Singapore

A couple of days in Singapore on my way back from Zimbabwe in July.  I love breaking my journey there in that amazing city, with its juxtaposition of old and new architecture and its lovely, friendly people.  I must have walked 10 kms in a day - in the morning I went to Raffles Hotel and the Singapore cricket Club - wonderful old colonial buildings.  I didn't have a Singapore Sling this time - they are $18 and I thought 10 am was a little early anyway!

In the afternoon I spent a couple of hours in the Artscience Museum at a wonderful exhibition of Annie Liebowitz's photography; then went right up to the observation deck at the Marina Sands Hotel (unfortunately only the 'cheap' section, you have to stay at the hotel to go to the pool deck!).  Then I spent anther couple of hours wandering around the Gardens by the Bay and visiting Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome.  The Flower Dome is quite an experience, and a very popular spot for wedding photographers judging by the number I saw there on a weekday.  I was fascinated how everyone wandered around with their iPhones and point and shoot cameras out taking very close up photos of all the flowers!  Gardens by the Bay is relatively new but they must have spent and absolute fortune on establishing it - in the Flower Dome there are some thousand year old olive trees (which I found a little sad in a way - they should be in a beautiful place in Italy or Spain or Greece and not under a big glass dome in humid tropical Singapore!),

Otherwise the Gardens are fantastic - I had a glass of wine on top of the biggest Supertree while the sun went down, and on the walk back to my hotel I watched a big laser display on the lagoon.