We did more activities on today including re-doing the Hop on Hop off bus route that was obscured by Noah's flood on the yesterday. This lead us to the the Singapore Botanical Gardens.
We were greeted at the Gardens by a pair of hornbills (above).
Symphony Lake
Wild Red Junglefowl (chickens) are a common sight around Singapore.
After the Gardens, we caught the Big Bus down the hill to Orchard road for lunch along the seemingly endless shopping strip.
This morning we checked out Fort Canning that is a few minutes walk from our hotel. There is quite a bit of WWII history surrounding the Fort but the park gardens are pretty impressive. It was the gardens that were the focus today. We have a plan to visit the Battle Box later in the week when it is open to the public.
Fort Canning is built on and around a steep hill near the centre of the city. Fortunately, there are a number of escalators that can take you effortlessly to the top avoiding a sweaty alternative stair climb.
This impressive water feature is about half way up the hill.
There are some good spots on the hill to look out over the city including the one above that overlooks Clarke Quay.
Most of the fortifications and building are at the top of the hill.
The gardens are vast & very well kept.
Tree Tunnel.
Greetings from hot & steamy Singapore! Our intel' for Singapore was hot & steamy. This morning, the clouds hammered the place for about 3 hours which took the edge off the mugginess so the jury is still out.
We are staying in a hotel at Robertson Quay which is close to most of the inner city attractions without being so close to get mixed up in too much craziness.
Our exploration of Singapore started this morning by walking along the Singapore River toward Marina Bay. Our plan for the day was to ride the hop on hop off bus to get a bit of an oversight of the city. It wasn't long before we saw the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (above).
Prior to boarding the bus, we took an opportunity to ride the Duck which is run by the same company of the Big Bus. The Duck was pretty well booked out for the rest of the week. Fortunately, there was a slot open for us today. It leaves from Suntec City (HQ for the Big Bus), drives around to a ramp into Marina Bay.
The Duck tour follows a clockwise circuit of Marina Bay, passing some of the most popular tourist hot spots including Gardens by the Bay (above) and the Marina Bay Sands hotel (below). We have plans to visit the Gardens later in the week.
The Sands over-shadows the Artscience Museum (above).
From the Duck, we got a good look at the Downtown area (above).
This was our first look at the Merlion (above).
We had lunch before transferring to the hop on hop off tour bus. There had been light rain since before the Duck tour and didn't look like letting up. We figured it didn't matter because we were just trying to get some sort of orientation. Unfortunately, a biblical storm broke just as we boarded the bus! That wasn't exactly the best weather for an open topped double decker bus so we sheltered downstairs where the view isn't especially good. Visibility was down to about 10m anyway so it didn't matter that much.
Every time the bus stopped, the water trapped on the upper level, sloshed forward and cascaded down the steps. 😄
Noah's flood finally abaited and we were able to sit up on the top deck to enjoy the sights like little India (above). The break in the rain gave us the first real taste of Singapore's humidity,
We hopped off the bus at the Parkroyal in Chinatown which was the closest stop to our hotel where we took advantage of the pool to cool off before dinner at one of the restaurants at street level of the hotel complex.
We're off again! Seems like we're making up for lost time from years of not being able to travel too far from home. Today we left Perth under some ominous winter clouds to cross the Equator to Singapore to a different style of clouds.
Looking out the window as we crossed the equator, we saw a storm cloud bank building (above) back lit by the setting sun. Soon after we were touching down at Changi Airport where we collected our bags & very quickly were out of the airport and onto the MRT enroute to Downtown. Our hotel is at Robertson Quay which is along the river and central to everthing.