Singapore 3

We came back to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur - "the haze" was apparent - the hot weather had caused fires to burn, making the road smokey at times. For our last day, a trip to Little India, the Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands....

Little India was more colourful and exotic than Chinatown in Singapore - lots of interesting foods, clothing, spices and a wet market....

This was a traders house, which has been restored and also repainted in vivid colours...

The market was interesting .....it was very hot and humid, so a drink was needed....we decided to give durian a try. This fruit is love or hate, as it has a very strong (bad) smell. A milkshake was OK, although it did have a strange aftertaste. The lady that sold it was very curious to know what we thought of it....

A few textiles were in evidence, but not many - mostly clothes of all sorts...

Then it was off to the Harbourfront to meet Sophie, who had taken the afternoon off work - these are the gardens behind the Marina Bay Sands - the large tree-like structures are meant to have vines growing up them - and there is a cafe on top of one of them. The two domes have biomes for plants in them....

This dome had different arid land plants plus a display of roses (which didn't look very happy)...

I liked the other dome better - it had an artificial mountain plus waterfall, which recreated a mist rainforest. Mist jets came on at one point, which was very amusing.....

Here is the lobby of the MSB hotel, it is very grand, but also a bit impersonal...

Then up to the 57th floor and the sky bar...the famous infinity pool was very crowded....you can see that the atmosphere is decidedly hazey...waiters clearly very practiced at taking photos.

Another photo of Sophie, Mike and myself...

A view of the Singapore harbour...

And a building which is supposed to be modelled on a lotus...

Then off for dinner at a Chinese Dim Sum restaurant.....everything made under very careful conditions, with exactly the right amount of filling, the resquisite number of pleats, etc.... By this time it was evening, so back to the flat, where we got our luggage and caught a taxi to the airport. A smooth flight back to London, with the only hold up, a delay of an hour due to fog over London. The car started - then it was back to Suffolk - work - and reality.