Singapore and flying home: Friday 12 August / Saturday 13 August

We woke late this morning, after 8:30am - unheard of for David. We took our time getting to breakfast around 9:30am. I caught a staff member toasting my GF toast in the regular toaster that everyone was using this morning. I told them I couldn't have it and new toast would have to be done in a separate toaster, but David caught the girl doing it again while he was putting his own toast through and told her again (toast was dropping off the back of the machine and falling into all the crumbs, too). Apparently she looked very guilty! I didn't eat it! But probably had in the past few days without realising... They had told me that they were very familiar with coping with GF people at breakfasts...

We chatted to a couple from Auckland at breakfast. They were on their way to the UK to do a 22 day Insight Vacations tour (our originally intended holiday until it had been cancelled) so we were able to answer some of their questions and tell them how great our very similar 18 day tour was.
We had to be checked out by 12pm, with the shuttle pick-up not being until 4:30pm. The check-in or out process at this hotel is reported as being notoriously slow on TripAdvisor because they do it all with paper, not electronically - as we have also found - very strange.

We weren't game to go out into the heat again (and thus need showers again) so ensconced ourselves in the Lobby Lounge to read papers, catch up on the blog etc. Luckily there was a plug I could keep my iPad charged with. We hadn't been there long before there was a torrential downpour outside, that lasted an hour. We were glad we hadn't gone out and got caught in it, because thunderstorms and rain had actually been forecast the whole time we'd been in Singapore.

Just before pick-up time we were chatting to a Wellington couple, also waiting to be picked up, and who had done numerous Insight Vacation tours in the past (including latterly a trip to Iceland). Interestingly, it's we females who do all the chattering, and the men are mostly quiet.

I'd been worrying about my blocked ears with the upcoming flight in the evening. One ear was seriously blocked. They were both sore enough landing in Singapore. I had all the sprays, but my ear wouldn't unblock and I wasn't hearing much with it. I did some Googling and discovered there are special flight earplugs available (equalising the air pressure more gradually through a tiny valve, as long as they're fitted properly), so picked some up at a pharmacy at the airport (not the top notch ones I wanted, but similar).

The flight left 10 minutes late, but we were delighted to find, as on the first flight from Christchurch, our seats had been changed from the originals, to two on their own at the back of a section. I'll definitely phone Singapore Airlines in Christchurch and thank them.

I had another White Russian drink, then the appetiser (duck? cooked very rare) again - but not so rare that I couldn't eat it this time. Then a nice, moist fish meal, with a nice sauce; and the lovely rice pudding again. I gave the rice cakes a miss...

I got no sleep, simply couldn't get comfortable, no excuses - no screaming kids on this flight. David got a little sleep. Breakfast for me was a salmon omelette that tasted better than it looked. I ate the rice cakes...

We were fascinated by the 'gentleman' in front of us, who had been getting very angsty and bothersome towards the air hostesses, demanding his third glass of whiskey. Later, when the plane had landed and was still taxiing on the main runway, he was the only person out of his seat and he had even opened his overhead locker! He was sternly told to sit down (and not by me)!

I had been reading a book on my iPad, and watching for the time when the flight would start to descend. Then Dr Carol got to work trying to avoid burst air drums, and succeeded, thanks to (I firmly believe) the special ear plugs. No matter that I'm currently very deaf and blocked up in both ears now - there was no pain!

What a lovely surprise to be greeted by Mark and Jill at the airport, but with a moment of panic from me as I thought I'd doubled up on who was coming to pick us up. We'd clean forgotten that Jill's sister was on the same flight! We were very grateful that the Ward chauffeur service was waiting to greet us on a wet, 7C Christchurch morning!

There's no place like home, and no place in the world as comfortable as my own recliner chair!

Singapore: Thursday 11 August

Another busy day today! We spent some time after breakfast, Googling how to buy tickets and use the MRT. It was very easy to get directions to the correct lines and stations with the Singapore version of the app I'd used in London (by MapWay - free and able to be used offline to plan routes).

We walked down to the nearby City Hall MRT and headed to a ticket machine, where we immediately struck a problem. The machine accepted our first $2 note, but wouldn't accept the second one! Then it cancelled the transaction completely and swallowed our first $2. That was almost enough to put us newbies off but I don't like technology beating me, so I found a customer services desk nearby and explained the situation - no, the money hadn't been refunded at the bottom of the machine! So someone came over to look (where others were already having the same problem). The machine had apparently been jammed by a coin, so we were refunded our money. We started again on a second machine, with no issues - phew!

