In the evening, I went to Clarke Quay – a quarter in Singapore with Restaurants, Bars and a lot of night life.
I had dinner in a Mexican restaurant – good quality I have to admit, in spite of me being the only one speaking Spanish.
I have closed the evening then at the Paulaner Biergarten bar and took a taxi back to the hotel for a good man’s sleep. 🙂
Today, I have visited the Singapore National Museum.
It has three sections:
I have taken four hours to see everything, including a good Singaporean lunch: Pasta with Asian Garlic and Oil pesto.
It is a very interesting place and absolutely worth seeing.
After seeing the beautiful gardens at Marina Bay with loads of people as main attraction in the well known tourist area, I thought about having a much quieter sensation, but still with parks or garden architecture.
On the MRT plan, I found in the West of Singapore a park area that was called Chinese and Japanese Gardens. So I went ahead and after an MRT ride of 40 minutes, I reached this park or garden area. Quiet, no tourists at all, occasionally some joggers or bicycle riders… A nice place to see with interesting original Asian-style buildings, sculptures and landscaping.
Have a look!
Today, I woke up even later… after 1000. For sure, going to bed around 0145 did not help much, neither waking up shortly at 0645 as some sun rays tickled my nose.
So… no breakfast this time. With the shuttle bus at 1050 to Novena MRT station towards Marina Bay where I got off.
The footpath was not too long as the Gardens just start behind Marina Sands Hotel… one of the most expensive shopping and retail areas in all Singapore.
The Garden is rather big and has three main attractions that are available for money. The other very much like a gigantic park area constructed attraction centre is open for the public for free. A good idea in my opinion.
First I went on the 22 meter high open air walk between the giant trees that are metal-concrete artificial rainforest tree sculptures, filled with life on rather little soil patches. These are attached to the grid of metal and are served with water by an automatic water spray irrigation system.
After having lunch in a very nice Chinese restaurant inside the park’s perimeters, I had a look towards the Rainforest Hill and the Flower Paradise.
In the Rainforest Hill, you are able to climb up to the 7th floor by elevator to be sent out on a bridge like construction to view the living plants and rain forest from above. As you can imagine, a very challenging issue for me. See loads of the photos taken – the flora in this environment is just amazing.
After that I continued to the Flower Paradise where I found the local interpretation of a Turkish tulip festival – in combination with a lot of other plants that we know from home, but are exotic here.
A very nice and unexpected experience, this visit 🙂
Today, after some long sleep until nearly 1000, I went to the Singapore Marina Bay area.
Around Midday the sun was shining, but at high temperature and very high humidity values.
I walked through loads of Shopping Malls and Restaurants, really I believe that Singapore has even more shop than Paris will ever have… and also the ones of high end price ranges.
After having had a nail polishing service in a spa in Marina Sands and a nice burger in the Bayfront near the Fullerton Hotel, I had a look for the a travel card by Metro just to avoid even more the actually low taxi prices.
Restaurants and Service shops are rather expensive in the main tourist areas and less so in non-touristic regions – that is pretty much known. However, I believe that the standard pricing is at minimum equal with Paris, only in the rather poor areas in the outskirts towards Malaysia, cost of life is a bit less. So… you really need to check where you go and you have put it into direct proportion what you are going to pay.
Just when getting out from the Metro when going towards the Hotel for an afternoon siesta due to the Jetlag of 6 hours, it just started to rumble and rain – a tropical thunderstorm struck Singapore. Water falling from the sky like you tip over a bucket in the air. So after a good lightshow and interesting, but different thunder sounds here, there was no hope to go out again as it continued to be a mix of heavy showers and just normal rain for the rest of the afternoon. In principle, this is that typical rain you get soaked down to your underpants on the way from the metro or taxi to the sight you want to visit – not something you really want to do when you carry your passport and the other valuables around.
So I decided to stay in the hotel, take good rest and be fit for tomorrow’s visit of the tropical gardens behind the Marina Sands hotel. Looking really forward to see all of these flowers!
Getting rid of old vacation days out of 2015 results often in interesting decisions. This year, for the very first time without the must to follow school holidays and without Sven, I took the decision to visit Singapore for some days.
Why Singapore?
I particularly like this city in Asia. It is tidy, in the tropics and I never had the opportunity to travel to Asia for fun or leisure – in general, not working.
On the evening of April 25th, I started my journey – once again by bus at the stop Uzes next to my house. With the Line N to Montparnasse, Metro Line 6 and RER B, I got to CDG T2 without an issue, in spite of having picked the evening rush hour in Paris – no seating available, as expected.
The Priority Check-in was handled without a problem, also the Passport and Security control.
After a short stop in the T2E AF lounge – the obligatory Bloody Mary and a glass of Champagne included, the boarding process started for the 12h45 flight to Singapore. I got a window place in Premium Economy without somebody next to me – great stuff. The flight was rather not so full – 82 empty places according to the purser.
Aircraft was a B773ER with the registration F-GSQA.
The flight was rather uneventful, taking out two distress calls from the purser if a Medical Doctor is on board as one passenger has become ill during the flight. I was getting afraid if we would go into a Medical diversion – but during this time we overflew Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, so I could assume that it has been not so bad, luckily for the passenger and myself. Unfortunately, the Premium Economy seats have a rather tight spacing, so I did not have the opportunity find longer sleep, perhaps 1.5 hours all over.
Landing, Passport control and baggage collection went flawlessly – in spite of starting to sweat instantaneously in 32 degrees heat and 80% humidity.
I took a taxi to my hotel in the city and got a nice room with a large bed to relax and enjoy my stay.
After having some rest – very much needed – I went to the pool of the hotel. This is just priceless when you can take just your shorts and a t-shirt and go out of the hotel at any time of the day and you do not feel cold at all.
In the evening, I had a look out where to eat and found a 100% original Japanese Sushi place next to my hotel – no big stunts for the first night, I thought. Quality was great, but the price unfortunately very high.
Let us see what will be up tomorrow 🙂 – Looking forward!!
