The flight to Singapore was fine. My ankle could not have taken any more time in the air by the time we landed as the swelling got bigger and bigger! Luckily the flight got in nice and early and we were greeted by a funny guy with a wheelchair for me and were whizzed through passport control nice and quickly! We were really lucky as Auntie Kate and Les have a friend called Abby who lives in Singapore with her dad Jesus. We had been in contact and they were happy to have us stay for a few nights whilst we explored Singapore. Which was amazing especially as we arrived at 9:30pm and most of the places to stay are very pricy compared to the rest of S.E.Asia. Another added bonus was that Les had just accepted a job in Singapore and was there too! Les had been in Manila for the weekend and spookily enough our flights came in only 30mins apart. Abby and Jesus came to meet us all. It was great to see Les and meet Abby and her dad. After a little catchup and a Skype with Kate, Les got in a taxi to the hotel and we got a taxi to Abby's.
Their apartment is lovely and they made us feel very at home. We had a lovely couple of days just relaxing at the apartment and me putting my leg up! There was a swimming pool and a gym at the complex which was great. The first night Abby cooked is a lovely dinner and Les came over. The next night Jesus took us on the shuttle bus to the station to meet Abby after work and we ate out at a really delicious Chinese place. We especially loved the custard filled steamed dough balls for desert!
The pain in my angle was easing a bit and the swelling reducing so we decided to venture into Singapore and see the sights. We were lucky enough to borrow Jesus's wheelchair as the idea of crutching round a city all day was not tempting! Abby suggested to us that the best way to see the sights was to get a 24hour hop on hop off ticket for the tour busses and boat. It was perfect, we didn't do too much hopping off to save the hassle of the wheelchair etc. But I did hop up the stairs and it was fascinating to see the magnificent city. There are all the older quirkier areas like Little India and Chinatown and then the newer flashier sky scrapers of all shapes, colours and sizes! We did go a bit snap happy as it was all so dramatic. Abby calls Singapore 'a city on steroids'! She is absolutely right, we saw just as many building sights and cranes as we did buildings and it would be really interesting to keep going back to see how much it changes. That night Abby and Les came to meet us after a boat tour and we had dinner.
The next day we got up early to make the most of the 24hour hop on hop off ticket. It was fab as the weather had gone from cloudy and monsoon rains to bright bluebird skies which gave the city another feel completely. We did start to notice however how un prepared the city is for wheelchair access it became quite amusing/frustrated as some areas are amazing and others none existent and that could be in one train station! It didn't dampen our moods though and we were lucky that I could easily hop out and around if needed. We went for lunch at a place that my cousin Chris suggested which was fab! It is called Lau Pa Sat Festival. It is a really old beautiful building surrounded by modern skyscrapers. It was originally a fish market but now it is a gynormous food hall with every type of food that you can Imagine. We had a yummy Japanese Korean lunch of fish and steamed dumplings, followed by se Chinese custard dough balls (we couldn't resist!). We then walked round the harbour to the marina bay sands hotel which is one of the wackiest buildings we have ever seen! It is three huge skyscrapers with a boat stretching over the top of them! Outside the hotel was the art and science museum which is an amazing white building which looks like a cross between the Death Star from Star Wars or the Sydney opera house squashed! We had found out that the Lego 'Brick' exhibition was on so we went in for a gander. It was awesome! The faces and bodies and shapes that this guy had made were really cool and the way they were presented were excellent. We also went to see a photography exhibition by 3 magnum photographers who had taken landscape photographs of their environments it was really cool and pretty inspiring!
We went to meet Les at her hotel after and then ah took us to an Indian restraint that she had heard about. It was really cool, called banana leaf. You order your food and they serve it all to you on a banana leaf. The locals eat the food with their fingers but there was also cutlery so we went for the safe option. It was delicious! We then headed to a pub to have a pint and watch a band which was really nice but it had been a long day and only managed one! We got in a taxi and said our goodbyes to Les and went back to Abby's for a good night sleep!