Day 35. Singapore

Monday, October 07, 2013
Singapore, Singapore
I forgot to mention that when we were booking in yesterday afternoon, an Australian lady who was checking out gave us her hop on hop off bus pass which was current until 12.40 today. I woke about 8.00 and Edie was still sleeping. We had a double bed each and oh how nice it was to lay down and stretch out, after having to sit up for over 24 hours. We are both still hung over with tiredness this morning but decided we had to make the most of our last days. I rang up the tour company who was supplying our transfers and booked " a night in Chinatown" tour for tonight. We had breakfast downstairs and then went in search of the red bus. There happened to be a stop outside Raffles Hotel which is next to The Stamford (our hotel). But I walked right when I should have walked left, so we did a circuit of our hotel. Once on board we did the yellow route which covered the marina, botanical gardens and Orchard Road. We stayed on the entire route and then changed buses to the red route. This took us through Little India and the Malay area and then sort of caught up with the yellow route. So when the opportunity arose we swapped back to the yellow route and got off in Orchard Road. The time had run out on the pass, but we had seen a lot and it had saved us $66.00. We were about half way down Orchard Road and had done a bit of window shopping when we realised that we were near to one of the Fish Spas. We eventually found it and Edie was disappointed that the full body treatment wasn't available here. So we settled for the half hour foot treatment. As a bonus, we sat at tables over the fish tanks and checked out our emails. Boo Hoo we had none. There were different tanks with different sized fish. We started with the little ones then moved to the larger ones. It's hard to tell but a think the biggest fish I had nibbling my legs was about 4 inches long. Your feet feel great afterwards. Then we found a Japanese store that sold Snoopy T shirts for adults. I could have bought every one but had to settle for four. It was now past 4.00 and had to get back to the hotel to get ready for the night tour. We were right at Somerset MRT so bought a ticket for $1. 20 each and caught the train to City Hall which was right next to our hotel . At 6.00 we were picked up from our hotel and driven to the tour company's office where we paid for the tour ($72.00 each). As we were already in Chinatown, our group of 19 set off walking. First we went to a calligraphy shop where we were each given a red fan with our name written on it in Chinese. We were taken to a local restaurant in a shop house for dinner. We had a vegetable dish, chicken & sweet corn soup, sweet & sour prawns, chicken and spring rolls. This was followed by a fruit set in custard like creation. It was all very good. We then had about 45 minutes to wander along the narrow lanes of the night market. I guess the highlight of the evening was a trishaw ride from Chinatown down to Clarke Quay. We went through narrow streets before getting onto a main road full of buses and cars. It was all very exciting. At Clarke Quay we boarded a bumboat for a cruise along the Singapore River. It was great gliding along the restored shop houses, the tall financial district, out to the iconic Merlion statue which has been moved a little further out in the marina district. The night lights were brilliant . We then had some free time at Clarke Quay, a very popular partying area before being driven back to the hotel. It was a great night. So tomorrow is our last day before flying out for home. How shall we spend it ?
Other Entries

Comments

2025-05-23

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank