Swimming, socializing and street food: a short stop in sweltering Singapore


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June 29th 2019
Published: July 1st 2019
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Singapore was inserted into the itinerary primarily as a layover from Tokyo to Perth, however once we heard we were due to be there, we decided we may as well spend a night or two for old time sake.

The flight here was perhaps the first hint at a major airplane meltdown by Senan, but in truth that was actually all our fault. I had noticed that there was something weird with the Peppa Pig's on the tablet, but never went back to fully investigate. And so it was that we were on the plane for a 6.5 hour flight when we discovered, horror of horrors, that PEPPA DOESN'T WORK!

Senan was due a nap, but he wasn't succumbing to it until his got his Peppa hit, but there was none on the in-flight entertainment system. As his tiredness produced sobbing and his wails grew louder, I remembered a Peppa app on my phone that I had downloaded the free version of... The free version had about 3 minutes of Peppa videos, but fortunately just seeing his beloved Peppa was sufficient to calm Senan, and then we distracted him with some other in-flight movie. Eventually he curled up between us and dozed for a bit, while Philippe and I got our hit of uninterrupted movie watching time.

We visited Singapore as part of our trip 10 years ago, but I must admit I had very limited memories of that leg as I think we had crazy jetlag or something. What did come back to me as soon as we exited the airport was the heat! A wall of sticky heat just hits you like a whoosh as you come through the doors, like someone opened the oven door. The fact that we were loaded down with multiple bags just made it all the stickier! We opted to get a three day tourist pass for the train/metro, and then shlepped our luggage from Chinatown along the busy Eu Tong Sen street as we eventually made our way to our apartment in the Cayden Riverfront Residences - a posh name for a nice loft apartment above the Central shopping mall complex.

Our stay turned out to be one full day and two half days, but that was actually plenty of time to get a quick taste of this melting pot of asian culture and cuisine. First order of business: the apartment had access to a fabulous roof top pool which the boys enjoyed messing around in while I went off in search of nappies! We also managed to head over to Marina Bay to check out the skypark view from the top of the boat building, and event Senan slept through entirely. Our catalog of sleeping-Senan-at-tourist-sites photos is just getting better and better!

An ex-colleague of mine is also based here so we spent a lovely afternoon catching up with her and her five year old, watching the little people perfect their Swan dives into soft balls, then meandering our way over to the Lau Pa Sat Food court area, enjoying her suggestions of a bubble milk tea and a Singapore Sling en route. It was great to catch up with someone I hadn't seen in years and get her tips on what's good in Singapore!

It was a short but sweet trip: just long enough to enjoy a trip down memory lane but short enough to just be able to tolerate the heat!

For our flight to Perth we had Peppa primed, the bag refilled with munchies, and we let Senan loose in the airport play area and ran with him as far as the gate to knacker him so he'd be calmer on the plane! It worked and after 2 or 3 hours of Peppa he voluntarily caved in to sleep and 3 hours later, at midnight local time, we carried him, still sleeping through Australian immigration (after having to throw out half the food stuff due to their strict customs rules...) and collapsed in our apartment near the airport.

So now we are in Perth! More to come soon!!


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