danielle (a colleague from Australia) and I decided (well, actually I decided and convinced her) that we were going to try a "fish spa".  You see them all over the place here and they literally are "fish pedicures".  For $30 you get 30 minutes in the fish pond!  Although they actually left us alone and we were in there for about an hour.  Feels like little bubbles around your feed and legs and I have to say I quite enjoyed the experience - may have to go back.

Danielle is trying to decide if she is enjoying this!

The fish are called "doctor fish" and they nibble off the dead skin on your feet.    Apparently the fish come from the middle east and there are fish spas around the world.  Wikipedia says that they are banned in Canada other than Quebec - too bad!

It's Saturday here and it's going to be a relaxing weekend - Danielle and I are going shopping - we have actually found at least one store in Singapore that has sizes for North American and Australian women - now if we could only find a shoe store that had shoes bigger than size 7!  Tomorrow is brunch with a friend who used to work here.  The big hotels have lovely brunches here apparently - only $178 per person (with all of the champagne you can drink). Should be good for that price. I can say that Singaporeans love their food, so I expect wonderful things!

I'm trying to sort out a mini holiday for the Easter Weekend. I thought of Bintan, Indonesia (only 45 minutes by ferry) for a couple of days on the beach, but of course it's booked. Anyone have ideas?

Will post pictures of the brunch!
Melva

Lunch in Chinatown and a down pour!

The final day with Terry was spent relaxing and wandering through Chinatown.  We had both been here before, but I'm not sure how much Terry remembered from his first visit on day 1 when he was in a jet lag fog.  We weren't really touring today, just a day to find some souvenirs for him to take home and to relax.

After lunch in the Maxwell Hawker Centre, we wandered back to the MRT station to head home.  On our way we decided to stop for one more beer (that won't be a surprise to those who know Terry!) - turns out it was an excellent plan. 

Not 5 minutes after sitting down the skies opened and the rain started.  It never really rains for long in Singapore - just a short down pour!

The couple that were sitting at the table beside us (on ground level) were in about an inch of water when the rain finally stopped!  When I first arrived in Singapore I thought that the rain would make it more humid (if that's possible), but it actually does cool things down at least for a few minutes.

It's now March 19th and Terry's home safe and sound and after a week still hasn't adjusted to the jet lag! I'm looking forward to spending the coming weekend relaxing (as I worked most of last weekend) and doing some exploring - may have to find my way to Orchard - the major shopping area in Singapore!  Stay tuned!
Melva

Views of Singapore from the River

It's been a busy week and I haven't had a chance to post anything.  While Terry was here we spent the last 4 days together touring around.  Saturday was a day for wandering around Little India and then lunch at Boat Quay and a tour on an "electric" boat on the Singapore River.
As usual it was a very hot day (must remember to drink water) - I've become a huge consumer of "wet wipes" - you can buy purse size packages (4 packages for $1 SD) and I don't go anywhere without them.  Always in need of freshening up and wiping my face :)

Little India 

We really just wandered Serangoon Road taking in the sights.  Markets everywhere and lots of these garlands for sale. We went into a couple of temples along the way and visited the Mustafa Centre - open 24 hours a day - you can buy anything there.

Image from Sri Vadapathira Kaliamman Temple

Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple

Boat Quay

We definitely had earned a beer after our tour through Little India.  I like the Boat Quay area - it's quite touristy, but there is often a breeze along the Singapore River and they always seem to have happy hour prices.  Lunch was really nice with a selection of courses.  My favourite was the pineapple rice - as you can see served in a pineapple!

Singapore River Cruise

Final stop for the day was a cruise on the Singapore River. It was nice to see some of the sights from the water - we had seen many from the top deck of a bus tour the week before.

Skyscrapers in the background

Singapore Flyer

The Merlion

Sailing - Singapore Style

Another day in Singapore completed!  Still more to come.
Melva

Singapore Night Safari

It was a busy weekend exploring Singapore.  We managed to get quite a few sights in despite my inability to cope with the heat! 

Singapore has the world's first Night Safari - a safari park for nocturnal animals.  You can ride around on the tram and also walk along the trails after dark - the park doesn't open until 7pm daily - and view the animals awake and alert.  I think they use electrical fences as there were no high fences around the habitats and in fact in a couple of cases there were animals right beside the road and the tram had to slow down.  We just about took out a Tapir!  It was hard to take pictures as there is no flash photography - despite the warning in multiple languages some people didn't get it!  This picture is copied from the Night Safari website of the tapirs that we got up close and personal with.

I did manage to take some pictures of the Thumbuakor Performance - a fire show.  Pretty impressive!

