Phuket, then back to Singapore

We had a lovely 5 nights in Phuket. We stayed at the Peach Hill Hotel which was just a few minutes walk from Kata beach, and about 10 minutes walk to Karon Beach. I booked the place as a mystery wotif deal, as I knew what area I wanted to stay in, but wasn't bothered about exactly which hotel we were at. I got a great deal, and the resort was fine. The breakfast was especially good, we would wander down at about 10am and not have to have another meal until dinner that night!

This part of the trip was all about chilling out. Our major decision of the day was whether to hang out by one of the two very nice pools at the resort...

Or whether to head for the beach...

We had great weather for our 5 days, no rain at all. The temperature wasn't much higher than Singapore at about 33 degrees, but without the soul-destroying humidity. There were very welcome sea breezes, plus it was lovely having access to the water. I read 3 books in the 5 days, plus Will and I played loads of games of cards (where he might have just ended up with a slightly better winning record than me...)

We decided not to do any of the trips out to the surrounding islands, being perfectly happy with the pool and beach that we already had. We did get a little bit of wildlife come to us in the form of lots of little geckos around the place, including on a palm tree by the pool below. Also, one day on the way to the pool we saw a bright green snake go slithering past. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera handy...

Every night we would wander the 5 minutes or so down the hill into town and decide which of the little restaurants we were going to eat at that night. We ate some amazing Thai food, averaging out at about NZ$8 per meal. Beers and cocktails were also ridiculously cheap compared to NZ, so it was happy days really! I would definitely be keen to head back to Thailand if we ever needed a stop-over for a bit of sun on the way back from one of our 2-yearly trips to the UK.

On Wednesday 9th we headed back to Singapore. We were back to Hotel 81 in Chinatown which worked out really well as they let us leave a big bag full of all our winter stuff we needed for the UK while we were in Thailand. Our flight got in just after midday so we had all afternoon to spend in Singapore. I had got a deal through Singapore groupon which included Gardens by the Bay, as well as 2 tickets to the XD theatre, and a 'Duck' tour of the city in an amphibious vehicle. We had done Gardens by the Bay in our previous stint, so that afternoon we used up the remaining tickets. The XD theatre was surprisingly good. We saw the canyon roller coaster movie and it was really realistic. With the 3D screen, tilting seats, plus things like wind blowing in your head, it was better than we expected, and quite scary at times!

The duck tour was also good, even if the weather wasn't too great (those darn monsoon rains rearing their head again!)

The best bit was when we entered the river. It was nice to get a different view of a lot of the iconic buildings.

Will particularly liked the helix bridge. It was a pretty cool structure. When we walked it on the way to the sound and light show previously it was all lit up, and all along it are a-t and c-g discs lit in red and green to represent the DNA bases.

That night we had dinner in Chinatown and went for our final walk around the area. Everybody was starting to prepare for the Chinese New Year so there was a real buzz around the place and all the shops were getting decorated up. The next day we had an evening flight back to NZ.

Gardens by the Bay

Last Thursday Will and I had a good wander around one of Singapore's newer attractions, 'Gardens by the Bay'. It's a huge complex, basically a botanical garden with a big emphasis on resource management and sustainability. It has 2 big biomes, similar to the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. The big steel tree-like structures are called 'super trees' and a few of them you are able to go inside. Unfortunately the skywalk that you can see in the pic below was closed due to the threat of lightning. We had some torrential tropical monsoon showers when we were in the biomes.

The cloud forest biome was our favourite. It was based around a huge big multi-levelled waterfall that you walked in and around. The scale of the place had to be seen to be believed. As you got higher and higher the plant life represented what would be found at that altitude in the rainforest.

The flower dome wasn't quite so spectacular for us. However that's possibly because a lot of the plants featured we grew in our garden! I guess if you lived in a typical Singaporean high-rise apartment, plants like roses, geraniums, fuchsias etc would be pretty exciting! The succulents section was pretty cool though.

