Singapore again

Yes, Singapore again.  Our favourite city.  We never tire of spending a few days in Singapore, on our way to and from Australia/New Zealand.  A spotlessly clean city, and vibrant too.  I know we should be calling into other places.  However, Singapore keeps calling us back.

The flight on Singapore Airlines from London was surprisingly very good, even though it took thirteen hours.  I watched three movies, read my book and listened to some stories on the Audible App on my telephone.  Plus I had a couple of short snoozes.  

We had a couple of mishaps, with Walter flicking his Baha hearing aid off as he got into the car at home.  Luckily he realised this during a dinner at Jubilee Church so he went home again and found it sitting on the road outside our house.  Thankfully it had not been run over by a car.  Then I left my small satchel containing tablet and e-reader on the seat in the plane when we arrived in Singapore.  I was too busy talking to the man sitting next to me to notice I had not put everything into the bag.  Thankfully, it was found and sent to our hotel within a couple of hours.  I cannot fault Singapore Airlines for efficiency and thoughtfulness.

But neither of these mishaps compare with me leaving my handbag in the taxi last year.  Now that was scary.  Apparently 50% of the lost items in taxis are due to people leaving wallets and mobile phones in them.  There was a recorded message and printed reminders in the taxi to remind people to check they had their wallet and phone when they got out of the taxi.  Very helpful. 

A few photographs taken during our two days here.  

The Albert Court complex.   

Our hotel room, on the first floor.  A lovely large room in the quieter part of the hotel.

As it was early in the morning when we arrived we walked around Bugis shopping centre before the shops opened, which was a little eerie, as normally this is a very busy area.

A Christmas display.

The Cold Storage supermarket was open, so we had a look around it.  When we lived here there was one supermarket, Cold Storage, on Orchard Road.  Now they are everywhere.  Not that we bought anything from Cold Storage when we lived here, as it was an expensive shop.  All our groceries came via the greengrocer, who took our order one day and delivered it the next.  Cheap and efficient.

It was interesting to see the array of goods imported from Great Britain (Waitrose) and France (Casino) as can be seen in the photograph below.  The price tags came accordingly.  Luxury goods here.

Narrow passage ways still exist in the older parts of the city.  However their accompanying monsoon drains are now covered over.  Those drains used to be a trap for the unwary walker.  When it now rains the water disappears as if by magic.  Little do people realise that under the footpaths and roads there is a myriad of huge drains.

A light lunch, Vietnamese fried rice, at a pleasantly airconditioned food hall.  Very cheap too.

The main mosque in Singapore has been declared a national monument.   Our favourite curry restaurant, Zam Zams, is opposite the mosque.  We first found this restaurant in 1974.  On this visit we ate egg prata with curry juice.  Cheap and delicious.

Around the corner from Zam Zams we saw a picturesque green shop house.   The area around the mosque has been declared a heritage area, called Kampong Glam.

The Chinese area by Bugis Street.

The bright green grass and young trees cover the Rocher Canal.  A huge canal that may have once been a river.  They had been working on this canal for a couple of years.  A major project.

One of the side streets off Serangoon Road in Little India.

Our destination, the Mustafa Shopping Centre in Little India.  It is a huge department store which sells practically everything: food, homewares, furniture, electronics, clothes, comestics and white goods.  Everything is literally packed in, row upon row of items for sale.   About six large floors.  We usually have a wander around the electronics and white goods departments.

On the top floor there is an amazing curry restaurant, not particularly cheap, but great ambiance.  Walter ordered a chicken curry with naan bread, and I ordered a vegetarian biryana with curry juice.  All washed down with a can of Sprite each.

We walked back to the hotel via some back streets, with lots of interesting shops and buildings.

And a Christian Church.

After we had a well earned rest in our hotel room we set off again to look at the hotel we will stay in on our trip back to the United Kingdom.  We will be staying in the Peninsular Excelsior, which is more towards the Padang and the Singapore River.  It is a much larger hotel, with a huge foyer and two swimming pools.  Looking forward to it.

More churches.   The Anglian Church, now surrounded by the MRT (underground) station and the huge Raffles shopping centre.

The church that once was.  Now a venue that caters for large events.  It was once the chapel for Chijmes, Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, and was a convent for 132 years as well as a school and orphanage.  Now still called Chijmes, the site is used for restaurants.

The final church is St Joseph's Church.  A Catholic church which is beautiful, both inside and outside.   

Afterour long walk and look at the churches above, plus the newly renovated Armenian Church, we went up to the top floor of the Raffles Centre, to the food court, where Walter ordered fried mee and I ordered a plate of fresh fruit.  The pineapple was especially sweet and juicy.

During the two days we walked more than 22,000 steps which Walter thinks is about 15 kilometres.  There is always so much to see, and the footpaths are wide and made for easy walking.  And no open monsoon drains to contend with anymore.  They are
long gone.

Since I started this blog we have travelled to Melbourne.  I am currently sitting in an airport motel as I finish off the blog.  A good flight, and we made sure that nothing was left on the plane this time.