Singapore, SingaporeWe had a bit of a sleep in before heading down to breakfast at the hotel. After filling up on breakfast we went to the Concierge desk to book a few tours and had a nice chat to one of the hotel staff while waiting for Concierge to finish helping out anther hotel guest.
We then went back to our room and got our day packs organised for our walking tour of the Colonial District and Marina Bay area of Singapore city.
We started by walking across the road to Raffles Hotel. The hotel complex took up an entire block and was set in nice, cool gardens. After some photos and time spent watching the elaborately dressed hotel staff tending to their duties we walked back across the street to the Civilian War Memorial in the War Memorial Park which was also adjacent to our hotel.
Next we walked across to Esplanade - Theatres On The Bay via an underpass. The buildings look like a couple of fly's eyes or, according to the locals, durians. After getting a little lost in the building itself we found our way to the roof top for some nice views over Marina Bay and Merlion Park.
After finding our way out of Theatres on the Bay we walked across the Esplanade Bridge pedestrian platform to Merlion Park. Took some pictures of the bay area and the Merlion statue before deciding we needed an iced coffee to cool down at the Coffee Bean next to the Merlion statue. Coming from a cool 14 degrees celsius in Melbourne to 33 degrees and high humidity was taking some getting used to!
After the break we walked across Anderson Bridge to the Raffles Landing site which had nice views across the Singapore River to Boat Quay. We then walked on through the colonial district past the Parliament House, Supreme Court and City Hall to the Padang, home of the Singapore Cricket Club.
We then walked past St.Andrew's Cathedral on our way back to the hotel to cool off and take a break for lunch.
After lunch we walked to the Armenian Church then up to Fort Canning Park. It was a bit cooler under the shade of the trees in the park as we walked past the Fort Canning Centre and around to the Battle Box.
After a short rest we then walked down to the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station and caught the train back to City Hall and returned to the hotel.
At the hotel we ran into the same member of staff we spoke to that morning and he suggested to us to go to Purvis Road for cheap local cuisine from one of the restaurants there.
After a rest in our room we went out for dinner and decided to take the advice we had received. We ended up eating at Chin Chin Eating House in Purvis Road. Food was good and very cheap, about $4 each for Singapore noodles and chicken rice!
After dinner we returned to our hotel for the night.
2025-05-22