Sat 26th - Tues 29th April (Week 32)

Sat 26th - Up at 5:40 to get a taxi to Yangon airport for our 8:30am flight to KL. Had a lovely final sight of Yangon as we got into the taxi and saw processions of monks and nuns walking along the quiet early morning streets collecting alms. For some reason we had booked to get to Singapore via a stop over in KL - taking the entire day, but annoyingly there seemed to be quite a few direct flights to Singapore. Must have been more expensive to fly direct ! Had a few hours to kill in KL so used the wifi and had lunch. Finally landed in Singapore (Flights no.34 & 35) and enjoyed the pristine and efficient airport with all the lovely orchids. Got the MRT to our hotel, taking an hour, then spent a frustrating 45mins walking up and down the same streets with our heavy bags trying to find it ! Got there at 10pm, hot and irritable and complained about the inaccurate directions from their website !

Sun 27th - One of our worst nights sleep on our entire trip. They had kindly placed us in a room right next to reception and the breakfast area, and despite breakfast officially starting at 7am, they had a huge tour group of 30 people staying who were leaving on a pilgrimage tour at 6am so got up for a very noisy breakfast at 4:30am ! I had been woken up on and off all night due to people talking in reception, but when all the noise started at 4:30am I was livid ! I went out to give them all death stares at 5am, and Brandon went out to complain at 6am. Got a few precious hours sleep until 8:30 then moved rooms to the empty top floor and were much happier ! Planned our few days in Singapore and headed out at 12pm. Went to the Botanical Gardens for a few hours and really enjoyed walking in the nice temperature (so much better than Yangon !), in the immaculately kept gardens, and seeing the beautiful orchids etc. Then went to China Town to look around the markets, grab a very late lunch at 5pm, and went around the new (since we were last here in 2005) Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Stunning building, and beautiful inside and had a number of floors for various purposes and displays. There was even a 10,000 buddha area on the roof, along with a lovely orchid garden as well. Came home via the Mustafa Centre and somehow ended up shopping for 3 hours ! Its the biggest shopping mall I have ever been in - it sells absolutely everything under the sun and goes on for what seems like miles ! I bought a decorative wall fan - and finally - a new pair of Teva sandals !! After 5 hours of not finding any in KL, I find 3 pairs in my size without even looking ! Typical.

Mon 28th - Sent another couple of parcels of souvenirs home this morning, then caught the MRT down to Marina Bay. Followed a walking tour for 4 hours taking in all the sights on a circular route around Marina Bay. Saw some lovely old colonial buildings - like Fullerton House and of course the Raffles hotel, as well as the famous Merlion fountain. Saw part of the Grand Prix track and the pit lane, the Flyer (equivalent of the London Eye), then walked all around the new Marina Bay Sands and a few hours around the Gardens by the Bay. Stayed on to watch the impressive Sound & Light water show at Marina Bay at 8pm which had the stunning backdrop of the entire city lit up behind and was really special. Followed that by also watching another show of the Supertrees being lit up in the Gardens by the Bay.

Tues 29th - Headed to Universal Studios for 10am and spent 6 happy hours going on all the rides, watching some really good shows and generally loving the whole atmosphere and movie themes. Not too many big rides so we managed to do them all fairly quickly and then just watched some live shows including Water World which was an excellent stunt show with jet skis, boats, planes, gun fire etc ! Also enjoyed meeting some of the characters such as Bumblebee from Transformers, and King Julien and the Penguins from Madagascar ! Quite pricey at $63 each, but were really glad we went and is something very different from the usual things we've been doing.

Summary
Singapore really has developed in the 9 years since we were last here. The whole new Marina Bay Sands area, Gardens by the Bay, new bridges etc is just a whole new area. It really mixes the old traditional buildings with ultra modern buildings really well. Singapore must be one of our favourite places we've been to. Its so super clean, tidy, efficient, well maintained - it looks like a brand new city, and all so well designed and stunning. You can pretty much spend your entire day in a/c - from the MRT to all the shops, buildings and walkways. Its about 35C with 60% humidity so it has been a bit warm, but a much nicer temperature than our last few days in Yangon !