After a rather sleepless night we made our way to the airport for a red eye flight to Brisbane where we caught a flight to Singapore .
I noticed on the flight over we saw a lot of inland Australia as we flew up from Brisbane over Darwin over Denpaser and then onto Singapore. We also flew over a volcanio on Kupang Island, it was interesting looking down into it. On the flight desternation screen I noticed that we were at 39000 ft and the temperature was minus 61 F outside. Icicles had built up on the outside of the window and the ground speed we were flying at was 565 mph. The water below was a lovely light teal blue colour with a few fluffy white clouds passing by. We did manage to have a small nap on the flight ( which was 8hrs long ) and that was wonderful.
It was interesting to see a lot of silt coming out of the many rivers and turn the sea a very dirty brown colour. The service was excellent on board the Airbus A330.
John played quite a few games of sudoku to fill in time on the flight and my self caught up with some reading on my Kobo.
Total length of flight was 3849miles and it took 7hrs and 45 mins.
Singapore, The old and the new.
We arrived at our hotel The Fragence Imperial at 4.45. Our room is very small with just a double bed,
and a toilet and shower on the 4th floor . Once we had sorted our room out, it was time for John and I to do so walking and stretch the kinks out of our body's after sitting in the plane. A quick stop at the
receptionist for a local map and off we went to find a local food court for some tea. 10 minutes of walking and we came across a large variation of foods . We decided to try a mixture of rice, beef, pork
Dish . The cost for two people was only $7.00. This we thought was good value . It looked as though that's what the local people do eat out as it is so cheap. Every where we looked there were eating places. We had a look around the area near our hotel . After being awake for nearly 24 hours we both decided it was time for bed .
26th June ( 2nd day in Singapore)
After a reasonable sleep with the temperature around 28 degs, we awoke at 7.30am to find a fine warm day As There were no bowls in our room for breakfast, we put some cereal into our mugs
and ate it out of that with a very tiny teaspoon that you would use as a stirrer only. It was a great way to start the day off with a laugh at ourselves.
We decided to go on a sight seeing tour on a Hop on Hop off bus. This was a double decker , with the top of the bus open which was easier for taking photos and keeping cooler with the breeze. It cost $33.00 per person for a days travelling. There are three different routes around the city each route in a different area. We chose the red route which took us around the older part of the city including Chinatown, Little India, Raffles Hotel etc.
Raffles Hotel. 103 Suites and they average $600 US per night
The photo above is a symbol of the 4 ethnic groups that make up Singapore ( 4 chopstick , height 63 meters, it is join at the base to symbolise the joining of the cultures).
At Chinatown we found a beautiful purple/pink orchid that had been dipped in gold and turned into a. necklace .
We visited the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. It consists of three tall towers each 57 stories high . On the top of these towers they had contructed a shape of a boat that linked the three towers together. On the top of this also was a large swimming pool and restaurant which was only available for staying guests. It took 30 second to go up 56 floors.
The view from the deck was amazing a 360 degs look around the city of Singapore. (See photos below). The temperature today was 30'degs with a very high humidity .
27th June
Today we decided to visit the Botanic Gardens of Singapore. It was established in 1859, and covers 73 hectares .It consists of many separate gardens that are linked together with beautiful walk ways.
We visited the National Orchid Garden. This was stunning . The Orchid is the national flower of Singapore. There is over 1000 species and 2000 hybrids in the garden. Worldwide there is over 25,000 different orchids. It is the largest flowering group of plants. Below is a selection of photos taken in the gardens.
Hanging tassell ferns in the mist house.
Below are photo's taken in the botanic gardens
This is our last day in Singapore Saturday 28th June. We decided to do one last big walk to fill in the day. We caught the train from Lavender station to Dhoby Ghaut station then walked the length of Orchard Road and back. Orchard Road is where all the upper market shops and shopping complexes are. A lot of brand names such a Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton , etc are there.
We also passed the President's residence which was guarded by several armed guards, very impressive.
We noticed that the streets were kept very clean, except for cigarette butts. The people where we ate in the evening near our Hotel were very friendly. John and I have both enjoyed our quick visit here of only 3 days , more time would of been lovely.
We are now on our way to Manchester via Dubai to met our friends Peter and Mel.
We left Singapore at 9.30pm on a Saturday evening, a lovely clear evening for flying. The plane we flew on was an A380 Airbus double decker. While we were waiting to get on the plane, through out the airport there were chairs that you sit in and have your legs and feet massaged by machines. I sat in one for 10 minutes , my calf mussels and feet sure did feel a lot better after it. Ready for the next flight.
A 6 1/2 hour flight to Dubai where we then waited until 3.00am English time to catch a Emirates 77730 which landed in Manchester at 7.35 am on a overcast day with Mel and Peter waiting for us.
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