Singapore Hop

To break our journey home from Sydney, we planned a 2 night stay in Singapore. arriving early evening, quite refreshed from the long flight, we thought we'd take the airport shuttle to our hotel the Marina Mandarin. However we were told that the wait time was over 90 minutes, so we made our way to the taxi rank. We joined a short queue, and were quickly on our way into town. Upon check in at the hotel we were notified we had been upgraded to one of the deluxe rooms on the higher floors. The hotel room was huge , with all modern amenities, from our very small balcony, we could see the Marina and the Merlion. Also below us nearby the rehearsals were taking place for the 50 year celebrations of Singapores independence. After breakfast our first day we took a walk around the Marina, all having been constructed since our last visit in 1986. Very impressive vista looking back over to the city. We walked around the river to Clarke Quay, which was very quiet through the day, almost deserted in fact. Last time we visited, we had the ubiquitous Singapore Sling at Raffles, not being big gin drinkers, we passed on the experience this time. We could see the impressive gardens by the bay from our hotel, so decided to walk around the marina, past the Science Museum to the front of the Marina. There is a strange optical illusion here as you at ground level, or you seem to be, then when you enter the Mall, you realise you are on the top floor looking down over the shops and restaurants. Even better, you can take the escalator to the roof garden walkway, all way around the top, giving an unusual view of events going on below. Continue walking around the roof until you reach the walkway connecting the mall to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, where you can walk straight through the hotel with easy access to the gardens on the other side. The light show takes place around 19:45 every evening, giving enough time to watch them, then retrace your steps back to Marina for the sound and light show. Similar to many Asian capital cities, the amount of high end shopping on offer is quite staggering, easily competing against Rodeo Drives claim as the most exclusive retail therapy in the world. A walk down Orchard Road brings you to several malls, restaurants, a few cinemas and an IMAX. There is also the newly opened cable car which runs between Singapore, Sentosa and Mount Faber giving an unusual experience while travelling over the water to Sentosa. We took the underground to Chinatown, and walked the streets, stopping for some fried rice and a beer at one of the street food vendors, we also stocked up on some cheap souvenirs. From there we had a trip up to Little India in the north of the city, again just to walk the streets, take in the atmosphere, and sample the excellent Indian food on offer. As our flight wasn't until 2 am , we decided to get tickets to go to the IMAX theatre, the film was worth seeing on the vast screen (the new Mission Impossible for the curious), after which we got a snack and made our way to the airport for the Scoot flight to Hong Kong. Before leaving, the organising committee of the 50th celebrations had a full dress rehearsal of the firework display, which was great to see. I have no doubt we'll visit Singapore again, as it is only 3:45 hours flying time from Hong Kong.