Singapore

Singapore is one of our favourite cities, so when we had to look at how we would handle visas for two countries…a return trip to Singapore was the option at the top on our list.  Our Malaysia 90 day Visas were expiring so we had to get out of country…..and….we wanted to combine the trip with our need to obtain 90 day Visas in advance of entering Thailand come November. The run to Singapore took care of both of these needs.

There were heavy rainstorms and low cloud cover in Langkawi.  We were hoping the lightning and thunder would let up before we had to get into the air…and it did!

Here we are on Air Asia in amongst the clouds.  The sun is shining and the heavy storms are behind us.

We stayed at a boutique hotel that promised large bedrooms…we were not disappointed.  This is an important feature for hotel rooms in Singapore, I looked at some that gave you just enough room to walk around the bed and the shower wand was over the toilet. This hotel was on Joo Chiat Road and Geylang Road with a great family restaurant just two shop houses from our hotel that prepared very good food.

Joo Chiat Road

This truly is a family restaurant, sons, daughters, cousins, uncles were all there serving or cooking, we talked to a cousin who was a waiter, he told us who was who, although there were very strong familial resembles amongst the group.

The lobby of our hotel, very colourful and it smelled wonderful, fresh flowers, Jasmine for one, so much better than old feet…

Our bedroom, we always ask for twin beds as we are never sure whether the Queen size is not just a double.

Out bathroom, great walk-in shower with rainforest shower head.

Geylang Road and our way into the city centre.  There is a certain section of Geylang Road that offers pleasure, we were not near that section.  We were in the Muslin area of Geylang Road, mostly families and family run stores.

We spent most of our time on Orchard Road as the Embassies are located there. The Thai Embassy takes some time, we finally got our paperwork done after spending the morning and part of the afternoon there; we still have to come back tomorrow between 2pm and 3 pm to pick up our Visas.  We decided to spend the afternoon in the air conditioned shopping centres along Orchard Road, they connect via walkways, and it is like visiting different villages, each village unique and enjoyable.  The buildings of Singapore are still very interesting to photograph and the city is so clean with flowering trees, evergreen trees, beautifully sculpted flower beds and grass.  The trees provide much needed shade which helps when walking along the sidewalks with the sun shining through the trees burning our skin and the humidity making you feel like you are walking through a sauna, only there is no snow to roll around in to cool off.

A little Tudor Shopping Centre in amongst the skyscrapers.

Lots of greenery to provide much needed shade and stops the concrete jungle look!

All different shapes and sizes, what an opportunity for budding architects to showcase their designs.