Day 48: Footsore in Singapore

After a good night's sleep we left the apartment with Cary when he went out to work and he pointed us in the direction of the Botanical Gardens which are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This is a fabulous place, beautifully laid out and groomed with a vast array of plants and trees set around lakes and streams with ornamental borders, statues and art works.

We began our walk at the Tanglin Gate and explored several different paths through the gardens.  I particularly liked the Frangipani Garden set amongst swings.  The blossoms were past their best but there were some remaining and the branches were twisty/twiney.

We explored the Sundial and Bonsai Gardens and then the Ginger Garden which must be amazing at the right time of year.  The gardens are well used by joggers and fitness groups and tai-chi practitioners.  The Heliconia Walk is another way which must be stunning in the right season.

We arrived at the Visitor Centre and Cafe just at the point when we needed to sit down and have refreshment.  The cafe was full of folks who had been working out and were now ordering hearty breakfasts!  From there we took in the very pretty foliage gardens and the bougainvilleas before heading out to the MRT station at Bukit Timah Gate.

The MRT is a great way to get around Singapore.  It is brilliantly efficient, pristine clean (no food and drink is allowed on the system) and very cheap.  Cary gave us a card each to which we added credit at the first station.  We took the MRT as far as Clarke Quay because Cary had recommended a river cruise so that Tony could see how much that area of the city had changed compared with the photos he had brought with him.

Clarke Quay was an amazing place.  Lining the banks of the river at this point are colourful, original buildings, many of which are now restaurants, but the area has been very much developed with tourism in mind as these original buildings are surrounded by malls and linked by walkways lined with trees and plants.

We crossed a bridge and bought tickets (SD25 each) for a forty minute cruise on the river.  It was cooler to be on the Singapore River and gave us chance to recoup.  The bumboat/ferry did a circuit of Riverside Point and then headed downriver under the Read Bridge and the Coleman Bridge, taking in the mix of old buildings and modern business skyscrapers.  Once under Elgin Bridge we could see Boat Quay Jetty with its original Shop houses which are now mainly restaurants and I imagine very busy come lunchtime.

The cruise then passed the Fullerton Jetty, home of the long famous Fullerton Hotel, and we went beneath the Cavanagh, Anderson and Jubilee Bridges and out to Merlion Park in Marina Bay.  This area has been hugely developed and much land reclaimed for the building of the Marina Bay Sands Resort and the 'Gardens by the Bay'.

There are several iconic buildings to be viewed from here: the CBD home to many financial institutions; the strange three skyscrapers with the 'boat' on top which houses gardens and a casino' the Helix bridge fashioned to resemble the structure of DNA; the floating soccer pitch.  It certainly is a very prosperous looking place.

Once around the Marina, the bumboat returned to its start point giving us views of the buildings on the opposite side of the river:  The Asian Civilisation Museum; the MICA Building; the Supreme Courts and the Theatres by the Bay.

Once disembarked, we went for lunch before taking the MRT to Chinatown.  When we emerged from the underground, we were hit by the heat and the smells from the many foodstalls.  This is heavy souvenir territory with stalls brimming with all kinds of tat!  Tony remembers it more as a local market for the local people with places to eat cheaply as the tourists were not there in any numbers in the seventies.  The monsoon drains with their distinctive smell had also gone, as had the rats running along the ledges!

We visited two of Chinatown's temples: the Buddhist Tooth Relic Temple which was incredibly rich and ornate with fabulous statues.

We also looked inside the Hindu Sri Marriamman Temple which was in need of some tlc but which had incredible adornment inside and out.

From the temple we walked back through to see the Merlion on foot and then across to the Civic Area which was once much closer to the sea until the huge reclamation which created the Marina Bay complex and the Gardens on the Bay.  The famous cricket pitch remains outside the City Hall, still used today.

We walked as far as the War Memorial the Civilian victims of the Japanese occupation to pay our respects.

We were growing weary by this time so we took the MRT to Orchard and had a fine coffee in Hoshina Coffee House.  Tony ordered a double pancake souffle and was taken aback by the size of it!

It was time to head back to Cary and Yu-Yen's apartment.  In the evening we drove back in to Chinatown to eat at a traditional food court where there are 150 or so food stalls serving a wide range of culinary tastes.  We were joined by Nancy, a colleague of Yu-Yen's who is over on a training course from India.  Yu-Yen and Cary chose several dishes for us to try including yam, stingray, chicken rice and claypot chicken which was cooked with vegetables and salted fish.  The food court was a maze of stalls and tables and it was particularly good to have an authentic taste of local culture and food.