2 months, 2 kids, 2 continents (technically)

[MattA]

Interestingly, it seems the complimentary wifi for J is 3hrs on this flight. On the way out it was 100MB (which did not last very long).



Also a tip for anyone travelling with a group where other members of your group aren’t using their free wifi allowance (8yo and 3yo are definitely not using the wifi…): on an iphone you can double dip on the free wifi on the same device. The second time you connect, forget the network and then toggle off the “Private wifi address” setting (this causes your device to present a different MAC address to the network, so it will treat it as a new device). You can then use the seat number and surname of another member of your group to get a second go.

 

[MattA]

Starter…



BTC twice cooked pork. Very tasty.



Dessert. And cheese:



The view:

 

[MattA]

Some cool cloud stuff happening on descent into SIN.

 

[MattA]

We’re about an hour late landing in SIN. Formalities are as efficient as you would expect: no lines at passport control, bags are off quickly and we’re straight into a taxi.

Staying at the Fairmont. We’re there about 9:30am but early check in is granted anyway.





Not a bad view from the room:





Those double beds are tiny though.

Drop the bags and pop down to the food court in Raffles City, then to the pool for a swim.



We’re all pretty tired after that. Taking things easy for the rest of the day.

 

[MattA]

Day 2 in Singapore (Friday). I don’t know if it’s the jetlag, the heat, the rain that comes and goes throughout the day, our bad decisions, our poor planning/lack of research, how insanely expensive everything is here, or the nagging realisation that the trip is nearly over, but to be honest we’re finding it a bit of a struggle.

The day starts well enough. Brunch at one of the cafés in Raffles City, which adjoins the Fairmont. Then walk down towards the river, past the Singapore cricket club.



As we reach Cavenagh Bridge the heavens open. We shelter under the porch of the Asian Civilisations Museum, enjoying a blast of aircon every time the doors open, and watch the rain.





Ok. Can’t stay here all day so we need a plan. We’ll head for Lau Pa Sat for some lunch. We cross the bridge in the rain.



As we’re sheltering beside an office building a kindly local takes pity on us: if you head into the MRT station here you can go underground. She leads us there and we discover that the airconditioned, dry, underground mall goes almost the whole way there. A revelation: it would be helpful if Google or Apple Maps showed underground walking routes, but it seems they are a secret?

So we make it there relatively dry but encounter our first fail of the day. I had assumed it was satays 24/7, but no: Satay Street is only in the evening. Oops. Probably should have checked that.





Oh well. The food from the hawker centre is good though and we wash it down with a cold local craft beer (S$11, ouch!)





After lunch we’re all a bit tired so decide to catch a taxi back to the hotel. We walk around the centre to the taxi rank, where we find a row of minibuses parked up at the rank, but no taxis.

Ok, back around the centre to the other taxi rank. No buses blocking this one, but no taxis either. We wait. Lots of taxis drive past: “busy”, “hired”, “change shift”, “on call”, they say.

Eventually about 20 mins later a taxi pulls in. “Fairmont Hotel please”. “Fairmont?” He asks, as if this is a new and strange word he has never heard before. “It’s opposite Raffles” I say, expecting that the most famous building in Singapore might jog his memory. No, he needs the postcode. I look this up and he plugs it into his GPS, and whisks us back to aircon and rest.

 

[MattA]

After a bit of rest we try again. This time I’ve downloaded the Grab and Zig (local taxi) apps. Neither works. Grab can’t find a driver. Zig just gives me a “cannot connect to server” error. We head out to the taxi rank out front to try our luck.

One pulls up shortly. There’s someone in front of us, but taxi man doesn’t want to go wherever they are going—Singapore taxis *love* to cherry pick fares—but is happy to take us the short ride down to the Singapore Flyer.

Well. Sort of.

“Oh. You shouldn’t go there today,” he says. “It’s cloudy. You won’t see anything. Go tomorrow instead.”

Oh. Right…

We are still trying to decide what to do when he drops us off there and suddenly we are out of the cab.



It starts to rain. The decision is made for us as the ticket counter is closed. They have suspended ticket sales due to the imminent storm.

Right. What to do? The rain is really settling in now. Too heavy to walk anywhere. Plus we optimistically left without the pram because we thought we could taxi everywhere so walking is doubly out of the question. Back to the taxi rank and we wait. No taxis. After maybe 30 minutes we eventually get one and head over the river to the Marina Bay Sands. At least it will be dry.

By this point we are all grumpy, tired and hungry. But of course all the restaurants are full. Food court it is then. Heaving. As in can’t get a table heaving.



We pay S$34 for two plates of Chinese food that looks nice, tastes ok, but is cold. Not sure what the deal is there: do people here like to eat cold food?

By this point it is almost 7:45–in an attempt to salvage the evening we head up to level 4, above the food court, where you can see across to Gardens by the Bay and watch the light show from a distance. It has stopped raining by now.





After the light show finishes we walk along the boardwalk above the shopping centre and stumble across Spectra: a light and water show on the river. Kids love it, even if the view isn’t the best from up here.



Right then: let’s stay for the 9pm show and watch from the river level.

Back into the shops to find ice cream. The canal has a very Vegas vibe…



Love the water feature though:



Ice creams secured (S$30 for three small ones), we are back out to see the show again.




If takes nearly an hour to get home by the time we find a taxi rank and a taxi.

Ok. Must do better tomorrow. Lessons learnt:

• No more taxis.
• Don’t eat at food courts.
• Always take the pram.

 

[ellen10]

Our son is in Singapore at the moment, loves it. But different for a single opposed to visiting with young children.
Although an original Singapore Sling was $37 ouch!

 

[MattA]

Our son is in Singapore at the moment, loves it. But different for a single opposed to visiting with young children.
Although an original Singapore Sling was $37 ouch!

