Tourist Time II

Click here for photos of the Botanical Gardens

Day 2 of acting like tourists started with a dip in the pool of our condo. We are really lucky to overlook the swimming pools in our complex giving our flat a 'holiday home' atmosphere. My mum is already a regular on the sun loungers :) We then visited the Singapore Botanical Gardens which also boasts the National Orchid Garden (the debate as to whether you warrant the name 'National' if you are the 'only' continues...). The relative humidity feels much higher when you are in a leafy area and we spent perhaps longer than we needed in the Cool House! A free, outdoor concert was happening as we walked past with the National Chinese Singapore Orchestra performing Chinese and Western music on traditional Chinese instruments. It was very pleasant to sit there on the grass and listen to classical music. For a mixing of cultures try listening to music from a Spanish opera (Carmen) written by a Frenchman (Bizet) being performed by Chinese musicians in Singapore...

Tourist Time

Click here for photos of the city

My mum has arrived and as well as it being lovely to see her it also gives us a good excuse to act like tourists! After purchasing an open top bus tour for the Hippo Bus we were whizzed around the city at high speed taking in all th sights. Our bus driver was obviously an F1 fan, as he was completing the bus circuit at such speed that the recorded lady had to skip bits of her talk just to keep up! It also included a tour of the Singapore river on the Duck Boat which took us down to see the Merlion, which is the national symbol of Singapore. Having had enough of animal themed forms of transport, we then headed down to Club Street near Chinatown to watch the sunset from a rooftop bar. After that it was Little India where the festival of Deepavali was in full swing. Coloured lights were strung all down the roads and the place was heaving! A banana leaf curry finished off the night and a taxi took us back home to a well deserved night's sleep!