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.