Yeah, we’ve been here before a bunch of times and loved it. My first trip was as a backpacker at the end of a SE Asia odyssey 20+ years ago). If it was just me I’d be walking everywhere. Definitely harder to get around with two kids in tow.

I think it’s always been expensive here but I’ve really noticed it this time: S$16 for a beer, S$7.50 for a latte. Add GST and sevice to those prices from the menu, plus a bit more to convert back to AUD (it’s currently ~AU$1.04 to S$1). It could be the places we’re choosing to go I guess (that S$16 beer was at MBS) but still…

 

[MattA]

After the day when everything seemed to go wrong, day 3 (Saturday) we get almost everything just about right.

We start with a lie in, after the late night.

After brunch, first challenge: work out the MRT. 3yo can ride for free (as can all kids up to 7) but as she’s over 0.9m tall she needs a (free) concession card. I walk to City Hall MRT—this can be reached from our hotel without leaving the aircon (again, not that you’d know from Google Maps walking directions). Present passports at ticket office, receive free child ticket in return. 3yo is very excited to get her own special travel card and does not let go of it for the rest of the day.



The rest of us can either buy and topup the local Oyster/Myki equivalent ($5 for the card) or, like London, just pay by contactless bank card. There’s a 60c charge per day for using a foreign-issued bank card, so if you were here for longer than 8 days it’d be better to get the card. For us it’s just 2 days left (<sadface>), and I have three different cards with no FX fees, so we can just tap and go…

We’re doing Gardens by the Bay today. It’s also, as everyone from taxi drivers to the nice lady at Singapore Flyer who wouldn’t sell us tickets to randoms in the street keep telling us, the final rehearsal/preview for Singapore National Day (6 Aug). We’ve been promised flyovers, parachuters, fireworks and so on, but also road closures and crowds.

There’s heaps to see at the gardens. We opt for the two main conservatories (Cloud Forest and Flower Dome). Tickets purchased online this time (day of), PDFs received by email and off we go.

Catch the MRT from Esplanade. Also reachable via the shopping centre connected to the hotel without stepping outside. 1 stop to Promenade, change trains and 1 stop to Bayfront at the edge of MBS. Then a short walk through the gardens.






We start with Flower Dome, where it is wonderfully cool inside…






I see what they did there…

 

[MattA]

Next stop: food. There’s a mini hawker centre just along the river: Satay by the Bay, where we finally get our satays. First batch of 20 doesn’t quite cut it so back for seconds…





Despite the name, there are other stalls there, not just satays, but we didn’t sample. Satays were yummy though.

We had passed the kids splash park on the way so that was the next stop. They loved it.



While we were there the show started: a bunch of parachuters coming down, a chinook, couple of choppers, and two very loud fighter jets doing flyovers.

 

[MattA]

At 6:30 the water unceremoniously stops, much to the kids’ disappointment, but very convenient for us as we have more to do. Cloud Forest next. Think I enjoyed this even more than Flower Dome:

 

[MattA]

We must have spent almost an hour in Cloud Forest as it’s now 7:30–15 mins to go before the Gardens light show. Outside to watch:

 

[MattA]

Now, a random bloke at the taxi rank last night who had told us about the military flyovers also told us the fireworks would start at 8:13 (!), so as soon as the light show finished we marched with the crowds across to MBS. Normally there’s an overpass from the gardens that takes you over the road, but it’s being guarded by two stern looking police standing next to signs that say “No access to MBS”. So past them we go and cross the big road at street level. Straight through the shopping centre and out onto the river front just in time for the first bangs. I check the time: 8:13 exactly.









After the show, we decide to get a drink and some aircon while the crowds disperse. Back into the MBS shopping centre and stop at the first bar we find. It’s packed and loud inside (there’s a band on).



But… on the shopping centre side there are 4 empty tables of two. Set the kids up on one with colouring and order ice cream and churros for them, beers for us. At S$16 plus GST/service for a pint of Tiger, it might just be the most expensive beer I’ve ever had, but worth every cent at this point.





Journey home by MRT is seamless and achieved end to end from bar to bed without going outside.

 

[MattA]

I don’t think random French bloke who helped us with our broken pram in Paris 5 1/2 weeks ago would have thought we’d get this far (2 months, 2 kids, 2 continents (technically)), but it’s finally happened: his wire snapped. Time to deploy the backup to get us through the last day:

 

[MattA]

So. We have reached our last day. We hit up Orchard Rd for some retail wandering.





What child wouldn’t want a fully functioning vacuum cleaner? (“Combining chores and games!”)



Couldn’t get a good shot because of the reflection, but this may be of interest to some here: popup SQ collaboration store selling refurbed seats and carts…




Radical new direction for my EPL team here. I guess the football hasn’t been going too well recently so it’s good to diversify.



Finished up wandering Emerald Hill Road. Love the contrast between old and new Singapore.

 

[MattA]

Stopped for a drink and a bite. Cool place (figuratively and literally).




New contender for “most expensive beer I’ve ever had”. S$15 for a small one.



And who doesn’t remember the famous Latin maxim *On* Vino Veritas.

 

[MattA]

So we are very nearly at the end. Early start. Prebooked 5:30 taxi arrives on time and whisks us to Changi.

A few people in the SilverKris lounge, but still plenty of seats.





Not much to see out there at this time of the morning:

 

[ellen10]

Hope the flight home goes well

 

[MattA]

Back in 19A. Regional J. Couple of spare seats behind me, otherwise pretty full.

 

[parsonstrish]

Thank you so much for your delightful and enjoyable TR. I will miss your daily reports. I think you could make a interesting report of family shopping. Great writing style, also appreciated all the photo.