During my life I have been told many times that, "all good things must come to and end," which all sounds a bit final and pessimistic and I'd prefer to think of the past 10 weeks as a life experience and part of a much longer journey.
Our time 'down under' has been truly amazing. We have seen so many unique things including endemic species of flora and fauna. We travelled to parts of Australia that are often not included in typical itineraries and repeatedly met Australians who professed not to have visited somewhere we had just been!
When we started out on the adventure at the end of January, the weeks seemed to stretch far into the future but it is incredible how the final weeks just whooshed by and here we are on our final day in Singapore, the penultimate day of our journey.
The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the temperature is already nearly 30C and the humidity is high. We do not have to vacate our room until 1200 so we have breakfast, Lesley packs with her usual efficiency, making the most of limited suitcase space and we check out in time to catch the hotel's free 1205 shoppers shuttle to the local MRT station.
Lesley is not a gin drinker but I enjoy the occasional G&T and we are in the city that spawned the Singapore Sling. No visit to Singapore would be complete, therefore, without a visit to Raffles Hotel and specifically the Long Bar to partake of this beverage, eating peanuts and tossing the shells on the floor! Prices are high, a Virgin Sling is available for those who do not like gin, the fans are now powered by electricity rather than an army of punka wallas but the ambience is there.
We met a couple from Manchester who had been aboard the QE3 and chatted about cruises and our own adventures in Oz. We had a trio of sliders and fries which were tasty but equally expensive, we could probably have purchased 5 or 6 dishes from the local food court for the same amount we spent on lunch but then we were in Raffles.
Browsing the shops within the hotel precinct was interesting. We could have purchased a monogrammed bath robe or hand towel for $185 and $38 SIN respectively. There was designer jewellery and clothing but we resisted the temptation to buy, even though we had had not reached our luggage allowance our bank balances would probably not support the purchases.
We made our way to St Andrews Cathedral, the largest and oldest cathedral in Singapore, a simple interior with many tributes to men and women who had contributed to the growth and well being of the city. We were treated to some singing and a performance rehearsal by pupils from St Margaret's, the first girls school to be established in Singapore in 1842.
We made our way back to the hotel to await our shuttle bus which arrived early and threaded its way through the late afternoon traffic to the airport. We arrived very early for our flight, checked in and explored the options for food with only $10 SIN in the kitty. Surprisingly for an airport we found a few food outlets similar to those in the many food courts in shopping malls in the city with equally attractive prices. We managed to purchase two meals, a chicken laksa and a roast chicken and rice and drank the freely available filtered water.
We were fortunate to be on an Airbus 380 with very wide seats and lots of leg room in standard class for the first leg of our journey to Dubai. We were unexpectedly fed a late dinner and offered a snack late in the flight but we both declined the latter, Lesley being asleep at the time. I did not manage much sleep but did watch a couple of films. We arrived in Dubai 30 minutes later than scheduled and had a long walk to the other end of the terminal for our connecting flight to London. I am not in the habit of being in an airport in the middle of the night but have never seen so many people in one at 0140 with every shop and food outlet open and doing brisk trade!
One more flight and we will be back in the UK.
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