21.04 - Day 24 - Singapore
Tuesday 21st April
Singapore
Temperature Min 25, Max 30
19,164 steps
We’re starting to come back to reality at Wink Hostel - there’s no choosing of breakfast options here or expansive buffet. There is at least a couple of cereals, bread and toaster, jam, peanut butter and chocolate spread. And 3-in-1 coffee sachets. You make the best of what you have and tuck in, amongst the mostly youthful crowd.
Our Family Room has its comfy double sized bunkbed - the kids deciding to sleep alternate nights on their own in the top bunk, leaving me with the other child every night - a very clean, if compact, ensuite. And that’s it - no tables, chairs, cupboard, desk, shelves. At least there’s two windows for natural light.
But we’re not here for a bedroom, so we launch out at about 10:15am aiming for a water playpark just beyond Marina Bay Sands. 1, it is hot, thank goodness for all the overhangs at the bottom of buildings. 2, As we walk past offices the number of Caucasian faces is highly evident in this Asian business hub.
Rather than walk around the impressive tri-building that is Marina Bay Sands in the heat, we tumble into the aircon mall that runs along its base. These are not our kind of shops, even if they exists in every capital city. Sienna remembers the indoor canal at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas, when spotting a far less ornate one here.
I spy someone on the mall rooftop, and getting directions, we find the lift to level 4, starting to get a view over the city and also up close to the Science Museum - the large white lotus flower shaped building. We can’t find a way across to the Gardens from up here, instead dropping back into the far end of the mall.
As we descend the escalators, it’s hard to miss the illuminated floor with creatures on the electronic screen darting about it. We agree to come back so the kids can have a go crafting their own images to be projected onto the surface.
We head outside, and despite the heat and humidity, as soon as they see some park gym equipment they run to it, though their exertions are shorter than normal. Twenty paces further are half a dozen musical instruments, mostly variations on xylophones.
By now some rolls of thunder have echoed over Singapore and we still haven’t even really got in the park. The forecast was for 1mm of rain so we walk on as the sky darkens. As we reach the indoor forest the rain starts. And then downpours. At least we’re under shelter.
With nothing to distract, Sienna and Seb are now hungry, so we lunch at the only food option available - Shake Shack. Not exactly Singaporean but tastier than expected.
When we sense a break into lighter rain we walk like a 3 person pantomime horse with a towel above our heads, only pausing to let a 4 foot long monitor lizard to cross the path in front of us.
Back inside Marina Bay Sands we head into Team Lab Sketch Factory and each grab an animal outline on a piece of paper to colour in. Sienna and Seb then run the finished product to a lady who scans them in and then a few seconds later that animal is brought to life - a butterfly flapping across the circular 10 metre wide electronic floor amongst other animals.
Rinse and repeat for 90 minutes. It’s not too busy and the scanning lady is happy to re-scan the same animal as well as new ones. They usually fade off screen after a minute, though some also duplicate.
Seb has a bone of contention with the only 3 other children there who ignore all other animals on the floor screen, preferring instead to try and jump on Seb’s crocodiles making them disappear. That crocodile must have been scanned and re-scanned 8-10 times.
From Marina Bay Sands we catch the metro three stops back to Chinatown for a brief spot of down time at Wink (i.e. Seb and Sienna on the ipad).
After our semi-enforced early lunch we head out to find dinner at 5:00pm, walking through the edge of Chinatown - its shop houses noticeably well kept and also noticeably towered over by surrounding high-rises - to Maxwell Hawker Centre. Dozens of small food outlets with communal tables in the middle. Sienna opts for Xiao Long Bao dumplings whilst Seb and I have Hainanese chicken and rice from a Michelin rated (not Starred) Tian Tian. The chicken is super succulent.
We walk another 15 minutes west to public housing Pinnacle @ Duxton; a series of 7 high rise apartment blocks with a walkway connecting all 7 on the 26th and 50th floor. The general public can pay to go up - except, it turns out, when there’s been a storm or there is a risk of lightning. Instead, we pick up from the bakery on the ground floor, a Portuguese tart and Wife biscuit (shortbready with melon paste (?) filling) to encourage us for the walk back to Wink for the night.