Day 13 - Us & Singapore: An Air-conditioned Love Affair

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A fairly casual wake up, some toast (for a change) for breakfast with some apples stolen from the Conrad and then off to the Salvadore Dali exhibition.

Instead of doing what most people (and ourselves) would usually do and walk through the city taking in the sights, the hazy heat was already rather stifling at 10:30 so we walked all the way from our destination MRT station to the bottom of the marina on which the museum was located in the underground air-conditioned passages.

We walked up the marina and the misting sculpture turned on to do its job of cooling the air along the walkway. A lovely idea in theory but when there is a smidgen of wind involved in the whole process, the nice cool spray just gets blown over the water. This is exactly what happened however. Ah well, duck into the fancy new, fully air conditioned marina mall and exit out the other end, right outside the museum entrance.

As part of a week long celebration of Singapore's 46th birthday (I am alone in finding it weird that my parents are older than an entire country?) our entrance to the Dali exhibit included a free pass to the Shipwrecked exhibit. This was a collection of thousands of artefacts that were recovered from a sunken 9th century trading ship. The haul was very impressive in its size, quality and lack of damage. The solid gold plates, bowls and mug were particularly outstanding, as were the countless rows of individually painted Chinese bowls.

Upwards in the lift to the Dali exhibit. Fantastic sculptures, sketches and paintings. Thoroughly worth the entrance fee - the Woman in Flames sculpture and tarot card sketches being my personal highlights.

Back through the air conditioned mall (complete with Chinese tourists on a guided boat tour of this shopping mecca) and passages - with a quick 'salax' stop. If a salad can ever be considered a treat, then these salads were just that. Delightful stuff.

Back to Vivocity mall for a showing of Captain America. I know, not the most holiday type thing to do but it was fun. What was especially humourous was how the cinema was only half full yet everyone sat in the seats they were given on the ticket. So the entire back half was full, but the front half didn't have anyone sat in it at all. Was something that we are not used to seeing back home really.

As for the film, she liked it a lot. I thought it was ok. Seen many better this year.

Back to the hostel and the walk from the MRT station to 38A HongKong Street was our first time in the humidity for hours. Post shower, we decided to go for some drinks on (a peculiarly straight looking) Circular Road. We drank in the two more 'pub' looking places (one of which brewed it's own lagers and ales - very tasty stuff) and avoided the 'bars' and 'clubs' with their attractive young ladies in extremely short skirts attempting to entice one and all into their respective places of work.

On the way home we stopped off at a 7-11 for some beers and at a recommended eatery for some Green Curry. For a whole £2.50 it was bloody lovely. She was handed some Qantas Airways red wine to go with her meal from a Ukrainian girl who didn't want it and we both headed to bed at about 1am slightly squiffy.

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