Singapore

Here we are at the start of our 3 week holiday to Singapore, Siem Reap and Vietnam.  This holiday is a bit different – we’re in a group of 23, and about half of us are cyclists, so we’re off on a fully supported cycling holiday through Vietnam – South to North.

Anne and I have both signed up as cyclists, as you can cycle as much or as little as you want, so me being a cyclist will try and cycle a lot, while Anne as an occasional cyclist will cycle on some of the short flat days, and the rest of the time hang with the non-cyclists on the tour.  As with most of my cycling exploits, my preparation can at best be described as under done, but this is a sight-seeing holiday, so I’ll be fitter by the end of the holiday, than I am at the start.  It’s a new type of holiday experience for us, but one we’re both looking forward to, as seeing a country by bike will give us a chance to travel around at a slower, although somewhat more energetic pace.

The tour proper starts in Saigon in 4 days’ time, but Anne and I have added in a 3 day addition to re-visit Siem Reap, and also come here to Singapore for a couple of days to wind down (Anne in particular) and acclimatise to the heat.  We arrived in Singapore at 6:30am on Saturday morning having flown Air New Zealand leaving Auckland at Midnight on Friday night – trying to make the most of our holiday time. 

We are staying at the Pan Pacific on the 34^th floor with amazing views over the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which puts on a light show of more or less duration and quality each night – we’re only here 2 nights, so we don’t know the rationale for the difference, but certainly Saturday’s show was of a far better duration and quality than Sunday’s.

Being on the second top accommodation floor in the hotel, we get access to the lounge on the top floor, with it’s complimentary champagne breakfast each morning, and 2 hour happy hour each night.  Needless to say, by the time we have finished the happy hour, we haven’t needed dinner, so it’s a nice way to end the day, watch the sun go down, and the lights of Singapore come up to illuminate the city skyline, the Singapore Flyer Ferris wheel, the multitude of ships in the harbour, and of course the Bay Marina Sands.

 

The view from our balcony

And the night view - with remnants of the light show

Our R&R hasn’t taken us too far away from the comfort of the pool, although we have gone for a walk around the Marina (more of a lagoon than a Marina – it didn’t seem to have any boats to mention) and then off to Clarke Quay for lunch on the Sunday and a visit to the Marina Gardens at the Bay on the Monday.  The Gardens are a large botanical gardens built on the other side of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, that have enormous man made concrete and steel trees, which put on a light show every night.

The service at the hotel has been amazing – we were checked in at 7am on the day we arrived, we have a late check out at 5pm today, and the staff have been extremely generous at the happy hour, with the champagne, wine and cocktails flowing at whatever rate you chose to drink it. 

Tomorrow morning we meet up with 6 of our fellow travellers and head to Siem Reap for the next stage of the holiday.