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Published: February 24th 2020
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New coloured eggs on the way to the Supertree Grove Last night was frustrating. Admittedly, we should have allowed more time for dinner so we weren’t in a rush, but in theory it should have worked. We decided the quickest way to get back to the Marina Sands Bay Mall food court was by Grab, and it was, it took less than 10 minutes and cost 6SGD. The nice driver was complaining about business being hit by the virus. He works a 12 hour day and most of his journeys are 6SGD, like ours, so after deductions he only makes about 50SGD a day, and he can easily spend 20 of that on a McDonalds. Apparently the burgers are very small here so you need to eat a few of them! There are only a few Grab drop offs allowed and we chose the Skypark but it’s impossible to cross the road there so the Casino one would have been better. We had to walk back to the overpass so it all took a while.
The food court is really excellent there, especially if you are nervous about street food. Super hygienic and not expensive. My noodle soup cost 6.20SGD. We didn’t have time for dessert as we only had 15
minutes to make it to the supertree grove. There was a new display of lit up eggs on the lake on the way over the path which goes through the hotel, changing colours, very pretty. We could hear the music, which seemed to have started early. By the time we got to the centre and sat down the music was in the finale stage, so we were there for about 30 seconds before it stopped, at 7.55pm. It was very annoying as we’d really rushed to get there. On the way our we asked one of the officials what time it started and she swore blind it was 7.45. But it if it had started on time (no!) it would only have been 10 minutes and not the 15 advertised. Just saying. The grass we sat on last year had disappeared and now has been paved over so everyone was lying flat out on the paving. Luckily it is so clean everywhere this is not a problem.
We got the MRT back, complete forgetting we had planned to take the boat. We’d looked at one schedule on our morning walk and it was 25SGD for the round trip, which
has gone up a lot in recent years. We thought we’d go to our little cafe just for a drink but it was closed up, so we walked down Circular Road (bars with prostitutes outside, mainly) and braved Boat Quay to have a drink next to the river. Very insistent again, sometimes 3 separate people from one restaurant will have a go at you at the same time. A pint was 12.5SGD as we were way out of happy hour. Oh well.......
After another great breakfast we headed to the bus stop at Clarke Quay to take the #174 and get off opposite the Botanic Gardens. (When we got back we realised we had forgotten to tap our cards on exiting, google revealed that we will must be charged the maximum price i.e. 3.30SGD, so no biggie). We walked through to the Orchid Gardens and it was still only 5 SGD to get in, the most bargainous activity here. it was SO HOT, meltingly so, even with a breeze. The gift shop at the Orchid Garden is small but the stuff is lovely, and we bought a few thing. Every single thing in the gardens is beautiful, the vegetation
is wow wherever you look. Tiny house plants in the UK are magnified to giant size. If you can manage the heat you can’t fail to be impressed. We walked through to the far side for the MRT, following the signs. It was spitting with rain a bit and we had nothing with us. Luckily it held off but when we hit off the MRT at Clarke Quay all the roads had puddles. We went to Starbucks as it was there and we wanted coffee. Sometimes you just have to. Doesn’t make us bad people......
After a rest at the hotel we ordered a Grab to go to afternoon tea at Raffles, as it was too wet to walk. This had been on Gill’s bucket list for a while, although it has been relocated from the Tiffin Room and is not the glorious spread it was in the past, with a buffet of hot Indian dishes. When I booked online the price advertised was lower than what we were actually charged. I wrote to complain and they said that they hadn’t updated it for 2020, a weak excuse. We had booked for 4pm but I couldn’t remember if we’d
actually paid or not. We hadn’t, and the 78SGD per person was soon inflated to 210SGD by 17% tax and the glass of champagne I just couldn’t resist!
We were early, so took a walk around. The last 2 years there have been renovations so it was a building site, now everything is absolutely beautiful, the gardens, the ridiculously expensive shops around the outside. Afternoon tea was in the lobby. The doorman was super friendly and the staff all great. Most people were dressed up but not in an over the top way and you could really enjoy it without feeling it was snobby. Not for the diabetics among us though, it was cake overload. We’d asked for vegetarian sandwiches for Gill and they explained every item. It was all lovely and we were there about an hour eating. As well as the tier of sandwiches and cakes you get a tiny ice cream and 2 scones each with jam and cream. They asked us if we wanted more but we were stuffed. Took a Grab back as it was a bit rainy and then I slumped into a food coma for a couple of hours before packing and
then walking over to Clarke Quay to do the boat trip round the harbour. Then we had a drink at our favourite Chinese cafe and they were so friendly. We were the only foreigners there. Walking there along Clarke Quay everywhere used to be heaving at 8.30pm, now places are a quarter full if that.
Tomorrow we have have to get a Grab to Queen Street to get our bus to Malacca, hoping that our booking through easybook went through as I’ve read blogs where this didn’t happen so people didn’t get the bus or the seats they thought, or the bus had gone as they thought all the passengers were on board. First experience crossing into Malaysia by bus, will follow everyone else and hope it all works out!
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