Greetings from Singapore

We arrived safely from Melbourne after a relatively short 8 hour flight. Unfortunately, our flight to Geneva tomorrow morning is a much more testing 13 hours. This is day two in Singapore, and yesterday we received a mixed bag on the weather front. May is a very wet time in this part of the tropics and, sure enough, the skies opened a couple of times, delivering torrents of rain. Fortunately, it didn’t last for too long so, all in all, we were able to do most things we wanted. The only activity the weather managed to cancel was the Singapore Flyer, a giant wheel with views as far as Indonesia and Malaysia, but we will try our best to do that today.

The Singapore Flyer, where you can see across to Indonesia (on a good day)

We are staying in a part of the city which is mainly muslim, (our hotel is called The Sultan, and we are a stone’s throw from a beautiful mosque) and, once again, we are traveling during the holy month of Ramadan. During the month, muslims fast during daylight hours, but once the sun sets, things take on a real festive feel, as muslims satisfy their appetites. There is music in the streets and food stalls selling all sorts of middle eastern delights. I think we’ll join in the culinary feasting tonight for dinner. Singapore is a mix of three mains groups. The majority, with around three-quarters of the population, are Chinese, followed by the Malays, (almost exclusively muslim), and then the Indians and Sri Lankans. It is a real melting pot, which seems to work just fine (take note, Australia).

The mosque right near where we are staying

Singapore is an amazing city, far more glitzy than anything we have in Australia. It’s a bit like Dubai, but with a heart and a soul. With all of the greenery you’d expect from a city in the tropics, it is a very beautiful city and very easy to get around by underground train (something we are terrible at in Australia). While there are lots of cars here, the government officially discourages them, by making car ownership very expensive.

One of Singapore’s most famous attractions is the Gardens by the Bay. It’s sort of like a botanic gardens on steroids. Apart from the usual tropical gardens you’d expect, there are a couple of the largest conservatorium you could ever imagine; quite spectacular and definitely memorable. Last night we did the tourist bus activity, a three-hour look around the city in an open-top bus, which took in the Chinatown food area, the river precinct, the famous Orchard Road shopping area, and the Gardens by the Bay, for an audio-visual extravaganza which had me singing along to all the songs (I’m just lucky Imogen wasn’t there otherwise she’d have disowned me).

Part of one of the conservatoriums which may up the Gardens by the Bay

After a lovely breakfast at the hotel it’s off try our luck again on the Singapore Flyer, the cable car to Sentosa Island, and the river cruise this evening. We leave for Geneva via Zurich at 1.00 am tomorrow morning, so lots to pack in before we leave. Of course, we’ll be back again in four weeks on our way home from Berlin, just in case we can’t fit it all in this time.

Looking like something out of War of the Worlds, this is part of the Gardens by the Bay's audio-visual display.