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Our flight leaving Singapore was to be at 10:30pm, so we had quite a bit of the day that we could still go and have a look at a few things that we had missed along the way. We did sleep in a bit, but there was no time for dawdlers today. Making our way down to the dining room for breakfast I did like that we had the pick of where we sat. The breakfast service was impeccable. They really made us feel at home. Trying to find some breakfast proved interesting. Being an asian destination some of the breakfast options were well, interesting. They did have sliced fruit, yoghurts, some cereals (just a limited range), some regurgitated muesli (or at least pre-soaked in milk for you). There was a lovely freshly baked section of muffins and other sorts of nasty’s then two areas full of freshly cooked items. I was after scrambled eggs, but that wasn’t an option. I did find some freshly cooked waffles that I ended up choosing as well as some pancakes. It was my last morning, so might as well have fun 😊
We spent our time over breakfast and enjoyed it. The range
of fresh juices was lovely, and if you wanted even fresher there was even a spot to go up and order whatever combination you wanted. It was almost too good to leave. However after communicating with the kids back at home, apparently the keyrings I had bought them all wasn’t considered a good enough present for them, so I had to go and get them all something “cool”. I think they over estimate their mothers ability to shop. Something “cool” to their mum is taking them on an overseas trip when they reach 13, all these minor trinkets and objects just didn’t seem nearly as cool so it was to be a struggle finding something that would entertain them, that didn’t include buying them all an apple i-touch or similar!
Packing up the room it seemed our luggage must have picked up a heck of a lot of dirt through our travels because our bags seemed quite a bit heavier than when we started our journey! We made our way down to the reception and left our bags in the back storage and tidied up the bill. I had decided since we were in Singapore it would probably be
worthwhile to go and see the Merlion. Getting there seemed to be an issue with my lack of knowing which way was up however. Making our way to the Raffles Station was easy enough getting out of the train station in the right spot was my big mistake. Instead of turning right and taking the A exit, we made our way all the way down to the “J” one (I think). This took us on a goose chase through the business district. We stumbled across a gorgeous what looked like octagon building, the Lau Pa Sat Festival market. We wandered through it, but it was actually a food market/cooking thing, and the smells weren’t exactly pleasant that early in the morning.
We kept walking down Shenton Way in very the wrong direction! We were so lost. In the end I asked someone how on earth do we find the Merlion. He pointed to a white tall building in the very distance and told me walk all the way down there and you will find it. Oh man! Needless to say the man I married was not impressed. We decided since there was supposed to be water to our right
as we headed back, it would be nice to walk along it. In the end as we tried to snake our way over to it we discovered we were near the Marina Bay train line, so we were once again way off. To get out of the sun and find shade, we just opted to walk to the Marina Bay sands. We noticed that there were ferries that looked like they would take us to the other side, so maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.
Entering into the Shopping complex the air conditioning was awesome, the sweat wet tshirts on our back weren’t! We both headed to the bathrooms to try to freshen up and try off. It was when we were about to then head out to get a ferry that we stumbled across a little free photo booth where you provide them with your email and get to pick a couple of backdrops and have a take away photo of your favorite shot. Needless to say the photos weren’t the most glamorous.
We then made a further mistake when we went off to the left of the complex to a ferry dock to be told that
no, they didn’t do the short trips, but if we walked all the way to the other end of the complex that’s where the ferries were. Ugh! Too much walking already. When we got to the right ferry, we were told there would be a fifteen minute wait. We sat down next to a man that told us, “don’t believe them, they said that to me fifteen minutes ago!” I had to laugh at his accent, oh you can pick the Aussies! We then discovered he has also been travelling on the Voyager. Big ship! It did take an extra 15 – 20 minutes before we jumped on the boat that was already just sitting there. Now to be fair, the man we were sitting with was not a happy camper and we kind of edged away from him in the end, as he made this spectacle of the fact he was going to be late to a meeting, and didn’t like that they provided a decent lunch break for the driver of the boat. Hmmmmm patience people.
It was actually a nice thing going across the water. It gave you a different perspective of the Marina with the
Big flower building in the foreground. It didn’t take long to get across to the other side and make our way up to this Merlion. It was quite the photo spot, but I guess in all reality it really was just that. We didn’t spend too long at this spot before what it seemed a two minute walk around the corner to smack right into the stupid train station. Would you believe we walked down the steps right at the “a” entrance, the one we came out at. Was not very impressed. They really should have a sign up for us silly tourists saying “Merlion this way”. Oh well, that happens.
We made our way back over to China Town for some last minute purchases. Walking up to the area we walked past a stand selling Durian. Now if you haven’t smelt this before its definitely something you wont want to. I had been curious as I had seen them previous days but hadn’t realized to associate to atrocious smell with them. My gag reflex started and I had to once again run. I really needed to vomit to dispose of the smell from my system. Thankfully I didn’t
but seriously I can’t understand how people would put something so smelly into their mouths!