The MRT was easy to use, with a fair bit of walking between platforms and lines in some cases, but cleaner and easier and with more escalators than in London. We headed to the Harbourfront Station, to take our free cable car rides to Faber Peak and Santosa Island - the cable cars passing through a building - (and the newer cable car crossing the island from end to end). The views were spectacular and we thoroughly enjoyed these rides. It was fascinating to see all the different areas and activities available on the island, including several resorts and sandy beaches (with not a person on them).

  

  

  

  

We got a bit lost on the island once or twice, which is tricky in the heat when I don't want to walk further than necessary. But we found our way to the Sentosa Express monorail ride (free) and headed to Universal Studios for a bit of a look around. Our entry was free with our Singapore Airline Stopover Passes (normal entry value of $60 each to the Studios). We had some lunch at the Studios (milkshake, fries, and a large fresh fruit salad for me), then looked at which rides we could do. David decided he shouldn't have had the large Coke with his lunch, as throwing that around on some of the rides would not have been good. And too many rides said not to do them if you had a heart condition or back/neck issues, so I decided my seriously herniated disc was too risky - it's hard enough turning over in bed! Anyway, the queues for these rides were 55 minutes long and it was so hot... This seemed to be the busiest place on the island! We did find our way to a tame ride (Madagascar) which also listed those risks, including motion sickness, but with only a five minute wait and it looked like a tame boat ride... It was very tame, but pleasant enough (even though I got my walking stick a bit stuck in the rack across my lap when they released it at the end). All of this made me feel a bit sad that my days of fearlessly going on every ride were now over :-(

  


    

We headed back on the cable car to Harbourfront, and back on the MRT to our hotel by about 4pm, where we enjoyed cool showers and the opportunity to freshen up - not that it lasts long when you step outside again shortly after!

At 5:15pm we again hit the MRT, this time to Bayfront and the Marina Sands Hotel, where (after getting rather lost trying to find a particular bridge entrance that turned out to be on the street by a bus stop) we headed up to the bridge and made our way across and into the amazing Gardens by the Bay. This has free entry, but you pay to enter any of the special gardens or domes. Our Pass gave us free entry to two domes, and we chose The Cloud, and the Flower Dome. Don't be fooled into thinking these would be like any other glassehouses you may have been in...

We visited the amazing Cloud Dome first - what a unique idea, modelling the high rainforest areas and their ecosystem, all in a humongous glass house dome, including the world's tallest indoor waterfall. This dome was multiple storeys high, with informative displays and many walkways between the levels. The atmosphere in there was amazing (and very muggy). 

  

The only annoyance was all the Asian and Indian tourists posing for photos and multiple selfies using selfie sticks (these should be banned in more places) - they have been taking selfies everywhere else in Singapore (even on the bus, with nothing to see in the background!). And kids seem to have boundless energy, rushing about everywhere, yelling, and risking knocking someone (me) down. Anyway, this is just a comment on what we've noticed everywhere, even in the UK.

Then we went right next door to the beautiful Flower Dome (the largest glass greenhouse in the world), featuring plants from Mediterranean and semi-arid subtropical regions, with garden areas representing the flowers of different areas of the world.

  

With the crowds, we eventually made our way to the Supertree Grove, where there are several giant metal trees (the tallest one measuring up to 16 storeys in height, but all 'trees' ranging between 25 and 50 metres tall). These are actually vertical gardens, designed with large canopies that provide shade in the day and are lit up at night. At 7:45pm the trees burst to life with an amazing 10 minute light and sound show. The theme was Retro Fever, with the music hits and disco lights of the 1970s. I captured some on video - it was stunning!

  

Rather than drag ourselves back to the hotel via the MRT (and it took a while just to walk out of the gardens because of the crowds) we walked to the end of the Marina Sands Hotel and quickly got a taxi back to our hotel. The fare was very cheap - just under $11.

Singapore: Wednesday 10 August

Wow - I had a further 8 hours sleep last night, and woke very late. David wasn't quite so comfortable, finding the bed a bit hard (and TripAdvisor reviews also comment on this). We headed to the Coleman's Cafe for breakfast (there was a half price deal there for all meals). I had to get my Chinese GF language card on my iPad before they could understand my query about some of the food on the breakfast buffet. All ended up ok, eventually... (I must comment here that deep-fried bacon is a bit of a stomach-turner, just looking at it)!

We eventually headed out closer to midday, caught the Hop On Hop Off bus (yellow line again) and headed first for Clarke Quay, where we had a free 40 minute river cruise - very enjoyable and informative!

