Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 33 - Saturday June 11th 2016 - Singapore

So what a way to wake up, a quick coffee then straight up to level 58 and that infinity pool at The Marina Bay Sands Hotel. I mean seriously this is a work of architectural madness but it is amazing. It feels like you could fall into the city.

It’s actually quite shallow and all one depth right that way along and also its actually quite cold (this is not good for me) but I braved it and its one of those things that you feel lucky to do. Needless to say everyone makes for the pools outer edge and the view to the city and its impressive skyline. After taking all the photographs that we could and shooting a few videos to remember the moment we actually did a bit of swimming but then headed back to the room so that we could go and hunt down some breakfast.

Having been to Singapore a few time before we knew our way around a bit so we headed onto the MRT (metro / underground system) off to Orchard.

Orchard Road is the main shopping street on Singapore and is lined from top to bottom with the most exclusive labels in the world and the most state of the art shopping malls I have ever seen.

That’s one of the things about Singapore, the new architecture is absolutely world class, really considered and really designed well. There is also an abundance of really good street art (not the graffiti type) sculptures and such all around the place, even the street benches have a style and are not just picked out of a catalogue.

We arrived at Orchard and the station is actually inside a mall to try and hunt down coffee and some breakfast. Trev was really feeling a little sorry for himself today as his stomach is being very naughty and giving him a bit of jip. With this in mind we were looking for somewhere that’s sold bread/ croissants which was proving to be a little bit more of a challenge as we were spoilt for choice if we had wanted noodles, or sweet and sour or any combination of chicken dishes. Eventually we found one and had a small bite and then wandered around the mall, we had a few things we needed to get on our shopping list before heading back on board the Ovation again. It was all relatively boring stuff like toiletries and coffee, stuff like that but also if we could, we both fancied haircuts.

So we bought some of the boring stuff before Trevor gave in and finally bought that piece of tech that had been missing from within his arsenal so far, yes finally he bought an iWatch!

After a year of saying that he did not need one, would not use it, blah blah blah, there it was…

We actually had to go to about three shops to find that he wanted though so it was not a straight forward purchase at all. Trevor is now the very proud owner of a stainless steel iWatch with nylon white pearl strap.

So post watch we walked the remainder of Orchard Road when the heavens opened and down came the rain. The one day we did not bring the umbrellas out with us it rains…. typical. It did mean that we kept walking from shop to shop trying to stay as dry as possible which in turn led to me buying a new case for my GoPro that had broken early on in the trip.

By now though Trev’s tummy was getting more irrational so we headed back to the hotel and Trev needed to rest and sleep after a sleepless night last night with his stomach and the continued pains today he needed downtime. Trev slept for about two hours whilst I watched videos on my iPad.

Fortunately, when Trevor woke up he was feeling a bit better and feeling brave enough to try for dinner.

From the moment we had booked this trip Trevor had wanted to go back to a place called Clarke Quay in Singapore and have what is a bit of a local dish, the local speciality which is chilli crab. Its basically a whole crab that is cooked in a vat of chillies and chilli sauce to the point that the shell of the crab and all the legs take on the colour of the red chilli itself. As chilli lovers this is the perfect dish but not necessarily the best thing to be eating with a bad stomach (did someone say seafood and chilli??).

Trev was determined, this was not going to beat him so we got changed and headed out on the MRT for Clarke Quay.

Clarke Quay is an older part of town just off from the main waterfront and it has a canal that flown into this part of the city that is active with sightseeing barges well into the night. They take you out into the Marina bay where you can look at the huge Merlion (the symbol for Singapore) and the huge Singapore Wheel, the hotel we are staying at and a few of the original colonial buildings that are still standing.

On either side of the canal stand restaurants and bars of every persuasion and it’s a real centre for nightlife and hotels. Its right next door to Chinatown as well so the chilli crab is extra good!

We found a restaurant a little away from all the noise of the bars and ordered our crab with egg fried rice. When it came it was huge, a real beast of a crustacean and my word was it tasty. These dishes are always really fiddly to eat, all prod and pull to get that little bit of meat out of a claw or leg but that’s half the fun. The Chinese ladies that were waiting our tables were very direct and efficient, they certainly had not been to customer service school but it was fine. They had the look of ninja warriors, like if you put a step out of line they would get you with a finely sharpened samurai sword, scary stuff.

So the crab was absolutely delicious, but it needed to be! The last time we had this meal in Singapore It had been the most expensive meal that Trevor and I had ever been to in our lives and it looked like this was going to be no exception. We had a bit of a debate as we walked away from our table as the whether this was more expensive than last time or not with both of us having a difference of opinion. I think tonight’s has again been the most expensive meal EVER, Trev thinks the last time…. oh well, you get the point, the meal was expensive.

The thing is, it’s just like that it Singapore as a while, everything seems to be super expensive, god knows how the taxi drivers and the cleaners and all the support workers afford to live here and have any quality of life?

We walked back to the hotel, taking in the atmosphere along Clarke Quay and the Bay. Looking at all the lit up buildings at night and our hotel sitting like the landmark that it is at the far side of the bay. The plan was to go for a swim when we got back at 10pm. We wanted to get the magical feeling that we had this morning at night, to take in that view one more time and to see the city illuminated under its new camouflage of led light.

That’s just what we did, we headed up to the 58th floor again and got in an even colder feeling pool and once again we were blown away by that city skyline feeling like it was right in arms reach. It’s a really interesting perspective, hard to explain, like being a bird gliding down into the city from a height, whatever its fantastic.

We took the requisite photographs and videos and left the cold pool behind us, as fantastic as it is.

That’s was the end of our full day in Singapore, no sight seeing, no playing at tourists, no Singapore sling at Raffles, why? Well we have done it all before and Trevor’s tummy was bad so it was off to bed for us. There’s a boat to get on tomorrow don’t you know!