Singapore - Home

To break the long journey home, we had arranged to stay in Singapore overnight. We stayed at the Excelsior-Penisular Hotel on Coleman Street - not far away from City Hall and the shopping district. Pat and Garth had stayed here on their way to England too. We arrived in Singapore in the early evening and our car was waiting for us as we left customs. We had already paid for the car but didn't have the voucher to prove it, although fortunately we had the itinerary which had the details printed on it so the driver was reasonably happy. Twenty minutes or so from the airport to the hotel and we had to face the non-voucher situation again at the hotel, but again we were able to satisfy them with the printed itinerary. We had a comfortable room on the sixteenth floor of one of the towers which gave us a good look over towards the south. After a light dinner we were off to bed to try to recover some of the sleep lost on the flight from London.

The next day we woke reasonably early to the sound of a Koel (Indian Cuckoo) in the trees 13 stories below. We thought we had left the darn bird back in Australia but they seem to be very widespread. I'd even heard them calling in Balngalore (India) when I was there in August. We weren't due to leave until evening again so we went for a walk in the local area after breakfast. It was quite warm and very humid - normal for Singapore so we didn't move very fast. The big shopping malls are airconditioned but it was too early for most of the shops to open as they don't seem to open up much before 11am. Pat wasn't interested in going too far so we headed back to the hotel for a while and then I went out again to buy some sandals. Having to cover three seasons on the trip I hadn't the room to pack more than two pairs of shoes. The Rockports I was wearing were just too hot to walk around in so sandals it was.

After changing my footwear I went for a walk up through Fort Canning Park and then circled back around to the west and south, eventually ending up at Clarke Quay before heading back to the hotel. During my walk I was accosted by a young guy in sort of monkish clothes. He wanted me to buy a friendship bracelet and good luck charm. Since the cost was low I decided to play him along. After the exchange he headed off down the street and kept looking over his shoulder back towards me. I decided to have a bit of fun and started following him towards the river and Clarke Quay. When he saw me following he started running and ducking across the busy roads to put some distance between us. Eventually I lost sight of him but I wasn't really interested in catching up with him anyway. What he was doing is probably illegal in Singapore and he probably thought I was going to dob him in or something.

On the way back to the hotel I went into a shopping mall in the same block and it was several stores of high-tech gear witha food court in the bottom. Pat and I braved a rain-storm to go back there for lunch. Actually we didn't get wet as we were able to stay under cover all the way there and back but it really chucked it down for a few minutes. The food court was pretty busy and we ended up luching at a Deli-France on the ground floor. As a local specialty- probably not served in any non-Singaporean Deli-France - they had several varieties of curry and the chicken one I had was quite good.

I arranged a late check out at the hotel. Their normal late check out time is 2pm but I wanted anothe couple of hours for which they said I would have to pay, and I was quite happy to do that. When it came time for us to check out however, at about 4:30pm, they waived the extra charge which was much appreciated. Our driver was there promptly so we were able to get o the airport in plenty of time, having to wait for the gate lounge to open. This time we were able to get an aisle seat so the trip back to Sydney was much more comfortable.

And so, at around 6am the next morning, we were back in Sydney and our long awaited holiday was over. Long-haul travel really is the pits so it is good to spend a reasonable amount of time between the outward and homeward flights to recover and enjoy the break.

It may be sometime before we are ready to go away again but then, you never know. I've still got a hankering to spend some time in Italy :-)