Monday 19 August - Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands, Little India, Raffles Place.....

We have had a huge day today looking around Singapore.

The train station Tanjong Pagar is just a street away from the hotel.  We purchased a travel card and took the train to Gardens by the Bay.  This area is only about a year old and is wonderful to say the least.  The detail of everything here is amazing....there are many differnt Garden areas and the first we visited was:-

Flower Dome - a fantastic collection of plants from around the world intermingled with pieces of garden art in a domed area of about a hectare.....and air-conditioned....

 

Cloud Forest - a tropical rainforest area with a skywalk taking us around various levels of the "mountain" along with escalators joining some levels

 

This is the view from the Marina Sands Hotel - 57 storeys high.  As we entered the area to go up to the 57th floor, our photograph was taken and by the time we got up to the top, we were presented with the photo in a cardboard frame.....for a cost of $50!!  Without the frame....$30.....guess who ended up holding the photo.........not us - outrageous!!
But....check further down when we visited Merlion Park.....

We then decided to go to Little India for some shopping and we stopped for lunch in a food court that looked like it should be avoided, but we have learnt that these places are a great place to eat......and so tasty.....Dennis had mutton and I had chicken, all served on a piece of brown paper on a tray.....a local businessman sat at our table and we started chatting....he told us a lot about Singapore and some helpful tips.....

We then took the train to Raffles Place to go to the Raffles Hotel and have a Singapore Sling.  We should have gone the next station up, but it was a favourable mistake as we found ourselves at Merlion Park which was opposite the Marina Sands Hotel and guess what, we got someone to take the exact same photo of us that the Marina Sands Hotel wanted to charge us $50 for!!  Hahahaha.....

 Merlion Park - Merlion is the symbol of Singapore - the Lion City..

Raffles Hotel - you will see a member of the hotel staff in traditional uniform...

Just before we got to Raffles Hotel, we met a local man who started chatting to us and gave us some local tips and took us to a travel pass kiosk to get some tour bargains.  He also told us not to go to Raffles for the Singapore Sling as it was $38 per drink!!  He said to go just up the road to Swissotel Hotel and go up to the 70th floor to the Bar Area where we could get a Singapore Sling for half the price in fact $15......and the view was even better....so that's what we decided to do.....

This is the view of Singapore from the Hotel....everywhere you look is highrise....

We got back to our hotel about 8pm and then ventured up the road for some Subway for dinner as we weren't that hungry after the big meal at Little India.

Stay tuned for Day 3.