Singapore Revisited 16-18 March

Weds 16 March
It was good to have only a ten-minute drive to Auckland airport and the car rental returns place was easy to find. We'd allowed plenty of time before our flight so did some last minute shopping to use up our NZ currency. The flight itself was good on the Airbus and we each watched three different movies, great choice once mote and I enjoyed seeing Star Wars - The Force Awakens for the second time as well as The Big Short and Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation. On landing we jumped into a taxi and were soon enjoying a comfortable room at the Holiday Inn Express, even if the taxi driver did take us to the wrong one first! So having enjoyed doing so much walking in NZ, today's only consisted of walking through airport terminals, not quite the same is it?!

Thurs 17 March
We had a good night's rest despite the change in time zones, the Holiday Inn even provides pillows marked Soft and Firm and really comfy beds. After breakfast we walked to a nearby MRT station (underground) and went up to the Botanic Gardens where we spent a lovely couple of hours, including the incredible, large and diverse Orchid Garden. Then we took a bus down to the famous Raffles Hotel where, after a tasty, cheap lunch in a nearby Hawker centre (street food), we indulged in Singapore Slings in the Long Bar, just as we'd promised ourselves we would when Maxine took us there almost five weeks ago.

Something else that Gary & Maxine had suggested we might like to do was afternoon tea at The Fullerton Hotel, so despite the Singapore Slings we navigated our way there from Raffles and made a booking for tomorrow, we're both looking forward to that very much.

(Maxine, your guided tour of a few weeks ago was invaluable, we didn't once get lost today so thank you again so much).

Fri 18 March
Woke up early again, goodness knows what our body clocks will be telling us once we're home. Another leisurely breakfast was followed by taking the MRT to Bayfront and looking round the Gardens by the Bay, a quite unusual place. We then did what's always counter-intuitive to me by going into the Marina Bay Hotel and making our way to the 57th (top) open floor, which is the ship you can see balancing on the top of the hotel's three towers. The views were incredible and I didn't even mind the height as I couldn't feel the building wobble!

Fortunately we didn't have to abseil down as the lifts were working fine so after riding back down we wound our way round past the Merlion to The Fullerton Hotel where we spent a good couple of hours enjoying our somewhat indulgent afternoon tea. At one point Nicky said she felt a bit guilty doing that, but when we talked about it we realised there was no reason to, that's what holidays are all about; we wouldn't have wanted to return home without doing things like that, only to regret it later, especially as we're unlikely to return this way again.

I'm writing this from our hotel room as I managed to talk them into letting us have an 8pm checkout for a good rate and wanted to post it before our final flight. I can't honestly say we're looking forward to coming home, apart from being back with family and friends. Even the thought of work is tiring and not at all inspiring, but I'm sure we'll cope. Hope you've enjoyed following our trip on here, I've enjoyed recording everything we've done.