Rained Out

Although we had experienced rain over the past 3 weeks, no activities were seriously impacted, until the last day.  It was a nice ride by MRT from the hotel to the Botanical Gardens but once we reached street level it was pouring! We were optimistic, we headed off primarily to explore the National Orchard Gardens. It poured the whole time.  We tried not to be quitters but eventually it was just too much! 

We did see a number of the orchids and they are absolutely beautiful!  I bet they are even nicer on a sunny day!

Prior to the rainy day experience, we had drier visits.  If you’re in Singapore then you must have a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Long Bar.  Shelling peanuts on the floor and drinking a very expensive drink are all part of the experience. No, the $52+ CAD price tag did not include the glass.

You can’t go into the lobby but the bellmen let everyone take a peak

We visited a beautiful building, known as the Gotham Building, with a unique claim to fame - a 3 story bar of gin.  I almost lost a few participants there.  Never checked the price by am guessing it would give the sling serious competition.

Who knew there were that many kinds of gin

Wandering the streets and we were went through the lobby of a beautiful little Boutique Hotel.  Behind the building was an original temple and a great model of what the area had looked like decades ago.

In order to see the best view in the city we took the elevator to the 51st floor of a commercial building.  With a 360 degree view of the city and a roof top herb garden it was a pleasant change of pace.  Singapore has some interesting laws including one that says all new public  buildings must have green space and it must have public availability.

Marina Bay Sands looks small from up here

The Fullerton Hotel is a 6 star hotel - you feel that as soon as you go through the door.  The main purpose for going here was to see the original first Post Office. After writing our post cards we placed them in the old red post box.

A special treat was an ice cream sandwich.  It truly was an ice cream sandwich made on the spot. The fellow cut a chunk from a brick of ice cream and put it between either 2 crackers or 2 slices of bread. 

And most of this travel was completed by metro.  The group got really good at tapping in and out with only a couple of hiccups.  The metro station by our hotel was one of the deepest at 6 levels below ground.

Good bye Singapore!