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!

  

Flight from Singapore to London, and first day in London: Saturday 9 July and Sunday 10 July

We arrived in Singapore on time and moving into the Transit area was simple. We queued up to get some of the free Changi dollars, which we used to have a snack and drinks at Burger King. David used another one to buy a book. Then we sat and charged our devices.

It turned out that the plane left almost an hour late, because an air conditioning unit wasn't functioning properly and temperatures on the plane were too hot. It didn't get completely sorted but it didn't seem to be an issue during the flight. Because of the lateness when we left, meals were swiftly handed out and we were eating a dinner/supper around 1am Singapore time, and feeling totally shattered from lack of sleep.

Mine was a nice piece of fish, again in a tomato sauce and with veges. I didn't eat most of the entree as it had two slices of what looked like very rare meat that may have been duck - certainly not recognisable to me. And I couldn't face the rice cracker. Dessert was the best thing and rather a novelty for me - some sort of sticky rice pudding with orange pieces in it, and a berry sauce. It was lovely.

I was now desperate to get the CPAP set up and get to sleep. That was a bit of a rigmarole with the squashed up seating - disappointingly worse than our earlier flight (even though we'd found our previous flights on the Emirates A380s relatively spacious). Anyway, I managed to fall asleep instantly and get a good 1.5 hour sleep cycle in. Then another three hours or so of partial sleep - we both felt it was a bit cold to be comfortable. We both think we would go back to Emirates or try Air New Zealand for any future trips because we felt so jammed into our seats.

Breakfast was served two hours before landing. Mine was a salmon omelette, mushrooms and potatoes. Also fruit salad, and (sigh) rice cakes with Australian butter, and jam. 

I don't know why there was no yoghurt (David's yoghurt was GF and was a raspberry yoghurt, containing beetroot concentrate); he had a bread roll in place of my rice cakes. Mind you, I couldn't have eaten yoghurt anyway - I was full, and I only mentioned it because it does seem strange how these airlines seem to work out what goes on (or doesn't) a gluten free meal tray. David's tray had juice, mine had water (not sure how that all balances out in terms of cost equity...).

We ended up circling London for 20 minutes, landing around 6:30am, and began the long walk along corridors to immigration. I managed this really well with my walking stick for balance. What a relief! Once we were queuing, there was a lovely fellow passenger who was obviously concerned by the walking stick and suggested we get a wheelchair. No need, and my ankle managed fine. We were through immigration in 25 minutes, and got our bags fairly quickly. Then began another long walk to catch the Heathrow Express fast train into Paddington Station. I sat next to a Sydney girl carrying a big Kathmandu backpack. 15 minutes later we had arrived and nabbed one of the many black taxi cabs (fascinating for us to note that these don't have boots in the back, and the cases sit on the floor in the back with us). In a few minutes we arrived at our hotel.

Finally, after 38 hours travelling, we had arrived at our hotel and were able to check in at the amazing time of 9am (check-in is normally 3pm)! We laughed when we heard our room number - 322. It was the same as our Singapore Airlines flight number. We had a choice of rooms - quiet and overlooking a boring courtyard, or more noisy but looking over busy Oxford St. We had free, unlimited, and extremely fast internet, too.

Our room overlooked Oxford St, and in the mini-bar (gluten free foodies, take note!) was a gluten free flapjack! How often do we ever see something GF on offer in any regular situation. Michelle, the listing of gluten free oats in the ingredients was intriguing (perhaps the different standard in the UK?). Nothing healthy in this fridge, but we enjoyed a Coke and the flapjack regardless. All items in the mini-bar were free and re-stocked daily.

I managed to nod off for around 50 minutes of deep sleep, but was eventually awoken by a strange sound on the street below our third floor room. A protest march, in support of black lives. What a racket there was as this peaceful rally marched up and down from the US Embassy, past out hotel to Marble Arch!

Eventually we ventured out into the crowd to find something for lunch, carefully avoiding the protesters. Lunch was at a very crowded Pret a Manger, opposite Marble Arch - a lovely salmon and rice salad for me! Then out again into the bedlam outside...

First impressions on the busy street... were WE walking on the wrong side of the footpath (there didn't seem to be any pattern), multiple different languages heard (and very few speaking English), people walking on the footpaths the way WE thought they drove in Palmerston North (Michelle - ie no regard for other people on the footpath), more people smoking than we're used to. The area was SO busy, with the protest march AND crowds of people arriving to hear Stevie Wonder singing at a Summertime concert in Hyde Park.

We wandered through Hyde Park (Henry VIII's old hunting ground), enjoying the sights (having only seen the area with the Diana Memorial back in 2009 on our first and only other visit to London). Much of the area south from Speaker's Corner had been taken over by big fences, blocking views of where the Summertime concerts were held - rather an eye-sore. So we skirted across the park towards the man-made lake. We had a pleasant time viewing the Serpentine lake and people-watching, and wandering the paths that so many have walked along through history. Hyde Park is vast, but I think Hagley Park is a beautiful comparison that we are lucky to enjoy. We enjoyed sitting in the Rose Garden area and then found our way back towards Hyde Park corner and the Wellington Arch. 

To avoid the crowds heading to the Hyde Park concert, we walked back via Park Lane with its flash car sale show rooms (BMW, Aston Martin) and hotels (real ones, not monopoly ones). We stopped for a coffee and to rest our legs at a Starbucks. Marks and Spencer had a store on Oxford St right near our hotel so we headed there to get some supplies to make our own breakfast in our hotel room - fresh strawberries and yoghurt. David took an interest in the NZ wines they supplied.

Back at the hotel, my iPhone told me I'd walked 5km this afternoon and around 9km for the day - not bad considering my ankle is in a splint! My new ECCO shoes are a blessing. I had another sleep (all these daytime naps are really rare for me, and unheard of at home where I couldn't nap if I tried). We had a lovely dinner in the hotel's Grill restaurant, but I struggled to eat it. Still, it was nice to enjoy a steak with a lovely béarnaise sauce (unseen in Christchurch in my experience) and GF fries cooked in a separate fryer. David ordered glasses of Pinot Grigio wine (a type he remembered trying and buying when on our wine-tasting tour out of Civitavecchia near Rome in 2013). Jet lag meant we had the lights out at 8:30pm.