  

  

  

  

Then, we were straight back on the bus, for delivery to the Singapore Botanic Gardens (a UNESCO World Heritage Park) and the National Orchid Garden. We didn't venture further around the gardens as it was at least 33C, and awfully hot, even under the canopy of the rainforest. On the way to the Orchid Garden David drew my attention to an animal bustling about amongst the plants - I recognised a Komodo Dragon!

  

We enjoyed an icecream each, then went in to see the beautiful orchids and gardens.

  

  

It was absolutely sweltering, so afterwards we went into the Halia Cafe to sit down in the air-conditioning with a cold drink. We each tried something different, both iced drinks. David enjoyed a Halia Infusion (sun-dried ginger and wild mountain honey) and I enjoyed a Spice Islands Coffee (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom coffee). I was intrigued with my drink as it arrived with a shot glass of milk, and another of glucose syrup. I was told to try it first as it was, then add in the shot glasses if I needed to. I did need to! It was foul without them, and divine with them. These were very refreshing and we felt revived enough to step out into the heat again and walk reasonably quickly out of the gardens for our next stop on the bus.

We 'hopped off' and called into the famous Raffles Hotel's Long Bar and indulged in an outrageously expensive (S$36 each, but delicious) 'Original' Singapore Sling cocktail! We enjoyed the supplied bag/sack of peanuts, but had to watch our footing because of the discarded shells on the floor. Again, a very refreshing and relaxing break (and we were coping very well with no lunch).

 

  

Our next stop on the bus was the Marina Sands Hotel's SkyPark Observation Deck. What an amazing spot for awesome views over the city - and I'd thought the views from the Singapore Flyer had been great! We considered the restaurants at the top, but they were way too expensive and we weren't really dressed suitably to enter (would probably have been turned away). So, we walked through the interesting hotel and back to find the bus.

  

  

Final stop of the day was our hotel, and a lovely dinner in the cafe again (same for me as last night), and I talked David into trying the steak too - he agreed, it was perfectly cooked!

My ears had been quite uncomfortable yesterday and only slightly less so today. I forgot to mention that they had been quite sore, coming into land yesterday. I'd had to work hard to keep them ok during the landing. They'd been very blocked up and deaf since then and were a bit achy today. I intended to be attacking them with Otrivine over the next couple of days, prior to flying home.

Singapore: Tuesday 9 August

We had a fairly bumpy flight towards the end, but they managed to quickly fit in breakfast. As you can see, my GF breakfast on the flight was quite good, and I was well set up to start the day in Singapore.

The landing was interesting, it seeming that the brakes were jammed on somewhat and we were all jerked forward in our seats as we suddenly slowed. We didn't have long to wait for luggage and soon found our way to the Singapore Stopovers Holiday desk and a shuttle to our hotel (the Peninsula Excelsior). We arrived there around 9am, feeling shattered after no sleep since 4am the previous morning. Our luggage had to be put in storage until after 2pm, when our room would be available, so we dragged ourselves out to a nearby mall for a cool drink and to get our bearings. We got a bit lost in the Raffles City Mall in the process.

After some refreshment at a McDonalds, we found the bus stop for our free Hop On Hop Off bus and took a full loop around the yellow line (not realising or being told that there were headphones available with commentary). We got off at the Singapore Flyer and David needed some blood sugar so grabbed some Subway while I indulged in a dry GF muesli bar. Moving onto the Flyer, we found ourselves behind and amongst a large and meandering tour group of Indians on a tour (taking photos of bizarre things and holding up the queue). The view from the flyer was worthwhile - amazing. Then we waited in the 32C heat for the Hop On to arrive and be delivered back close to our hotel.

  

It was now afternoon, and David had to wait 20 minutes in the queue at check-in, simply to collect the keys that had previously been allocated for us in the morning, very frustrating. Our room was on the 8th floor of the Excelsior Tower of the hotel, with a nice view of the central fire station and rather cold, draughty air-conditioning. Our luggage arrived shortly afterwards. We had showers and collapsed into bed at 4pm, falling asleep instantly. I awoke at 8pm feeling much better and decided that I had the energy to get dressed again and head to the hotel's Coleman's Cafe to eat something more substantial than the muesli bar. David slept on, or tried to - later reporting that he didn't know if he was hallucinating or if it was real that he saw a big black spider crawling out of the grill covering the shower drain... Meanwhile, I was very well looked after at the cafe (though with some difficulty for them in understanding GF)... We got there in the end and I have noted the most perfectly cooked (at medium rare) and tender steak of my life.

London to Singapore: Monday 8 August

The alarm was set for 6am but, unusually for me, I was awake from 4am. Nevertheless, that had been a 7 hour sleep. We headed down to breakfast at 6:30am, and it was one of the better ones. The service was excellent and quick, and I had my GF toast within 5 minutes.

