Singapore, Day 3

Yesterday was our first day on our own in Singapore, and we survived it quite nicely.

Our plan originally was to take a boat cruise and a ride on the Singapore Flyer. a giant observation wheel very similar to the London Eye. We rode on the London Eye a few years ago and loved the experience, so we felt we'd enjoy the Flyer, too. When we had the hotel concierge check on the availability of tickets for this tour, we learned it was booked up, so we decided to postpone those plans until today, Sunday, and go with Plan B.

Plan B was another visit to the Botanic Gardens, particularly the National Orchid Garden. Only problem was, we didn't have Tan to drive us there. We would have to get there on our own. The concierge told us to take Bus 36, which would take us almost to the gardens, and we could walk the rest of the way.

We started to board Bus 36 just outside our hotel but realized at the last minute that it was going in the wrong direction. A dash to the other side of the roadway put us on the correct bus, but how would we know when to get off? The bus driver wasn't much interested in being helpful.

I turned to the lady next to me, finally, and asked her what we should do to get to the gardens. At first she told us to get off at one stop, change busses twice, and eventually get to the gardens. This was totally differenct from the concierge's directions, so I moved to the back of the bus, where Ken was sitting, and shared our dilemma. We continued riding on. Suddenly the lady had an epiphany of sorts, I guess, causing her to get our attention and tell us to get off at the next stop with her. We did just that, she walked us to the next intersection, and pointed to our walking route to the gardens. She'd nailed it this time, and we soon found ourselves at the Botanic Gardens.
We made a bee-line for the Orchid Garden again, and I proceeded to snap photos of most of the same orchids I'd already photographed, but I figured I'd get differenet results since we were there in the morning this time, with morning light to work with.

I liked this Lady Slipper, which is an orchid we find in the wild in Maine. This particular one is more exotic than Maine's version.

I have over 200 photos of orchids now, but room here for only a couple.

This day at the gardens seemed much hotter and more humid than it had been on Thursday. If you have a fear of sweating, do not come to Singapore! Ken and I were both soaked with perspiration by 10:00 a.m.

When we came to the Botanic Gardens on Thursday, I was all excited to see Andrea Bocelli would be giving a concert here on Saturday night (last night). I'd love to see Andrea Bocelli in concert, so Pam checked on tickets. The concert was all sold out, unfortunately, and probably had been for weeks. It was interesting to see the elaborate stage that had been erected for the conert, though, and I remarked to Ken yesterday that this was probably the closest I'd ever come to seeing Andrea Bocelli in a concert. I was just a few hours too early, that's all. Just knowing that Bocelli and I were in Singapore on the same day was comforting to me.

We managed to get back to our hotel without trauma.

At 6:00 p.m. Kehlye, his wife, and daughter Ching Ling picked us up to drive us to dinner on the northern shore of Singapore. If you look at the map at the top of this post (double-click it to enlarge it), you'll see that Singapore is a tiny island just off the coast of Malaysia. From the restaurant, the Bottle Tree Park Seafood Restaurant, we could easily see the shore of Malaysia.

At the restaurant we were met by Kehlye's other daughter, Ching Ping, her husband, and her three children. What a lovely family Kehlye has, and what a wonderful grandfather he is to his three grandchildren. We enjoyed the generous seafood dinner and chatting with everyone. Ching Ling is, as it turns out, an English teacher, so she and I found plenty to talk about.

It was hard to say goodbye to these folks, but we're hoping we can talk them into coming to Maine to visit us before long. We'd love to show them the Maine coast and mountains. And besides, we need to serve them some carrot cake!

Today is our last day in Singapore. Tonight we fly to Chengdu, China. Again, if you check out the map above, you'll see I've circled Chengdu. It's a four-hour flight from here, which sounds like a piece of cake after the long flight to Singapore.

But first we need to take the Singapore Flyer/boat cruise.