The evening started out with a Creatures of the Night Show - the first two animal to come out were a raccoon and an otter.  Needless to say Terry had something to say about coming around the world to see animals that he could see either dumping our garbage over or making a mess on our boat!  Despite that,  the Night Safari is definitely worth going to - it's a bit of a trek from "downtown" Singapore, but absolutely worth the effort.  Terry and decided not to take a taxi getting there and managed to find our way on the East-West (green) MRT line, the North-South (red) MRT line, the Bukit Panjong LRT line and then finally a cab.  By this point we had no idea where we were and locals weren't sure which way the zoo was so we opted for the cab.  Coming home it was a cab ride to the MRT - too late and too dark and we were too tired to continue the adventure.

More to come!
Melva

Sentosa Island

Sentosa Island from the Cable Car

Sentosa Island is a small island that lies about a quarter mile off the south coast of the main island of Singapore.  It is a popular resort island with many hotel resorts located here as well as Universal Studios and other attractions. If you didn't look close you would actually think that it was part of the main island.  You can reach Sentosa by bus, car, monorail or cable car.  Terry and I decided to take the cable car as you get amazing views from there.

Just leaving on the Cable Car

View over Harbourfront Centre - this is the building where I am working - I don't have a view!

This is the cruise ship terminal as well as a ferry landing for ferries to Indonesia

Looking out over the port of Singapore - the busiest in the world apparently - and I used to think Vancouver was busy!

We purchased a day pass which allowed us to try out over 20 of the attractions - of course we didn't get to all of them - it was a really hot day so we took advantage of many of the air-conditioned venues.  I think my two favourites were the Luges ride down the "mountain" (aka hill) and the Segway ride (no pictures of this unfortunately).  Neither of these were long enough unfortunately.

This is the luge ride - a bit hard to see.  You go down on gravity controlled cars on a track that has some banked corners and lots of twists.  Definitely something to do more than once.

This is the ride back up to the Cable Care

Eating out in Singapore is really inexpensive as long as you like Asian food - there are food stalls on every corner and you can find a meal for about $3-4 Singapore dollars (about $2.50-3.50 Cdn).  Unfortunately as with all touristy areas, the availability of inexpensive food was not evident on Sentosa - $44 Singapore Dollars (about $40) for fish and chips and pizza for lunch and then another $27 for 2 beers :(

There are 3 beaches on Sentosa - we had lunch at Siloso Beach and then tested the water in the Singapore Strait (we thought it was the South China Sea when we were there).

Notice all of the freighters waiting to get into the port - they go for as far as the eye can see!

It's been a busy 3 days touring - stay tuned for more of the sights.
Melva

It's been two weeks

It's hard to believe, but I've been in Singapore for two weeks.  I actually think I have started to adjust to the heat and to the day to day work including the 45 minute commute on the MRT.  I'm taking a couple of days off so will have 4 days to explore Singapore some more with Terry.  Tomorrow I think we are off to Sentosa Island and then on Friday we'll do the night safari at the Singapore Zoo.

Last Sunday we took a tour on the "hop on, hop off" buses.  It's hard to say we actually saw much of Singapore - other than a lot of buildings, but I definitely felt I had a better idea of where things were located.  I think Terry was too jet lagged to really notice much :(

As I mentioned in previous posts Singapore is a very modern city, but you don't have to look very hard to find some of the older buildings.  It's quite a contrast.  The one thing you will notice is the very large number of shopping malls.  Singaporeans seem to love to shop! Lots of very exclusive names too!  I'm trying very hard to shop in more local stores and definitely won't be eating at the Chili's on Clarke Quay.

Here's a few of the sights from the bus tour on Sunday.

A shopping mall, but the locals call this the Durian in reference to the spiky fruit that they love here. 

The Marina Sands Hotel - can't afford to stay there for sure.  But it is a very impressive building with the boat structure on the roof.  In the fore ground is Merlion Park (a Merlion has a lion for a head and a fish tail)

Shopping Mall on Orchard Road

I'll post more pictures on the weekend after our adventures.
Thanks for stopping by!
Melva

High above Singapore

Today was the day that Terry and I headed out to experience the Singapore Flyer.  It is the world’s largest observation wheel - 165 metres from the ground.  This makes it the tallest ferris wheel in the world - according to the tour brochures 5 m (16 ft) taller than the Star of Nanchang and 30 m (98 ft) taller than the London Eye.

Waiting to get on

It's hard to see, but those are all freighters on anchor.  English Bay has maybe 10 freighters on anchor at any one time.

Garden by the Bay from the Singapore Flyer - this all sits on re-claimed land.

Terry and the view from almost the top - looking out over the Central Business District of Singapore

More ships in the distance - out towards Changi International Airport

Marina Sands Hotel - there are 3 towers with a boat structure on top.  There is an infinity pool on the top along with gardens and of course a bar.

Looking down from the top of the Flyer

High rises of Singapore - there is a stadium on the water in the fore ground.

The Singapore Flyer

Amazing views, and best of all it's 30 minutes of air conditioning.
Thanks for stopping by.
Melva