When we woke up this morning, it was warm, humid, cloudy and raining. By about 9am, there was occasional sunshine.
For breakfast, we went up to the Club Lounge on level 17. There was a choice of fruit, bread, croissants and some hot food plus coffee. I thought it was OK but Suzy thought is wasn't so great.
Suzy planned to go shopping this morning (without me) along Orchard Road and she set off at about 10am. By the time she returned at about 11:20am, there was more blue sky and people were swimming in the hotel pool below.
She said one side of Orchard Road has designer stores while on the other side there were large crowded shopping centres. Often there were expensive designer shops of the same brand in several different shopping centres. For example, there were multiple Gucci shops.
For lunch, we went to the Brewerkx Restaurant at street level near the lobby. Although they specialise in a wide range of beers, I decided to just have apple juice. I had a delicious fish and chips whereas Suzy had chicken satay sticks which turned out to be too spicy for her taste. Both were generous servings.
After lunch, we went back up to the Club Lounge for coffee where we asked one of the staff her advice on what we should do this afternoon and tomorrow. Her suggestions was to do the hop on hop off bus to see the sights of Singapore. In particular she suggested the night tour. She said it was very popular.
Suzy researched it and downloaded the hop on hop off app and booked a 48 hour pass for us both including the night tour. Initially it said the night tour was fully booked but she rang them later and convinced them to include us.
During the day, there are two routes: the yellow route and the red route. The yellow route has a stop close to our hotel.
We set out from the hotel at about 2:30pm. Unfortunately we missed the bus by less than a minute. We waited at the pedestrian crossing for the lights to change as the bus headed off on the other side of the road. The buses come regularly and so we only had to wait about 20 minutes for the next one.
The only stop where we got off was Raffles Hotel. We walked around the corridors, courtyards and shops rather than going inside the hotel.
The bus took us to the Suntec Centre which is a large shopping centre and acts as the terminal for both the yellow and red routes of the hop on hop off buses.
After the bus left Suntec, we managed to get the front seats on the top deck which gave us a better view and was ideal for me taking photos along the way. Suzy listened to the bus commentary using ear pieces they provided to each of us. They weren't suitable for me because of my hearing aids.
Singapore is a well planned city. It has been ever since the English arrived in colonial times and laid out the streets etc. Some roads are only three lanes in each direction but most are at least four lanes in each direction.
The government uses tolls on the city streets. You regularly see gantry structures above the road labelled ERP. These are the toll points.
We were back at the hotel at about 5pm which didn't give us much time to be back at the Suntec Centre to join the evening tour which started at 6:15pm. So we organised to get a taxi there rather than the yellow route bus.
When we arrived at Suntec, there was already a long queue waiting for the night tour. It turned out that there were three buses for the tour and we would be on the third. Several staff members were organising the customers and making sure random people weren't able to get on board without a booking.
Rather than a recorded commentary, each bus on the night tour had a guide. They only allowed people on the top deck rather than inside downstairs. Our guide was called Roger.
The first stop was at the Marina Barrage which is a long curved ramp up to a grassed park area with a fabulous view of the city and the Marina Bay area. It was a great place to take photos and admire the view.
We had a good view of the Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel and the Marina Sands Hotel. The hotel is one of the most iconic places in Singapore nowadays. It consists of three buildings side by side with a long "boat" across the top of all three buildings and beyond. Our guide told us that the hotel has more than 2600 rooms and costs about $1000 per night.
The Marina Barrage is clearly a popular destination for tourists and local residents. Many family groups were enjoying an evening picnic on the grass while plenty of people were flying kites. The sun was setting behind the clouds near the Marina Sands Hotel.
It was all a rush because we had a deadline to get back on the bus to get the next destination which was the Lau Pa Sat which is famous for its satays. It was much bigger than I expected. It had dozens of stalls both inside and outside the building with each selling their own variety of satay.
The stalls outside were the most interesting because they were barbecuing the meat out in the open. The tables inside and outside were crowded with people enjoying the experience and the bright lights gave it a festive atmosphere.
Roger told us that we would sample satays as part of the guided tour and then we could order dinner. However, there was no time for dinner because he was rushing us to get back on the bus.
The next destination was the Marina Bay Gardens. The traffic was very heavy and slow. Police were trying to keep control of the vehicles and the incredible throng of pedestrians. It seemed as though the entire population of Singapore was there tonight.
Our driver somehow managed to manoeuvre the vehicle to the drop off point for coaches. Roger pointed out the massive queue waiting for taxis. He warned us that this is the worst place to try to get a taxi in Singapore. Thank heavens we were on a guided tour rather than trying to fend for ourselves.
Roger had an interesting way to guide us. Instead of a flag or a coloured umbrella than some guides use, he put his water bottle on top of the flashlight on his phone to make it look like a lantern. Simple but clever.
He headed off into the throng with us trying to jostle our way to keep up with him.
First he led us through a display consisting of a tunnel of brightly lit artificial trees. It was crowded but at least most people were walking in the same direction as us. Until a small train load of tourists came the other way. This was getting farcical.
The objective was to get to see the Gardens Rhapsody Show which is would be held at the base of the Garden's "trees". The show was due to start at 8:45pm and he got us there with a few minutes to spare. We sat on the rocky steps waiting for the light show.
It was worth the effort. It was a vey colourful display accompanied by music and lasted about 15 minutes.
Roger then guided us back to the bus pickup point but there was no bus. It must have been fighting its way through the traffic.
The driver would be dropping guests off at various points along the way but wasn't going to our hotel. We decided to get off at the Marriott Hotel and walk from there to our hotel.
After we got off, we tried to cross the busy road using the underground past the metro station. When we resurfaced, we didn't know where we were. However we weren't completely lost because we could use the navigation app on iPhones to show us the way.
I was still hungry because we hadn't had dinner (just satay samples). So we stopped at a stall on the footpath on Orchard Road near our hotel and bought a chicken shish kebab. Just what we needed. By this time it was after 10pm and the various restaurants were closed.
We were back at out hotel by 10:30pm and in bed by 11pm after a busy day and a very memorable night tour of Singapore.
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