Bon voyage Bangkok …. Hello Singapore! Having previously lived in Singapore and with a lot of family and school friends still living there, we decided to have a final relaxing few days before heading home.
Tiger Airways was a pretty smooth airline, although just like Ryan air, they seem to over-estimate the flight times in order to make it seem like they arrive on time more often. We took the familiar taxi ride to our friends house; the jerky accelerator and scant regard for basic road rules welcomed us back to driving in Singapore.
That night we caught up with some friends of my parents who are teachers at my old school. It was great to see familiar faces after 10 years, and to catch up on the happenings at my old school. We ate in Holland village, a shopping and dining area that hasn’t changed much since I lived here. Familiar faces walked past frequently – old economics and geography teachers.
The following day we headed out to Orchard Road for an afternoon of shopping and savouring the food I had dreamed about during our travels. Orchard Road, the main touristic shopping has changed a little. Now you can spend hours underground in shopping arcades, with underpasses connecting everything, such that we managed to avoid sunlight for 3 hours. Singaporean public transport was and continues to be a great system – the same bus numbers running the same routes. Our family friends had pre-purchased some transport passes, making it very easy to get around. That night we headed to a famous local food court, La Pa Sat, only to find it under renovation. This meant a long walk back to town and to the Marina Sands complex, a huge shopping arcade, hotel and casino on the river front. It’s an impressive structure which was under construction the last time we visited.

The following day we headed to the Singapore zoo; a popular tourist attraction which was celebrating its 40th birthday when we visited. Living in singapore for ten years with a steady stream of visitors from New Zealand meant that I had been many many times, however it was great to see new exhibitions and updated enclosures. Getting public transport was a seamless affair; bus – train – lunch – bus – walk.
The orangutans enclosure was amazing – their climbing structures spanning a huge area over the main walkway of the zoo. They have been trained to effectively free range throughout the zoo. It was cool to see them high in the trees as you were viewing other animals. The style of zoo makes it a more personal place with animals segregated for the visitors by island enclosures rather than cages.

That night we caught up with some more family friends, this time from New Zealand, who are still living in Singapore. It was a great chance to reminisce about the old days and realise how small NZ is – 2 degrees of separation at the most.

The next day, we headed to an awesome cafe to meet a high school friend who I hadn’t seen for nearly 8 years. It was great to catch up like old times – good friends don’t change. We headed back to Orchard Road to pick up a few things we had scouted out previously. I left Emily in Orchard Road and headed for a very random industrial block in the middle of no where in order to purchase a new stethoscope. After 2 interchanges on the train and a few blocks of running in the hot sun, I found this wholesale shop in a huge warehouse complex. I had originally got the address wrong so had to ask around a few times before I found the right roller door. A small Chinese lady picked out a stethoscope from a huge wholesale supply section amongst boxes of sutures and syringes and I parted with my cash. In the end, I managed to get it 100 dollars cheaper than in NZ = win !

We enjoyed our last Singaporean meal out – Roti parata and Murtabak washed down with a Malaysia ice Kopi (coffee), before heading home for a few gin and tonics and a good nights sleep before the flight home the next day!