Arrived in Singapore yesterday evening after a comfortable flight from London. Those flat beds in business class make all the difference, and we both managed to get some sleep. A handy tailwind reduced the flight from 13 hours to 12, but we were delayed at Heathrow by refuelling delays for an hour, so arrived on time at 6.30pm local time. It's warm and humid here, although overcast and slightly misty, as you can see from the early photos. Our hotel is lovely (apart from rubbish TV reception). It doesn't look much from the outside...
...but once you get to the 4th floor (we're on 17) it opens up into a spectacular atrium and the lifts are glass bubbles which look down into it. The staff are very friendly and helpful, as are people on the street. A couple of times this morning people saw us standing on corners looking at a map and came over to offer help!
On the first evening we had a Singapore Sling in the hotel bar (well, I did - Jen preferred her usual glass of wine) and then went for a walk. We found a Chinese restaurant on the waterfront and had a light supper, by which time we were feeling tired. The eight-hour time difference was taking its toll, so we headed back to the hotel and slept for nine hours straight - jet-lag sorted!
Today we took the usual city tour on a double decker open top bus to get a feel of the place. It's much as we expected - very clean and populated by extraordinarily cheerful and friendly people, but perhaps a bit soulless? The cityscape is crammed with ultra-modern buildings...
...but the wierdest one of all is the new Marina Bay Sands Resort hotel down on the waterfront, which consists of three towers. Straddling all three is a giant "boat" which contains a rooftop swimming pool and other facilities. Quite astonishing!
And, as you can see from this view, it's a bit of a bendy boat...
We're off to supper this evening with Veronica and Andrew Higham, who are in town.
Toodle-pip!
Jenny's bit: Am liking Singapore, its very safe, nobody wants to nick your bag and they drive on the same side of the road so no chance of being mown down (they're too polite anyway). Walking is very hot but they have zillions of huge shopping malls so you just walk in and make use of the air con every now and then, The ladies' loos are amazingly clean and fragrant! Jx
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