Singapore

We woke up to a very rainy day here but luckily the tropics mean if you get wet it isn't that bad. A good night's sleep, washing and meeting the Drinnans for 8 am breakfast.

I'd love to explain the breakfast debacle but frankly it's not worth the effort on these pages. Suffice to say Mick's moment of brilliance was, well, brilliant after we got the Singaporeans to understand our situation which was outside of their realm of understanding.

So a big breakfast with the Drinnans- their last day. They wanted to go to Gardens by the Bay, so a quick trip on the MRT (Ian missed it so we waited for him at Bayside) and then a wander through the beautiful rain in the gardens. We couldn't go on the tree skywalk however because of the rain - it was closed - so we got tickets for the flower dome instead.

I can't believe the changes in 10 years. We were there in 2013 when the gardens first opened and though the towers were built and the paths were there, there were no trees or garden beds or flowers or anything- just towers and lawn. It was surprisingly beautiful, and the colurs were gorgeous because of the rain, and quiet because of the rain - not many people.

We spent a lot of time in the flower dome which gave us all the differnet ecosystems from last time but with the plants a lot more established. They had a dalhia exhibition so there were these glorious big colurful blooms of autumn flowers which were beautiful.

The real bonus though was when Mick spotted a 'thing' in the water while looking out from the flower dome to the river. It turned out to be Malay water monitors swimming around. OMG these bad boys were nearly 12 ft long and I was happy to correct the non -aussie tourists around us that they weren't crocodiles!

From there we headed back to Bugis to try and find the hawker stall place we frequented back in 2013. So we got out at Bugis and followed the C exit that took us through the Bugis Street markets.

I love an Asian market. Watches, facemasks, socks, sweets, T shirts, souveniers, bags, etectrical shit, shoes, vanity bags, handbags. All sorts of crap. We walked through the noise and melee a block till we got to the crossing and in front of us was the Albert Court food centre, such and institution complete with noise, birds and general mayhem.

We left the boys at a table to organise beers while Josie and I got the food. Satays were a little hard to come by but we finally found them in a Muslim stall so we ordered 5 chicken and 5 beef each, and then hunted out some char kway teo. The satays were great but the noodles hmmm a bit fishy. But we had deep fried wontons which made us all happy.

Next was the MRT back to City Hall and a line up for the iconic Raffles Hotel. Two singapore slings each with the peanut chaser and that blew the budget for a year :/

Back to the hotel for a quiet few hours and then a quick meal across at Raffles City so we could say goodbye to the Drinnans.

We had a really nice time with our friends, heaps of laughs, wit, fun, food, adventures and D&Ms.

We are very lucky to have such good friends that we can travel with. Bon voyage Jo and Ian.Read more