December 24th
Made it to Heathrow in very good time - 6 hours before our flight left! The Heathrow Express wasn't running so we had to get the Piccadilly Line, but as it turned out it was fine. We killed the extra time by wandering around various shops. Jen and I bought very luxurious neck pillows - about £30 each! Although they are a bit pricey I found them to be a worthwhile investment. They have straps so you can secure them to the seat back behind you so that your head doesn't fall forward and wake you up, and they are extremely soft and comfortable. I actually managed to sleep on the plane, and for me sleeping while travelling is a real rarity. I also had a Heathrow Rewards Card meaning that we saved money on them which was pretty handy.
December 25th
Most of Christmas Day was spent on the flight - the staff tried their best to make it nice and jolly, wearing tinsel and Christmas hats etc, and the pilot updating us on where Santa was likely to be. Jen and I were sat next to a very chatty (but nice) woman whose name I forgot instantly, but Jen tells me it was Sally. Qantas flights do seem to have very good entertainment, probably the best range I've seen in any long-range flights - lots of Disney and Marvel for instance. We landed in Singapore about 5pm their time and got through customs without issue. Singapore was very hot and sticky, even in the evening, but we went for some nice Chinese food to round off Christmas Day. We stayed in the Dream Lodge pod hostel, which was an interesting experience - unfortunately our double-pod was on the top half of the room, meaning it was very warm, even with the air con on. The bathroom facilities were fairly clean which was a plus though.
December 26th
Our one and only full day in Singapore. We woke up at about 09:30 - quite a disturbed night with people coming and going in our podroom. After a brief stroll around Chinatown, we went to McDonald's for breakfast and then on to the Botanical Gardens. The gardens were huge, we only saw a small section, but we were lucky enough to see loads of turtles in the pond, as well as lizards digging for worms in the flower beds.
We made a quick trip back to the hostel to get changed (Singapore is very hot and sticky), then we were out again for our Christmas treat buffet lunch at the Pan Pacific. We managed to catch a glimpse of the solar eclipse on our way to lunch - which was fantastic! We were a bit late to lunch so we didn't get a chance to enjoy ourselves and sample everything fully, but the food was good, and the Pan Pacific is a very fancy hotel. We tried some durian mousse, but regretted it - the smell is awful and the taste isn't great either, and it proved very hard to get rid of. Now I can see why it's banned on the Singapore subway.
After lunch we went to Sentosa Island to relax on the beach. We had to pay $4 extra for the train there, but it was an interesting place to go and the sea was lovely and warm, it was just a bit surreal as everywhere you looked there were huge cargo ships looming just outside of the ports. I guess Singapore does a lot of importing and exporting! The train took us past Universal Studios but we didn’t have time to stop in unfortunately!
In the evening we went to Gardens by the Bay for a Christmassy lights show in the super trees, which was very festive and not bad for $10 - everything was lit up (not just the trees) so it felt very festive but it was certainly the hottest Christmas celebration either of us had ever had, as the temperature was still in the high twenties at 9pm. We hadn't been hungry before that after our big lunch, so we went wandering looking for something to eat which took us a while. We eventually found ourselves in the Marina Bay shopping centre food court, which was huge and still packed, even at 10pm. It was all a bit overwhelming for me but we eventually got some food and went back to our hostel for a bit of well-earned rest.
December 27th
A very hot and muggy day in Singapore. We left
our suitcases at the hostel as our flight wasn't until the evening, but it was just so hot we spent most of the day doing a bit of casual shopping so that we could enjoy the air conditioning - I can see why there are so many shopping centres in Singapore! Jen got some new sandals she was very happy with, and I got a t-shirt that was breathable material, better for the temperatures.
Despite the heat, we did venture out to walk across the Helix bridge, which had some nice little viewing platforms, as well as walking around the bay, with some good photos opportunities by a giant chair and the Merlion statue.
After this, it was time to head back to the hostel to
pick up our cases and head to the airport. A quick word on transport in Singapore - getting around
is ridiculously easy (with the help of google maps of course). Because we were there for three days we got the tourist travel passes, which are $30 each (including a $10 deposit), and these are usable on any public transport (except the train to Sentosa island), and the public transport is great, all air conditioned, very clean, and there were never any delays. Overall we really enjoyed our time in Singapore! Although we didn’t do as much on the second day as it was very hot, there is plenty of stuff to do there to keep people interested - there were other things we would have done if we’d had time, such as the ArtScience museum, Universal Studios, and spent more time in the Botanical gardens. Singapore is also very varied - obviously there is a very strong English influence, as everything is written
in English, but it is still an Asian country so the contrast between the two is pretty interesting - there was a Tibetan Buddhist temple just around the corner from our hostel which seemed to be fairly popular whenever we walked past it. All in all Singapore is definitely somewhere we would recommend going.
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