Singapore Visa Run

At the end of January it was time for our second visa run. This time Naomi and I were both meeting family and had planned to meet them in Kuala Lumper airport, then fly down to Singapore together. Naomi and I caught the 8 hour night bus from the bus terminal by our house to Kota Kinabalu, arriving at 5.30am! The bus journey spans the width of Sabah and has to go over mount Kinabalu. Unfortunately the roof of the bus had a leak, so the wet weather combined with the winding road meant that water kept pouring through the roof onto the floor next to our seats, not much sleep was had! 

We arrived at the bus terminal on the outskirts of the city and like always every single local person tried to help us and tell us where to go, but we knew that we needed some breakfast and then we were going to catch the hop on hop off bus for 1 ringgit (less than 20 pence) into the city. The bus was full and negotiating it with our backpacks and rucksacks without hitting people who just stared blankly at us wasn’t easy. The next issue was deciding which stop was the closest to the city, we ended up getting off when everyone else piled off, landing us at another city bus terminal and luckily where we wanted to be! After the hassle of getting to this next bus terminal we decided that we would head straight for the airport instead of going into the centre of the city with our bags and caught a minibus for 2 ringgits each to the airport. So total for 2 bus journeys = 60p! 

With a few hours to kill in the airport we got a 6 pack of donuts, such a novelty after Malaysian food, and waited to check in and go through to the plane. The photograph shows 4 of the 6, we were too excited to eat them to get a photo of all 6!

4 of the 6 doughnuts... too tasty to wait for a picture of all of them!

In KL airport we waited for my mum and Naomi’s parents who were arriving after us and had a rapid terminal change from their flight from Heathrow. They met us at the gate to our Singapore flight, where we had just enough time for a quick hello before jumping on the plane again.

We arrived in Singapore in the evening and after saying a very sad goodbye to Naomi, who I had spent every minute with since the end of October and wasn’t going to see for a whole week, mum and I grabbed a taxi to our hotel. It was Chinese New Year so after checking in we headed out for some food by the river. We found a lovely Mexican restaurant and shared a portion of nachos and quesadillas, it was such a nice change from rice and veg and unlimited refills of lemonade just topped of the meal! After dinner it was fairly late so we decided to have a wander, the wide bridge walls in Clarke Quay were packed with groups of people sat drinking and socialising in the warm evening heat, all awaiting the Chinese New Year fireworks.

Over the next few days in Singapore we went took a boat trip to visit the bay, went for a walk in the botanic gardens and did some shopping. The 'bumboats' on the river were previously used as cargo carriers along the rivers before the bridges were built, they are wooden barges with red and green stripes on and eyes on the front which were thought to protect the boats from danger, now they are used for tours and as water taxis along the river, they have a commentary and video highlighting all the interesting buildings and history along the river and around the bay. 

There is a rule for new builds in Singapore stating that they have to offset their carbon footprint with the same area of greenery, this means that all the hotels have areas of trees and flower beds at various levels and on their roof tops. But along with greenery on top of one of the hotels in the bay  they have managed to place a giant ship model, it is balanced across three towers of the hotel with the front end projecting out of the final tower. The design and appearance of this hotel was absolutely amazing and very in keeping with all the other spectacular shaped hotels in Singapore. The hotel was linked to the neighbouring shopping centre by and underground river system with wooden paddleboats along it. It was in this shopping centre that Mum and I saw our first Chinese new year Lion performance, the groups with their lion and drummers visit many of the Chinese shops and offer oranges and money packets. The performances are very loud and can be heard through the whole shopping centre, so after seeing a few more in various places we tended to avoid them.

The Ship Model topper of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel! 

One morning Mum and I visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens, the year of the Horse had just begun so the gardens were littered with brand sculptures of horses, the business of the city centre was turned into quiet meandering paths in the gardens and around the large lake full of turtles and giant fish.

The use of renewable energy and offsetting of carbon footprints in Singapore was amazing, Along with the greenery in hotels rule,  the edge of the bay was lined were solar panel powered fans, large sculptures of pipes which were actually a sprinkler system for super hot days and of course the streets were immaculate due to the no chewing gum law. What amazed Mum and I even more was that at night the street stalls were not cleared away but were just covered with a blanket to prevent the weather and insects getting to the produce. Severe punishments for stealing and littering make this a very safe and super clean place to visit.

A visit to Singapore wouldn’t be complete without a Singapore sling.. or two! Unfortunately the cocktail is really nice so many were consumed over the week, although after 6 months of no alcohol one each day was plenty for me! The week of sightseeing, walking, shopping, relaxing by the pool and enjoying normal food went so quickly that before I knew it it was time to pack my bag again, this time half full with chocolate. Our flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumper was an early morning one so on the short flight we were able to watch an amazing sunrise before Mum and I landed and said our farewells for another 6 months and caught our connecting flights. For me it was back to the pothole roads and jungle and for mum is was back to the trains on strike and a very flooded uk!.. I think I had the better deal!