EXPLORING SINGAPORE

Shops don't open until 10 or 10.30 so there was no point in going out too early. Fortunately there were several shopping malls close to the hotel. I spent most of the day wandering around the shops – much cooler than outside. Had my first local meal. It was hard to choose as so many meals had things I didn't fancy eating. Settled on a chicken curry. It had a half cooked egg in it!. Not too sure about that idea.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry

It was really surprising to find things cost about the same as in New Zealand. The dollar is almost equal.

In the evening I went to the Night Safari. The bus from the tourist hub seemed to be rather late so I was concerned how long it would take to get the tram through the park. After waiting in the line for 45 minutes I had my ride. Saw some really unusual animals. There was just enough time to catch the shuttle back to the hotel. TM5.

The next day I needed to walk from my hotel to the tourist hub by the Singapore Flyer to catch an Hop on Hop off bus ride. Should take me about 20 minutes. I am sure it would have too, if they didn't have road works everywhere. Because I had to walk in the opposite direction before I could cross the road I discovered a lovely souvenir shop where I got a cute little orchid in glass. TM6. That walk took me about an hour and a quarter. The temperature was over 30 of course – this is Singapore!

By Singapore Flyer to catch the FunVee bus.

Arrived with a few minutes to spare for the next bus. TM7. Managed an inside top level seat with air conditioning. Bliss! TM8. Saw a lot of Singapore in comfort. After doing the city loop I had something to eat. They had a lot of these “Toast” shops. I had a cheese and kaya toast. Kaya is a traditional jam made from coconut and eggs. Tasted good but on a very tiny bit of toast. Had an iced chocolate with it.

Kaya Toast

After eating I went on the Chinatown bus so I could get off closer to my hotel. TM9. Check out time was 3pm so I needed to clean up and get out of my room. My shuttle pick up was not until 6.45pm so I left my suitcases and walked to Raffles City Mall. It appeared the Apple Watch was going on sale that day as there was a line of people waiting outside the Nubox store.

Got taken by shuttle to the airport. I was the only passenger so I asked my driver a lot about Singapore. When I stepped out of the van at the airport my glasses fogged up. The contrast was so great between the air-con of the vehicle and the humidity and heat outside.That ended my 2 days in steamy hot Singapore.