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...