Day 2 - Singapore sightseeing

We woke  to serious rain and quite impressive thunderstorm over breaky, which finally stopped after lunch.  However because we are intrepid tourists, this did not slow us down.  We set off  on the Hotel

shuttle bus which dropped us of at Orchard Rd. and had a look at a few large shopping centres ranging from a very swish which has Gucci and Marks & Spencer but scarcely any customers who must only come out at night, to the rare scary Lucky Plaza where every few shops seems to be a money exchange. Several of these guys saw us a tourists and consequently accosted us to change our money - I wonder what commission they took.

We then caught the underground MRT to Marina Bay. The edge of the platform is enclosed with panelling with the doors opening only when the train arrives - it certainly removes the chance of falling on to the tracks. Very fast and efficient.

This is what we found at Marina Bay. We took the lift up 56 stories to Skypark and out onto a deck for some amazing panoramic views of Singapore.  Now if we had stayed there as hotel guests,  we could have had a swim  at the pool on top of this amazing complex!  Oh well, maybe next lifetime !

This view looks directly across where we are staying, where we were able to pick out our Hotel. 

Here is the same view zoomed in a bit.  We are staying near where you can see green foliage in the middle of the picture, next to the brown building.

We then set ourselves the challenge of walking back there.  In the process we got a really good look at different architecture styles including British Colonial, kind of Art Deco and of course Modern day.  Paul also got to have a look at his dream shopping centre which consisted of only shops that sold electronic equipment, called Funan Mall. He was very excited!!!!

This then was taken on our walk back and is a look at the building we were just standing on top of. The swimming pool which sadly we missed out on swimming is behind the palm trees you see swaying in the breeze. Amazing.

As you can imagine after all that walking, we were ready for a rest, before heading out to our next memorable experience, dinner at Raffles Hotel with an authentic Singapore Sling.  

 

 

What a fabulous place with a real sense of history and drama, with the cane wicker furniture, blade ceiling "fans" and the old dark wood work and beams. 

And now here we are, becoming experts in the art of finding places with free Wifi so we can catch up with family and friends.  We need an early night as we are being picked up at 6.15 am  for our next leg to London.