Singapore

Ruth, Charlotte and I flew to Singapore on Tuesday morning and this was the sight that greeted us in the baggage hall!! Orchids and plants everywhere. And that was true of the roads to the city as well. They had great arching trees on either side of the road which met overhead. The central reservation was clipped bourgainvillas in full bloom, red, white and pink ones. The whole city has every available spare corner covered with trees, grass and flowering plants, all immaculately kept.

We did all the touristy things. This is a statue of Ganesh  from an Indian temple in China town.

And this is one of many dragons in a Chinese temple in Chinatown - all gorgeous. It is a bit odd that the temples are so exuberant but the people are so drably dressed. I looked round the MRT carriage several times and we were the only splashs of colour. Everyone else was in shades of white, grey and black. The shops are full of vibrant colours and they must sell so is it weekend wear only? And while on the topic of shops, I have never seen so many shopping malls. It seems that Singaporeans use shopping as their only leisure activity.

This is the reception area of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel complex (Poshest in Singapore). We went there to have dinner one evening in the restaurant on the 57th floor. If you looked the other way, there was a long wide corridor lined with full-grown trees in plots and the most expensive shops any of us had ever seen. There was a jewellers with a necklace in the window using an  enormous diamond surrounded by lots of smller diamonds - and it had a price tag  S$29,000,000 - yes millions. That's about 15 millions in Pounds Sterling.   The other things in the window were cheaper - a ring for S$5,000,000. So we decided against going in and went up to the restaurant.

And this was the view from the top of the building.  On the opposite, we looked out to sea with ships everywhere. Singapore seems to be the container hub of the world.

The restaurant was first rate but the wine markup was at least a factor of 3 on French wines although it was less on Australian wines.

To me, used to posh French restaurants, it was a strange place, mainly because although it was very expensive, 75% of the eaters were not in any way dressed up.

We also went to Haw Par Villa (Once Tiger Balm Gardens). Full of statuary in concrete and painted. Very strange. Like Singapore.

So that's it. We came home on Thursday evening. Friday I went to a cookery class and Harry Potter Part 2. Today we went to the Market for fish and so on as we are going to do a great cook-up this evening.

I will devote a separate blog to the Singapore Botanic Gardens.