Goodbye to Singapore

And so it came to our last day in a city that we had few expectations of; the city the taxi driver urged us to leave straight away because it was boring, a destination that one travel agent said we 'shouldn't bother with'...

Aside from the fact that our stopover broke up the journey to Perth with welcome rest from planes, Singapore had been amazing and we didn't want our time there to end. We found ourselves with a soft spot for the city and were already planning on a trip back when we have both enter the world of employment again long enough to save enough money for another visit to the same hostel AND a flight with extra legroom. Rich hopes that this time will coincide with next time Singapore stages the F1.

Despite having made plans for our last morning in Singapore the weather, once again, was not on our side. It was pouring down by the time we woke up and everyone outside had umbrellas up. We had to be out of the hostel by 11am so we wondered what we could do...

In usual Singapore style, the friendly receptionist said we were welcome to store our MASSIVE rucksacks and use the hotel facilities and telephoned a man to let us in to the common room and internet cafe so we checked our emails for news about life back home/tranmere updates.

By this time the rain had started to calm down so we ventured out for a last explore of the city. We headed back towards the Singapore flyer where Rich headed to the F1 track again and Rach headed inside the entrance to the Singapore flyer to sit down after cutting her foot on the way (more about this later when we get to Perth).

Inside the Singapore flyer was a whole shopping complex with retail outlets, a food court and posh restaurants (quite different to the Liverpool one). Nestled under the massive structure was also a mini rainforest with exotic birds, cute turtles, various ponds and another Halloween display.

Like always, we both went off exploring knowing we didn't have much time left before our airport transfer. Yet we carried on exploring and had to quickly grab a taxi back to the hostel in time for our transfer. We arrived in time...just!!!

The journey to the airport was quick and we sat in the back feeling quite despondant at having to leave but quickly remembered we weren't leaving for home and we were sure we would be back one day to try a Singapore Sling (one of the many things that we didn't get to do as we ran out of time).

We found a trolley as soon as we got to the airport to save our backs. We arrived really early because of transfer times because we wanted to save money by getting the bus. Yes, Rich was early for something in his life!!! Changi airport even had an early check in point so Rich proudly took a photo to record this memory in case he never manages this achievement again!

Like Singapore, Changi airport was fantastic equipped with everything you could want (food court, shops for sweets for the plane, a billabong shop (for flip-flops that Rich thought he had left at home), and a shoe shop for Rach's rapidly swelling left foot :/ Not to break a habit of a lifetime, Rach managed to fall for two pairs of shoes so was persuaded by Rich (not that it took much) to get them both as they would both come in handy and would remind us of Singapore.

As well as the usual airport amenities, Changi had things that you wouldn't usually expect including an Xbox room, cinema, spa, free internet points, chairs that you could lie back horizontally on (which Rich models beautifully in one photo) hairdressers, kids play area and the 'essential' rooftop Cactus garden could enjoy a nice cold beer! This airport had everything.

There was no end of choice when it came to where to eat, so we decided to end our time in Singapore with some more tasty Asian food. Rach opted for the Wantan Noodles while Rich had Roast Chicken noodle. Both dishes were really tasty! While eating them in the food court, another one of the more unusual yet amusing (to us) incidents of the trip happened.

As we were tucking in to our food, we heard a loud smash from the payment area and looked around to see a pile of rice on the floor and a bowl rolling away to the side. Above the rice stood a small boy, looking down at the spilt food with a guilty stare. His mother was livid and begun storming up and down the food court in a quite comical manner. She composed herself long enough to get another bowl of rice and head to the checkout once again to pay for the extra cost.

That was amusing enough, and we did well to conceal our laughter! Then things took a turn for the strange though, we actually became a little disturbed by the antics of the lady. She led her kids (probably the age of 4 and 6) to a table and slammed the food down making even more of a show of herself. She seemed surprised that the few people in the food court were staring at her! She then gave the children another dressing down before picking all the food up and moving to another table! Again, she slammed the food down, dragged the now upset children across to the new table, and had another shout at them, then seem to ignore their presence completely.

After we had finished our food, we got up to leave and out of the corner of our eye now noticed that the mother was allowing th young boy to go to the toilet under the table!!! Bizarre to say the least...we made a hasty exit as the other few diners looked on with dropped jaws.

Anyway, back to the impressive Changi Airport! The organisation was fantastic as well, everything ran smoothly with friendly staff everywhere making the process very efficient. We thought the security was pretty relaxed as we weren't made to walk through the scanning machines. Instead people were just randomly selected. Our bags weren't even scanned which we thought was rather strange. However we later found out this all happened when you got to the gate to save queues in the airport so you could 'enjoy the airport experience' more - take note Heathrow and Manchester.

We were happy to see that our next flight was on a Quantas plane and were happy to hear a great aussie welcome from all the staff and rather random and laid back annoucements throughout the flight.

Once again the flight food was excellent (beef for Rich, chicken for Rach) and this was teamed with another excellent dessert plus crackers and cheese. Rich was rather upset to find that there was no Heineken left on our trolley and was instead offered VB (oz bitter) but he declined and instead joined Rach with white wine.

We were seated together and there was nobody next to us for us to have to jump over when we needed to get out plus there was extra legroom on this flight so we could easily move in and out in one of us was asleep.

We both opted to watch 'Grown Ups' but started it at different times. It was nice to see us both laughing at the same points a few minutes apart reassuring us that we both have a similar sense of humour even when we are apart.

As we found at the airport neither of us are fond of goodbyes we won't say goodbye Singapore, we say shall see you soon! xxx