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We took up an offer from Luxury Escapes of a five night stay at the Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel on Orchard Road. It was a good and comfortable hotel although, as usual, there was the idea that two people would need space for only one suitcase. * |
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On the Monday, we went to Baba House, a home built for a wealthy merchant in the late 1800s and restored by the National University of Singapore to be as it would have been when occupied by him and his family. * |
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Then we took a taxi to Clarke Quay near the centre of Singapore city. † |
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Then some traditional Spanish tapas and a cooling beer. † |
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That evening we went to the Gardens by the Bay, where we ate at Indochine, a restaurant at the top of the largest of the artificial "trees" in the Gardens. * |
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The interior of Indochine. * |
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Night view out over the Gardens. * |
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The extraordinary structure of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. * |
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On Tuesday, we returned to the Gardens by the Bay and went through the Cloud Garden greenhouse. On entering, you are greeted by this waterfall. † |
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There were bonsai plants ... * |
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and sculptures inspired by the natural shape of tree branches. † |
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A lift takes visitors to the top of the building, from where they walk down, including going along this walkway. * |
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The view from the walkway looking down. * |
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On Wednesday, we went to Chinatown and visited the Chinatown Heritage Centre. The first part of this was a shophouse restored as it would have been in the early 1900s when the ground floor was used by a tailor as his shop and home. † |
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The kitchen, where meals were prepared for the tailor, his family and his staff. † |
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We wandered around Chinatown, looking in some shops and having a quite good yum cha lunch. † |
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Then we walked rather further than we wanted, to reach the Musical Box Museum. It was not large, but had a substantial number of working music boxes, some quite large. † |
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The Museum was housed in what had been one of the earliest girls' schools in Singapore, and was elaborately constructed. * |
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That evening, we dined at Cie La Vie restaurant, on top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, with magnificent views of the Garden by the Bay and out to sea. * |
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On Thursday, we went to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown, an ornate building ... * |
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guarded by two fierce statues. † |
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There was a service being held, but we understood very little of it. * |
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Orchids growing on a tree near the Temple. † |
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We wandered around looking at the various buildings ... † |
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including one with washing hanging from it, far up. * |
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A street close to Chinatown MRT station. * |
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On Friday morning, we wandered rather aimlessly around some of the high-end shops on Orchard Road near our hotel, and then checked out and spent some time at Changi airport, including in the Butterfly Garden. * |
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