That night Warren and Norsh met us at our Chinatown hotel and we wandered down to a restaurant for crispy duck pancakes. A few weeks before leaving on our holiday I had started browsing the Singapore GroupOn voucher deals. I found one for a whole duck for 2 people, half-price. Warren and Norsh also bought one, so we had a nice meal out.

After dinner we walked it off with a big long walk, eventually ending up at the Marina Bay Sands area which you can see lit up below.

I had to take a photo of the 'Merlion' statue, lit up like a Christmas tree. A cross between a mermaid and a lion, it must be one of the more bizarre national symbols!

We made it to Marina Bay Sands just in time to catch the nightly light and sound show. This was pretty hard-case. They project a show onto a really fine mist from fountains in the marina. It also involved huge bubble machines! I took some video on my phone, but here is a really good quality version I found on YouTube. There are also a few pics below. 

The next day we were off to Thailand for five nights of serious R&R.

Singapore Zoo

On Wednesday 2nd Norshidah was back to work. Warren helped Will and I take a taxi to our hotel and even though we were quite early, we were able to check in. For the next 2 nights we were staying at Hotel 81 in Chinatown. It was a brilliant location, right next to the Chinatown MRT station. Warren then took us out to a big sports mall, as I was keen to buy some new badminton shoes, and they were a lot cheaper in Singapore than back in NZ. I managed to get last seasons top of the range yonex shoe for $120, which was pretty good considering RRP was over $200. The sports mall was where he and Norshidah found me the rackets I was after earlier in the year, and they bought them over to NZ for me when they were there at Christmas time. It means I'll have new shoes and new rackets to play with when I get back home, exciting!

After some very cheap, tasty and plentiful Indian in another hawker centre we parted ways with Warren and caught a taxi out to the zoo. I do love a good zoo, and this one was awesome. We took loads and loads of photos, so I'll try and narrow it down to a reasonable amount... I love all the monkeys, especially the orangutans. They also had the rare proboscis monkey which I saw in the wild when I was in Borneo. I always think their noses make them look like old men...

I also love the big cats. There was a white tiger which I had never seen before.

However, our favourite animal in the whole zoo was the giant panda, which is another animal I hadn't ever seen before. We spent ages just watching it, plus taking a stack of photos...

Here are some other random pics, including a very cute otter which is one of Will's favourites... I, myself, was quite taken with the pygmy hippo, it was surprisingly cute and graceful!

Just as we were leaving the zoo there was a torrential monsoon downpour, and some of the most incredible thunder and lightening I have ever seen. The size of the raindrops was ridiculous! We were heading for the Night Safari which was just next door, so we waited out the weather under cover. I was impressed that the zoo reception had free wifi, so I caught up on a few emails, facebook etc. The downpour lasted about an hour.

The Night Safari was cool, a lot of people rate it as one of their favourite things to do in Singapore. However, we had spent so long walking round the zoo that we were pretty fatigued by the time we got there. We started off by doing a full circuit on the tram which takes you right around the park in 40 minutes or so. It's a great idea, you get to see loads of animals that are active at night. We didn't take any photos as there was still quite a bit of moisture in the air, so probably not the best for the camera. Also, the tram was constantly moving. After the tram ride we did one of the several walks that are available. We went to go see the fishing cat which was pretty cool, plus Will got to see more otters... After the walk we watched the 'Creatures of the Night' show, which was pretty funny, sometimes unintentionally so... At one stage they got someone out of the audience and draped a big snake around her neck. Unfortunately they chose a little Japanese women who was absolutely terrified! The ensuing hysterics were pretty funny. We also saw a beautiful big white wolf, plus they had (randomly!) trained some otters to put rubbish and recycling into different bins.

Our timing was perfect in that after the show we managed to pretty much jump straight onto a bus that took us back to Chinatown, arriving home just after 11pm.