Posts From Singapore

The start of another adventure, this time an exploration of SE Asia followed by some time in the Gulf states; and again without a vehicle.

The name Singapore is derived from the local name Singapura which means Lion City in the Sanskrit language and was, according to legend, thus named by Sri Tri Buana while on a hunting trip in the area in the 13th century.

Today was deliberately a much more relaxed day inorder to recover from yesterdays long walk in the heat. After a slow start we took a taxi to Gardens By the Bay where we spent a few hours exploring The Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome. These are each large glass domes with internal conditions controlled to allow the growing of exotic plants.

An early start and then a comfortable but boring flight got this much anticipated adventure underway. We arrived in Singapore about 40 minutes ahead of schedule and after a short wait our pickup ride appeared and then on to our hotel - Robertson House Hotel. The hotel is well situated on the banks of the Singapore River close to a myriad of restaurants and bars.

Today is Wednesday and we don't meet our travel group until midday Friday. So we have a few days to ourselves, so what to do. Well our neighbours back in Sydney just had a short holiday in Singapore and they recommended the Singapore National Museum, so that was the excursion for the day. As it turned out the museum is within an easy walk of our hotel and on the otherside of a hill that is the sight of Fort Canning and Fort Canning Reservoir

This morning we caught the local subway to The Marina Bay Sands Hotel, that famous Singapore building consisting of three towers with a boat resting across the top of the towers. The metro station at Bay Front is in the shopping mall that sits between the hotel and the harbour. So we started our visit to this tourist mecca by walking around the mall. It is breath taking in its opulence, every up-market brand you have ever heard of and many you have not.

Today turned out to be very successful. The first win of the day was obtaining an ample supply of the medication I was foolish enough to leave at home. This required a visit to a doctor to get a prescription; this was arranged online even before we got to the port. Second was getting the drugs from a local hospital pharmacy, the doctors office helped by calling the pharmacy to ensure they had an adequate supply. The doctors visit cost me about AUD$60. The running around from ship to doctors to hospital and then back to the ship was easy. Most Singapore cabbies speak a little English and take credit/debit cards. Also Grab is the Asian equivalent of Uber.

Another day in Singapore and we had scheduled an outting called "Round The Island Tour". This was a bus tour that stopped a number of times at locations, designed to give us a flavour of life in Singapore. In order these stops were: