Singapore – March 5

Singapore – March 5

This is our 3^rd time visiting Singapore. We have done walking tours of all of the various neighborhoods, visited the Botanical Gardens, Gardens By The Bay, Hawker food at Maxwell Food Court, visited the Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, River Safari and Night Safari at the Zoo. 

This time we only had 2 very short days since we didn’t arrive until noon and leave tomorrow at 2:00. We had an early lunch on the ship to save time. Would have preferred Hawker food, but…… 

 sail in

We went to the MRT station to buy a tourist pass and they said we had to go to another station to do that, so we did that. We got our passes and then road the MRT to the Kranji stop which was about an hour and then we took a bus for a short ride to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. We didn’t have much time since the travel time to get there was long and we needed to be back for an evening tour by 5:45. 

 Greg

 Gray Heron

 Rock Dove

 Dollarbird

 Yellow-vented Bulbuls - young

 Scaly-breated Munia

 Yellow-vented Bulbul

 Javan Myna

 Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

 Plain-throated Sunbird

 Plain-throated Sunbird - female

 Gray Heron

 Juvenile White-bellied Sea-Eagle

 Olive-backed Sunbird

 Asian Emerald Dove

 Pacific Swallow

 Little Egret

 Common Sandpiper

Barn Swallow 

 Striated Heron

 Black-naped Oriole

 Gray Heron

 Little Egret

 Pacific Swallow

 Collared Kingfisher

 Laced Woodpecker

 Oriental White-Eye

It has 202ha of mangroves, mudflats, ponds and forests. We saw quite a lot of birds when we first got there, and we found even more as time went on and we explored other areas. We decided to give up the luxury of going back to the ship to freshen up before the evening tour so that gave us an extra hour or so to explore this great area.

We could have spent much more time here as we were finding lots of birds. On our way back to the Visitor’s center where we came in, we must have taken a wrong turn as we ended up near another entrance instead of the front. So, we walked along the outside road in the scorching heat when a car stopped with 2 men in it that asked if we would like a ride. We gladly accepted. They asked where we were going, and we told them the bus stop and they must have known we then would need to go to the MRT because they said they would gladly drop us there. That saved us a lot of walking and then waiting for the bus. They were nice guys and asked us where we were from and of course that brought talk of our President and they favored him. Phew! (those are always awkward conversations) They asked about our journey and marveled at our long cruise. 

Dollarbird, Sunbirds, Kingfisher, Herons, Munia & more!

We grabbed some cold drinks and then went into the MRT station. There is no food or drink allowed on the train itself or the station. We made it back to the stop for our meeting place of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel for the evening tour. Our instructions said to meet at the concierge desk in tower 3. We were in tower 3, but the only concierge desk is in tower 1. So, Greg called the company and asked where were we supposed to go? They said the lobby of tower 3 was great. 

We were picked up on time and made 1 more stop to pick up one other couple at another hotel. We hit a lot of traffic since it’s the banking district and it was rush hour.

We then met up for our evening tour booked through Viator. https://www.viator.com/tours/Singapore/Singapores-Chinatown-Trishaw-Night-Tour/d18-3695NOCT

Bob & Phyllis enjoyed it so much last time that they wanted to do it again and we thought it sounded like fun, so we signed up. 

It was a pretty large group of people on the bus, and there were 8 of us from the ship. Bob & Phyllis, Tom & Cathy and Stacey & Wally. What a fun group!

 Year of the Pig

Our first stop was at a traditional Chinese medicine hall. It was interesting to see the unusual things there. (wait until you see the photos.) Our guide explained the flow of our evening and she explained what our menu was for the Chinese dinner and she said there would be chopsticks or we could have a fork. OK, with her accent, fork sounded way more lewd to at least 4 of us, so we were laughing hysterically. (you can guess the f-word we heard) Wow, we didn’t know that would be included in our 4 hour tour. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Our next stop was for dinner and the guide led the large group down a narrow street and into a hotel and up the stairs. The 8 of us sat at one table and soon the food was delivered to the turntable in the center of the table. We had corn & egg drop soup, a chicken dish & a sweet & sour fish (I don’t generally like fish, but that was my favorite) egg roll, rice, garlic broccoli and mango pudding for dessert that was to die for. When we were finished, we had some free time for shopping at the bustling Night Market in Chinatown.

 Tom, Phyllis & Bob

Cathy bought a beautiful top (jacket?). Greg & I shared a wonderful large slice of Dragon Fruit. 

After the shopping was done, we all boarded our trishaws for an awesome ride through Chinatown & the city to get to the Singapore River. Our driver explained the various things we passed, and each trishaw had speakers playing music from the drivers’ phones. What a fun ride that was!

 Cathy

 our driver

 Bob & Phyllis

 Bob & Phyllis

 we're in the middle 

 we are on the left, Cathy on the right

 off we go!

Chinese New Year was a while back and they were still decorated for “the year of the pig”. There were some great displays depicting the year of the pig. I bought a couple of ornaments of the pig in Chinatown.

We arrived at the waterfront and boarded the bumboat for a beautiful cruise to see the sights all lit up at night. We all opted to sit outside at the back and the weather was just perfect. We had hoped to catch a glimpse of the laser light show that the Marina Bay Sands Hotel does, but we didn’t see any. Just an awesome ending to an already great day. 

 Tom & Cathy

 Stacey & Wally

 

Bob, Phyllis, Wally & Stacey grabbed a cab back to the ship while we and Cathy & Tom grabbed the MRT back. Cathy led the way to the station. We blindly followed, and she led us right to it. 

We missed the Folkloric presentation of the Cultures of Singapore. They have shown the recording of it on TV, but the sound was screwed up so it was mostly silent. ARGH!

It was late when we got back to the ship and we maybe made it to bed by midnight. It would be a short night since we set the alarm for 5:15 for our second partial day in Singapore.

Singapore Day 1 https://photos.app.goo.gl/D82AswBU9aTGAymJ8