The weather forecast was set for thunder, we awoke to another morning of blistering muggy heat, a storm would have gone down a treat.
We decide not to purchase another day pass for the metro so it meant a trip into town to City Hall station to get our deposit back on the previous day's ticket, that S$20 would buy us breakfast in Starbucks.
St Andrews Anglican Cathedral was situated opposite the entry to the Raffles Shopping Mall, we dodged the heavy traffic (hardly any motorbikes here - more luxury car) and went into the peaceful gardens, an oasis in a cacophonous environment. Ageless beauty surrounded by modern structures - a place to reflect.
My own personal reasons for visiting this place of worship were to remember my great uncle Bernard who was captured by the Japanese in Singapore after they torpedoed the troop ship he was sailing in on. I wondered if he'd been marched past this building before being transported eventually to Formosa (now Taiwan) to work in a lead mine. If he did, would he have been thinking of England as he trudged past this gothic masterpiece, a building that would remind many in captivity of home? I tried to imagine the scene around the cathedral in his minds eye. No high rise, no shopping malls, no pounding traffic intersections. Just doom, gloom and probably bitterness towards his captors.
It was only a short walk across another busy intersection to a war memorial to honour all those civilians who were killed during the Japanese occupation. A towering concrete structure curves into the air surrounded by peaceful water featured greenery, lovingly tended to by gardeners. Midday, and at this point it was getting really hot, we needed some air-con - over to another shopping mall.
Our mission was to get down to see the rest of Marina Bay and according to the map we could reduce our exposure to the sun by "Mall Hopping", might just have to copyright that saying? And so we did, stopping once for water then ice cream, we managed eventually to reach our intended destination.
The Singapore Flyer dominates an area of Marina Bay used for expos and trade shows but it's more than just a big wheel. You can book one of the pods and be revolved for as long as it takes to serve and eat a three course meal. Even better, book it in the evening and you get to watch the amazing light show from the gardens.
We wandered around the complex that has been built around it and could look up into the pods as it stopped at the entry station. The view across to the gardens and the Marina Sands Hotel was just as stunning in the day as it was at night. We strolled along a man made embankment towards the city, the sea held back by a huge gate forming a calm lagoon. I wondered if Uncle Bernard had been out there on the open sea, maybe in his life jacket, struggling to get ashore!
The layout of this part of the bay was very futuristic, even stranger was the full sized football pitch floating on the water with an open seated area for about 5000 spectators looming over it. Apparently it had been a location for a previous youth olympics.
We were now heading for the areas known as the Quays and dominating the whole panorama of colonial surrounded by modern was the famous white statue of the Merlion, spewing water back into the lagoon. Not a myth or part of Malay folklore, the lion headed fish was only initially used in Singapore as a tourist marketing image. Observing the crowds photographing it - it's worked, the place was packed.
The Quays are also dominated by the Fullerton Hotel which has not been crowded out by modern edifices. Built in 1919 it has served as offices, a general post office and since 2001 a five star luxury hotel. It is surrounded on one side by hugh corporation skyscrapers and to the waterside by trendy eateries and other old buildings regenerated into more luxury hotels.
We chose a waterfront bar to take advantage of a two for one offer on beer and wine, it was our little indulgence for that day and although we agreed to come back in the evening to see the bay all lit up, it didn't pan out that way.
To be honest, the heat had probably got to us that day. After travelling back on the metro we decided to eat at another Hawker venue nearby and get an early night before the 6am start in the morning. Our choice this evening was the Food Loft, a larger, and more cleaner looking place than the previous evening. The food was okay but again we were slightly lost on what to order, in the end I went to a stall run by Vietnamese and had duck. Lynn ordered some tempura dishes from another stall, she wasn't impressed, not spicey enough for her!
The next morning we were up bright and early for our taxi ride to Victoria Road bus station. It only took minutes as the traffic had not yet built up. A coach was waiting and although probably lost in translation, we eventually got on a bus heading for Johor Bahru, that's over the causeway into Malaysia - there isn't a train anymore from Singapore.
The coach was packed and we were carrying all our gear. It stopped and we all had to get off for the border control - Singapore side. By the time we got down the stairs to the coach bay our transport had left, panic kicked in slightly but a kindly Indian lady explained another would be along in a minute.
It arrived, much to our relief, we then drove on over the causeway to the Malay side, where, once again, we all got off for passport control - ditto with the coach, we were left high and dry until the next one turned up.
Getting on I mentioned we were going to the train station, I received a cursory nod from the driver. When we passed a sign pointing to JB Sentral, the train station, I panicked again, we were heading away from it. In fact, we arrived at the town's coach station, miles away. He ushered us off the bus, we refused, he sort of explained this was the end of the line - bugger - time to look for a taxi.
We did find the taxi office and did get to the station in time but not without a bit of drama thrown in for good measure, it had been worth getting up a bit earlier in the end.
Our tickets cost us about £8 each for the eight hour journey to Kuala Lumpur. We were breaking up the journey there rather than in Butterworth, our aim was to book the onward tickets at KL Sentral. Well, that had been the original plan, unfortunately we didn't know that Malaysia's holiday weekend coincided with the Bank Holiday back home. I looked stunned as the booking clerk told me there were no train seats available the next day, even more when she said it was the same the day after, everyone was going north on a train, or so it seemed.
When in doubt, go for a coffee. We found a Starbucks on the station concourse which meant not just sustenance but wifi. I perused the web for a flight out of KL to Hua Hin, our intended destination on the train, no luck on Air Asia. We had to think quickly and our option was to fly back to Bangkok, stay one night at my sisters then get the train to Hua Hin the next day (Friday).
Air Asia have an office at the station, we booked our seats and only just got on, booked a taxi to our hotel, The Prescott, which in fact, we could have walked to if not for the heat. Thankfully our flight was at 14.20 the next day, not an "early dart" so time enough for a last look round KL.
No comments:
Post a Comment