Singapore

19th to 22nd March 2026

For this trip, we have had to leave Fufu behind. Singapore was a brief stopover on the way to our next adventure in New Zealand.

The trip has been in the planning for some time and all arrangements had been made, then Donald Duck, with his attack on Iran, forced us to change to different airlines and routes. Many thanks to our Travel Agent, Susanne for her amazing help with all this.

The intention was to be able to give us a bit of a break on one of the longest of long-haul destinations, but Singapore has so much to offer, it is exhausting, but amazing.

We briefly visited the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, before moving on through to the Gardens by the Bay. It is an astonishing structure.

Gardens by the Bay:

We visited the Gardens by the Bay and Supertree Grove, walking along the OCBC Skyway. We also ascended the observation tower which is the tallest of the supertrees, right in the centre of the grove. The trees are described as unique vertical gardens.

The gardens have two spectacular glass-houses, The Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest, which are kept cooler than the outside temperature (and therefore much more comfortable). We visited The Flower Dome fist, it has areas which replicate the climatic conditions in many places around the globe:

There is a beautiful Japanese garden which had many cherry trees in blossom. There were also many Japanese people.

The second of the domes that we visited, The Cloud Forest, was “populated” by dinosaurs, paying homage to the film Jurassic Park. There was also an amazingly high waterfall and aerial walkways:

There were also many exotic plants and flowers:

After exploring the gardens, we returned to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and visited the viewing platform which provides some amazing views over the city:

There were a huge number of ships anchored off the coast of Singapore. Clearly the war in the Middle East has caused a major disruption to sea trade.

We had ascended to the top of the hotel, a short time before sunset:

We returned to the gardens the following evening for an amazing light show, which was accompanied by classical opera.

There was also a pop music concert in the gardens.

As we returned, we saw the Marina Bay Sands Hotel lit up:

The following day, we had a look at a couple of the shopping malls. The first one, Sim Lin Square, is a six storey mall which houses mainly electronics retailers. Alison reckons I was in my element, but I didn’t buy anything.

Some of the architecture in the city is impressive:

We visited the famous Raffles Hotel, which dates back to the founding of the city, to experience a “Singapore Sling”. We had to queue to get in to the Long Bar, and the prices were breathtaking, but it was great!

The Long Bar at Raffles is an experience in itself:

Monkey nuts are provided on every table and you are encouraged to throw the shells on the floor. The antique, hand-cranked cocktail shaker is worth seeing in action:

We enjoyed a couple of drinks each:

As we left Singapore on the third day, we explored the amazing Jewel Mall at the airport, after bag check-in:

The central atrium of the mall has a huge waterfall descending through a hole in the roof:

One retailer was selling Japanese action figurines:

TTFN