Back in 2019 we talked about a trip to New Zealand and found that if we went “round the world” it was cheaper than a return to NZ! We planned our trip for 2022 but then Covid struck and NZ closed its borders. As 2022 came around the borders were still closed so we went to Canada instead. Wind forward to the end of 2022 when we decided to try our down under trip again. Flights were booked and motorhomes reserved and we sat back and waited and waited but finally the count down came into single figures and the anxiety set in - I’m always the same!!
To make my life easier as I am using my iPad, I am going to put all the photos at the end of each day.
Thursday February 1st - Munich
The morning of February 1st dawned and our taxi arrived on time at 9am (a good omen I hoped). I had gone upmarket with a car and had a very nice Mercedes estate car.
Our first leg of the journey was to Munich (our round the World ticket is with Lufthansa). I had been offered an upgrade to Business Class at a good rate so we were able to use the Business Class lounge which, as it happened, was right next to our gate.
The flight was an hour and a half and we were soon in a wet and dark Munich. I had had the choice of flying on to Singapore that evening or staying over, which is what we chose.
The Novotel was fine and dinner was acceptable though the bed was hard!
Friday February 2nd - Singapore
Back to the airport on a very busy shuttle bus. For those who know me well will know that I don’t travel light and we had 2 large roller bags (checked-in), 2 small roller bags (hand luggage), my CPAP machine (allowed as extra hand luggage) and an oversized handbag!
Our second leg was to Singapore where we had chosen to have a layover. We were due to land at 07.00 and leave at 22.30 the next day.
Munich is a strange airport as the only seating is at the gate so that is where we headed with a €9 salmon and avocado roll to eat for our breakfast.
We seemed to be waiting for ages to board but we were finally sitting in our Premium Economy seats (all 4 long legs of the journey are in Premium Economy). The flight was 11.5 hours which seemed to be made up of food/water, Audible books and sleep (not much of that 🙁). For dinner I had a prawn tagliatelle with brown butter sauce, it was the best airline food I had ever eaten.
Saturday 3rd February - Singapore
The heat in Singapore hit us as we got off the plane, but then it would as Singapore is only 1.5 degrees north of the Equator.
We had to wait for about an hour for our room but it was only about 9am, time for a second breakfast! Our room was on the 22nd floor (top floor) and had an amazing view.
A quick shower where I so nearly slipped over, I shook for quite a while afterwards. I had booked 48 hour tickets for the hop on hop off bus which stopped just across the road from the hotel which was very handy, it was also the only stop where the red and yellow routes crossed. We took the first bus which was on the red route. The top deck of the bus had a canopy so we sat under that and enjoyed the breeze. Our first impression of Singapore was that it is so green, not just with trees but also with grass. Everywhere is so clean - smoking and chewing gum are not allowed on the streets and it shows. Even the white buildings are white and not a dirty colour. We drove through China Town where they were getting ready for Chinese New Year in a week’s time, it was so pretty. Then through Little India, sadly Indian food and I don’t get on, it comes back up the way it went down quite rapidly and I started to feel sick from the smell of the food ☹️.
We went back to our room and slept for about an hour before heading out and trying the yellow route, but it rained and I mean RAINED!! The sun canopy became a rain canopy but we still got wet, Richard was sitting by the “window” and his shorts were drenched on his right side. I don’t remember much about the trip other than getting wet!
Richard had another shower then we decided not to go out again as it was still raining, so ate in the hotel which was very uninspiring ☹️. Back in our room we waited for the light show across the harbour but were a little disappointed - I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was more than we saw!
Sunday 4th February - Singapore
We both slept very well and could probably have slept for longer but forced ourselves out of bed!
Our first stop was St. Andrew’s Cathedral which we could see from our bedroom window. A service was about to start so we didn’t hang around.
We then walked to the Fullerton Hotel which is a five star luxury hotel. It was originally known as the Fullerton Building, and also as the General Post Office Building and was named after Robert Fullerton, the first Governor of the Straits Settlements. It was fantastic inside and again was decorated for the Chinese New Year. Over our iced lattes we made a plan to go on a boat trip, I checked the map and we set off. I should point out here that EE does not count Singapore in its list of countries covered by their roaming package so I had been using the hotel’s Wi-Fi. We walked and walked! My knee hurt, my back ached and I had a blister on my little toe - I was hot and grumpy - the temperature was 34 degrees and the humidity high. Eventually I gave in and logged on to the internet and discovered that we had turned right out of the hotel when we should have turned left! I reckon we covered 3 miles instead of about half a mile!!! Hey ho.
We really enjoyed our boat trip round the harbour. The River Singapore has been dammed forming a fresh water harbour and most of the tap water in Singapore comes from it, after being cleaned of course!
There was a ho-ho bus stop not far from the boat trip so we got on a yellow route bus and were able to appreciate the trip after yesterday’s rain. It took us up to the Botanic Gardens, it looked lovely from the outside and it would have been nice to walk around but we had done enough walking for the day!
Here are a few of many facts about Singapore learnt from our bus trips. More people speak English than any other language with Malay second. Singapore had the first congestion charge (ERP) in the world. The Singaporeans are the fastest walkers in the world! The Marina Bay Sands cost 5.7 billion US Dollars to build.
Back at the hotel it was a quick wash and change of clothes and out to the airport for our 22.25 flight. In my holiday planning i had booked lounges at Singapore, Sydney and San Francisco airports so we went off in search of the Ambassador Lounge and made good use of it. Dinner and non-alchohlic drinks were included.
Our plane looked like a Dreamliner but I think it was an A380-800. Business and First class were upstairs so Premium Economy was the posh class downstairs! After Fridays exceptional dinner tonight’s was very poor with overcooked orzo rice and dry chicken, just as well we had some food in the lounge.
We also did round the world but out via LA and back via Singapore. Found Singapore beautiful but humid. Enjoy yr time. 😀 xx
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