There was a little Chinese temple that we had a quick little look in before going about hunting through the stalls in a determined gift finding hunt. It wasn’t long before I found this most gorgeous little chopstick set that I bought for my mum as a thank you for looking after my kids. When my father said he was slightly stressed, I decided that a set of the stress balls would be a fun gift. As for my kids well, you never really can have enough key rings can you?
We decided or rather it was probably myself decided that we would head to the airport earlier. I had been hearing so many things about this amazing airport that I thought it would be a destination in itself! Going back to the hotel, we were directed into the back storage to collect our bags and we were able to put our fresh purchases into our cases before getting a taxi for the airport.
The drive itself was a bit of a blur. I remember as we were driving into the actual
airport, that it was in this very same place that all the people we had met over the last couple of weeks would head for their flights to their respective homes. It was a touch sad in a way. I think the taxi driver died picking up our bags. Honestly I don’t think they were “that” heavy and I was curious to see what the weights would come in as. We easily found the ticket desk that we had to go to, and before long had our luggage taken away. My bag was just over 23Kg, so don’t know what all their fussing was about. Roberts was less. While we were standing their Robert said, “well look over there!” I should have guessed. There was Roberta & Ed. They had arrived early as well for their flight with I think Air France back to the states. I thought it was very fitting in a way that we saw them one last time. We stood chatting for a while, before they told us to head on through the magical gates and we might see them on the other side, when their flight desks were open. It was a touch sad, as
we didn’t actually see them again, and it wasn’t due to not looking for them.
Making our way into the inner sanctum I was a bit underwhelmed. I guess when you hear something is so amazing so much, your expectations get raised too high. Personally I think I liked the Hong Kong International Airport a bit better, but then again that may be because I had absolutely no expectations before going there? I had checked online earlier and had read that a Fish spa was there, so decided this would be the time to try it.
We had to ask at one of the information desks for the location of the Fish Spa … typically for the type of day I was having it was right down the other end of the terminal. Yeh for us, more walking! When we got there they were offering us all this other stuff. I had to explain to them we just wanted the man eating fish. Eventually I gave up and let Robert have a combo of a neck massage and foot experience, I was adamant however that I wasn’t going to have anyone rubbing my shoulders. I’m not really a
touchy type of girl.
They washed our feet first, I had to get Robert to grab the camera for me, because I had just sunk my feet into the pool of flesh eating fish. It was quite something. I learnt quickly that there is safety in numbers and all these little suckers were attacking me with no other options available. It wasn’t til Robert jumped in that the onslaught eased slightly. Now the trick with getting this done is planting your feet firmly on the floor of the pool so they don’t go underneath your feet. It took quite a while for me to actually relax enough to enjoy it slightly. Its definitely worth trying. We noticed a man jumped into a pool beside ours and the number of fish in his was a lot more than ours, and his one appeared starving. If you startled in our pool the fish would swim away, he could raise his feet out of the water and there was no way the little suckers were letting go!
After the fish spa, we had the lightest feet ever. We were supposed to only spend 20 minutes in there, but they never told
us to get out, so really had no idea of the time. Think we spent about 35 minutes in the end getting eaten alive by the fish. We did a little bit of looking around, and eventually stumbled across a free foot massager. I had been looking for a massage chair but they were way down in a different terminal, and wasn’t going to be real stupid and do more walking. The foot massager went for ten minutes, then we found some comfortable chairs to wait out the remainder of the time before we boarded our plane.
When we finally did get to board, the plane was very empty. There were loads of centre row seats that didn’t have anyone sitting on them, and I told my hubby to go jump on one, so he could lay out, and I would get all three where I was sitting to myself. Alas he was too slow. It was lovely though having three seats between us. It mean I got to get maybe two hours sleep, which was worth it 😊 We sat the new baby between us, which was pretty cute and took photos of him. Our flight to Melbourne
ended up being completely uneventful. The Melbourne airport when we arrived the following morning just looked really trashy in the domestic terminals. Our section waiting for a plane to Adelaide was a ghost town, and I must remember to choose the Sydney airport from now on. The flight to Adelaide also proved uneventful and it was so lovely to see all my children skipping out of school to welcome us home. Needless to say my parents dropped us and ran. Then I was kind of like, um ok kids did you want to head back to school for three hours so we can sleep? No such luck!
It was an awesome adventure and if anyone is wanting or considering a cruise, a couple of websites I would recommend are
www.cruisefish.net www.cruisecritic.com and vacationstogo.com all provide invaluable information to help pick and choose who to go with and the prices you should pay.
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