Our booked 8am taxi was ready 10 minutes early, and we were at the airport within 10 minutes. The journey reminded me of when we had been picked up at Rome Airport with the Barrows in 2013, and the driver took us on a wild ride, super fast, swerving around other cars and changing lanes within the blink of an eye. I also noticed that there was no taxi meter (it was a smarter-looking vehicle than the usual taxi, and the driver was in a suit), and tucked into the driver's sun visor was a piece of paper with something about Uber). So, I asked him, was this a Uber vehicle (no, he said). When we arrived at the airport, he rushed off to get us a bag trolley, and when he came back, David asked him how much the journey was (knowing the person at the hotel reception who'd booked us had said around £10 for the fare). An unbelievable answer was given.... However much we wanted - obviously NOT a taxi! So, David gave him £13. Very interesting... and leaving us remembering the supposed official tour of Dubai we had back in 2009, which turned out to be by a family member who could hardly speak English!
We had a relaxing start at the airport, and later chatted with a Kiwi couple from Auckland, returning from nearly 3 months overseas, including staying with their son in Cambridge and a week-long Insight Vacations tour of Ireland (seeing many of the things we had seen, and also singing high praises of the tour and their tour guide). They had sailed to the UK from Sydney on Sea Princess, a 55 day journey that they highly recommended as far superior to plane and bus travel!
The flight got away on time, and lunch was served shortly after - a reasonable GF meal for me, with a nice chicken dish. I also enjoyed the popcorn icecream that was handed out to everyone from the regular menu (I carefully checked the ingredients before indulging). I had the pleasure of a spare seat between me and the next passenger and we shared the space and spare table. This meant it was quite easy to set up my CPAP machine. However, settling down to sleep was another matter entirely. We ended up getting no sleep, thanks to a high-pitched squealing little kid (when she was happy, and when she was tired and when she was sad). One of those young ages that no one can help, you just have to accept it. It affected our whole section in the plane - and that was life. I think that people who fly with very young children are very brave!

  

London: Sunday 7 August

We both slept well last night, and were up early to look at partially packing. We were to check out of the hotel at 1pm and had booked a 3pm transfer to the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Heathrow.

We were out the door at 9:15am, and on the Tube to Barbican station, and then doing the short walk down the road to the Museum of London. It was another hot day (26C) and it wasn't easy to keep cool, even in the Museum. Entry was free, but our London Pass gave us a free copy of their Museum Highlights book (really interesting). We only had about an hour and a half at the museum and could easily have spend a day there. It wasn't too busy, the displays were well organised and interesting. We missed a lot but skipped through the main exhibits that managed to pull together a lot of the history, people and places we had been visiting and hearing about on our travels.

  

  

Then we had a good trip on the Tube (ie - not crowded and both of us with a seat) back to Victoria Station, queued up to cash in what was left on our Oyster Cards, and returned to the hotel to check out by 1pm. Even though we'd organised the 1 hour delayed checkout the night before, with two keys extended till that time, we found ourselves locked out of our room yet again, with David having to traipse back through the long corridors and back down to reception.

When it came to checkout time, we were asked if we'd enjoyed our stay, and so I said that I reckoned they owed us a couple of drinks for three lots of hassle over being locked out during our 8 day stay, and also supposedly not having a credit card listed to our room when we'd left the restaurant the first night we went there and as a result having someone pounding on our door shortly after. Plus the terrible noise all night, every night in our 'quiet room' from the concrete drill outside (except Fridays and Saturdays). Other than that, it had been great! So, ask and thou shalt receive - we got a drink each and I enjoyed another White Russian, on the house, at a value of £9.75!

We had a nice, relaxing couple of hours in the bar, all to ourselves, with excellent service and lunch (a really excellent GF mushroom risotto for me - eat your heart out, Jamie's Italian Victoria). I got slightly sozzled after my second White Russian... I hope Ross can make me these when he's home for Christmas!

Just before 3pm, our transfer car was ready and we were off to the Crowne Plaza at Heathrow. It was actually only just over half an hour - no traffic jams, no crowds! Excellent. Much better than trying to get suitcases on the Tube with the stairs and crowds, or even using the Heathrow Express and a shuttle as originally intended!

Check-in was very good and we got a huge room with two double beds, then headed down to the bar for a couple of hours relaxing, reading etc. We had to relax some time on this holiday! Dinner for me was a GF chicken burger, which they actually split in half using two small GF buns - I was impressed with their effort! An early night tonight, for an early morning tomorrow - we're flying to Singapore! More heat...