I've finally got round to updating this. Well I had to. We are starting our Amazon Cruise in two days.
We had no expectations or plans for Singapore. I hadn't done any research and we had no idea of what to expect. After an afternoon and a morning there, we should have perhaps found out a bit more about the place before arriving, but we had a good time anyway.
The ship docked at the Harbour Front Cruise terminal, from where we could see Sentosa Island, which is basically a resort, full of rides, touristy shops, apartments and such, a bit like Disneyland I suppose. And on the other side of the ship was Singapore, full of modern design and high rise buildings. Not really our thing, although we do appreciate good architecture.
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| Singapore is well planned, clean and maintained. Really nice, for a city. |
Looking at the local map, we decided to do what we usually do and go for a walk. Mount Faber Park was just across the road from the Cruise Terminal, so that's where we headed.
The clue is in the name I suppose. Mount Faber is a hill, it was hot. Very very hot, probably the hottest place we've visited on this cruise - I checked, the temperature was easily 35 degrees plus.
On such a hot day, walking uphill was hard work. But the views and the sights made up for it.
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| Mount Faber Station, near the top, is actually a cable car terminal. These little cabs run across to the Sentosa Resort. Right over the top of our ships in the cruise terminal |
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| The view from the top of Mount Faber. Well worth the trip up. Most people came up by car or bus, because there is a road up to this point. |
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| My arty shot. It was Peter who sort of showed me how this could be extracted from the original photograph. |
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| A jewel bug seen during our walk back down to the ship. |
We really enjoyed this little trek out, especially the noises in the woodland as we made our way up. It was almost as if we were in the jungle. Awesome.
Once it was dark it rained. Really, really, really heavily and sadly, we didn't manage to get any pictures of the cityscape by night. We stayed on board ship in the dry.
Next morning, because we didn't know of any better things to do, we took a wander over to the Sentosa resort. The "boardwalk" across is quite an experience, as it includes moving walkways, and the resort itself managed to keep us entertained for a short while. But it is what it is. Excellent fun when you're with a family no doubt.
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| Peter showing off his new watch. And no. We didn't buy it from here. |
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| The symbol of Singapore - the MerLion |
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| The monorails were all funky colours, and just looked awesome running back and forth. |
A highlight for me was this bird
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| Tanimbar Corella or Goffins' Cockatoo. It is "near threatened" in its home region of the Tanimbar Islands. They make good pets though. From what I've read, there are thriving populations of escaped Goffin's Cockatoos outside of it's home territory. |
And then it was back to the ship, for a quick shower, a late lunch and a lot of waiting. We waited until we were called for our bus to the airport. Then we waited at the airport until it was time to board the plane. Then we sat on the plane and tried to sleep during the 12 and half hours it took to fly back. (Actually, we did quite well, we got about 4 hours each). Finally we were back in Heathrow, waiting for our luggage to appear on the carousel.
So that was our first trip out to the East. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would happily recommend it, India and the flight included. I'm hoping that won't be our last visit that way.
We've got four weeks now before we are off again. Peter is booked to go to the Amazon with Cruise and Maritime. We've done that cruise several times before, which means that we know what to expect. It's a favourite, and we are really looking forward to it. Just Awesome!
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