Singapore

Because we arrived too early to check into our hotel, we had to leave our luggage in reception and sit around the pool until our room was ready. We were glad we had put our swimming gear on the top of our cases! The rest of our first day is a bit of a blur. It was very hot compared to home, and we had no idea whether to eat or sleep and tried some of both, together with wandering around Clarke Quay which really only comes to life at night. We did a mange a one hour boat trip which was fascinating though, again, probably better done at night.

Pictures of our hotel and Clarke Quay

Only having three nights in Singapore we decided the best way to see the city was on a sight seeing bus. Very easy when you have no idea what day it is! It did take us to China Town where we spent a very amusing three hours or so shopping for rubbish (sorry family), eating noodles, checking out the price of cameras (only £30 or so less than John Lewis), and finding some strange raw materials in the food market. 

We had prebooked a Singapore Food Trail http://singaporefoodtrail.com  for Wednesday evening (I think it was Wednesday).  Two locals took us and one other Brit, Jamie, who had just arrived in Singapore to work for two years, around various very local eateries so we could sample different types of food. It was great and we would really recommend it. We didn't take any photos - it seemed a bit naf at the time....!

The following morning we visited the botanical gardens and then in the afternoon went for tea at Raffles.

This was lovely. Beautiful dumplings, cakes, sandwiches and much more - including a glass of champagne. After that we met a former colleague of Graham's who has been living in Singapore for seven years. At his suggestion we went up to the Long Room at Raffles and drank Singapore Slings, for which I have acquired a taste! The bar bill came to more than the tea! We went on to walk a lot of the F1 circuit - because we could - and then the boys ended up drinking green beer (healthy, apparently) on Boat Quay. Again, no photos. All in all, a very nice day.

On our last day we had to check out of the hotel by 11am but we're not flying until 9.15 pm so we had quite a lot of time to fill. Having checked out and left bags in reception, again, we walked to Fort Canning Park and on to the National Museum where there was a special exhibition about 'Total Defence'. This is a government strategy to ensure Singapore's people can defend themselves against - everything! Invasion, the Haze (smog), economic turmoil, disruption of supply lines etc etc. Men all do two years National Service and are then reservists for some time. Women can opt to do National Service if they want to, though there seemed to be a feeling that women 'did their bit' by supporting and homemaking for the men.

A very strange country where most people seem to be happy to accept the governments dictates without questio on the basis that 'it works'. The worrying thing is that it seems to.....

The Journey

I've been really lazy about writing this blog, so now it will be too long and boring, but I need to write it all down, even if for my own benefit. Read if you will.

Our very reliable taxi service, Rich and Barbara Woods, picked us up from home to meet our National Express coach from Chepstow to Heathrow. Knowing we have an obsessive need to be early, they arrived early, dropped us off early and then the bus was late! Typical. Anyway, it was a good journey, in dull, damp weather and we eventually found our 'Hopper' connection to the Premier Inn. This was a real surprise. We kept expecting Lenny Henry to jump out of a cupboard and bounce on the bed! The room was excellent as was the dinner and breakfast and we would certainly use them again. Great value.

The Hopper picked us up again in the morning and took us to Terminal 3. As we walked through the doors we were asked I'd we were checking in for Sinagapore Airlines flight to Singapore and shown to a non-existent queue! It was a really quiet flight on a huge A380 and we were able to change out seats so we had three seats for the two of us. We had a brilliant flight, catching up on movies (About Time) and (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2) as well as getting a fair amount of sleep. We arrived at our Singapore hotel at about 9am and had to wait until 11 for our room. It was hot and steamy, but sitting by the pool and dozing made it all ok.

Jet lag, or jet lag and old age, is awful. We lose the ability to think and make simple decisions like what to eat and when, or when to sleep and wander around in the heat of the day. It took us a week to get to grips with this and only now that we are in our campervan can we say we've got it sorted!

Ready to go!

As ever, we are so over organised that we are sitting here with nothing to do!  House is tidy, washing is done, bags are packed, itinerary is more or less sorted, tickets are checked and checked again. We have checked in on-line for tomorrow's flight and will be picked up at 2.00 to be taken to Chepstow to catch our bus to Heathrow.

We are very lucky to be able to travel as much as we do. Financially its mostly thanks to a generous Xerox pension, with a bit of local government pension thrown in, but lots of other people help out too. Cathy and Antony are looking after the chickens, Owen and Mo take on the OGM paperwork, lots of walk leaders help out to make sure our Monday walkers are kept in order, and Barbara provides a taxi service.

We will be away for five weeks. By the time we get back the clocks will have changed and Spring will have arrived. Hopefully, it will have stopped raining too. Just in case you're not sure, this is where we are going. Singapore to start with:

Followed by four weeks in a camper van in New Zealand:

Fingers crossed for the weather: Steamy Singapore weather or Comfortable Auckland weather

We hope to update this as we go, but we'll see!