Geoff and Marg's Big trip to Europe

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Underway…
Hello to all our followers. First I must thank you all for you very kind words of support when we caught up face to face or online after our last trip in the ‘van. So don’t say you didn’t ask for this next round.
Monday 16th of May, and we finally made it to the airport with bags packed, the house locked up, the bins out and most of all, Geoff’s cellar secured! The kit car is in its box in the garage, pretty much as it was delivered and although Geoff has faith that it will be that way when we return, Marg would not be unhappy if someone sneaked in and completed it so she would not have to put up with the gory story.
Ok, we had our tickets and they said seats 85 A & B – we looked at the seat plan on the Qantas site and our worst fears were realised – we were sooo far back, we could have been on the following flight! The A380 is an enormous plane and we were lucky in the respect that Marg had requested a seat where she could plug in her CPAP machine and that meant that as a “disabled person” she/we were invited to board before everyone else. That was good as we needed a lunch break on the way down the plane to our allocated seats. I have to say that the plane is amazingly quiet and reasonably comfortable (for economy class) and after catching 3 full length movies each we arrived in Singapore at 9.10pm local – 11.10pm Melb. and caught a cab to the hotel.
Tuesday 17th. The hotel is an IBIS and is very clean and fresh, although clearly it has stood here for a long time. The staff are very friendly although the room is very small – Geoff has to go out into the corridor to change his mind!! The bed is a slice off Ayres Rock, but that did not stop us getting a good night’s sleep, before a leisurely start to our first day here. We have taken a little walk down to Bugis (pronounced “boogy’s”) Market, and managed to miss it completely. We walked around its perimeter, but failed to see that it was inside the buildings that we walking around. Geoff found it later in the afternoon after searching out a supply of fresh fruit – from, you guessed it, Bugis Market! We also took a cab and had a quick look at the shops in Orchard Rd. and managed to boost the economy significantly, Geoff making the first purchase! Might be going back there later, although our bags are already close to the limit… Actually Geoff’s carry-on WAS over the limit and he had to unpack a pair of shoes and the heavy Lonely Planet book Niki gave us for Christmas and put them into Margaret’s case. Now I ask you – who takes more gear when travelling? We have discovered the bar downstairs has happy hour where you get two drinks for the price of one, which is just as well as those of you who have been here know, the price of alcohol is very expensive.
Wednesday 18th . We were up early to go on a tour of the city and orchid gardens. The tour guide was very informative and we learnt much about the country. Their taxation and pension scheme and public housing being some of the interesting items we learnt about. Won’t go into it here but they certainly have it all sorted! You have to go into a lottery each month if you want to buy a new car and if you miss out you go to the next months (this costs you). You can only buy a new car and when it is seven years old the government buys it from you and sells it overseas to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand etc. There are four universities here and two more being built, four airports, the island is 40 km from end to end and 20 something from side to side and into this they pile 5 million people. You can buy your public housing apartment and then it can be passed down to your children. The orchid gardens were beautiful and as we only had a short stay at the botanical gardens this was all we saw. However we did find a cool house which was a blessed relief from the heat. It was cool rainforest plants which were much like those grown in the hinterland behind Mackay in Qld and Marg affected a great interest in them so she could stay in there for a while. We went to an old Chinese temple, Little India, China town and past many of the building icons of Singapore. At the end of our trip we went on the Singapore Flyer which is like the London Eye, but bigger. Geoff had to be persuaded to go on it and spent the whole time firmly seated and looking quite pale. We got magnificent views and the harbour was full of ships, hundreds of them. He was glad he went in the end, but relieved to be safely on earth again.
Let Marg tell the ladies about the heat and humidity. The taxi driver who collected us at the airport was a most informative chap. The first thing he said was that in the past few days it has become VERY hot and HUMID. The humidity is about 88 – 90% and the daytime temp is 32-34 and it is truly HORRIBLE! Geoff will tell the men and those of you who are cold bods that it is okay and he is walking around in his jeans and thick socks and sneakers, just to prove it isn’t too bad.
Last night we ventured out for dinner to Clarke Quay, which has hundreds of eating places and sat by the river (under a fan which made it bearable) and had an extremely expensive meal. We picked the Indo Chine (which we later thought is at Crown in Melb and should have known better). Together with taxi fares (which are very cheap compared to Melbourne) we spent $160 sing dollars – about $130A for two tiny meals and two drinks. Never mind being a tourist is all about spending money, isn’t it?
Thursday 19th. We walked down to the Singapore National Museum which is about 4 blocks from the hotel. We went into the history wing and had a companion (hangs around the neck, with ear phones and you push a button at each exhibit for information. We spent a couple of hours there and it was well worth the visit Went through from beginnings of Singapore, British rule, invasion by Japanese and eventually independence. In the afternoon we took a tour to Changi (pronounced “Chan gee” by the locals) museum and chapel. We had an hour in the museum and both agreed that we could have spent another hour there. We drove past the old barracks and the current new military barracks, had a tour of a local shopping area where locals shop. They looked at us and we looked at them and Geoff bought three bananas for 50 cents. Eat your hearts out, those of you who like bananas. Our final stop was Arab street, which is the Muslim area of town. There was a huge old mosque and some very picturesque streets.
Friday 20th. Today we are off to see more shops in Orchard road and then to Raffles to have a Singapore sling. Achieved both with little damage to the credit card until we paid for the ‘slings’ $25 ea plus taxes and service charges. Geoff liked the ‘sling’, but Marg thought it needed a good twist of lemon, but nonetheless it is another one on the bucket list that we can cross off. We head for Europe tonight; going to Athens via Frankfurt. There is going to be a lot of travelling and waiting around, so we treated ourselves to a massage – deep tissue we think, given the pain we had throughout! An hour later and we do feel a lot better for it now.
Horror of all horrors, Geoff has mangade to delete the first 2 days of photo's. Somehow I think he is going to pay for that for a long time...
Until next time – from the Greek Islands…

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