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After a day of well deserved rest, we got up for brekkie at the hotel - it's not the best choice mostly Asian style which consists of what we would class as dinner rather than breakfast, they do however have an egg station but Jacqs been having issues with how they overlook her at the counter in favour of Asian guests.
Dubious she heads to order scrambled egg telling the girl cooking she'll be back in five as it's quite busy at the time. Jacq waits another 10 mins when she comes over, still no eggs, an Asian guest rocks up ordering the same and when it's cooked immediately for her Jacq intervenes something along the lines of "who's that for?" The egg girl points at her Asian guest (not good) "are you serious!!! I've been waiting 15 minutes and she rocks up and you serve her my food immediately?! That better be for me although I find it hard to believe you forgot me considering I'm stood in front of you this past 10 minutes" as you can imagine Jacq gets her eggs, but is fuming- we have really noticed a blatant racist undertone in Asia in our travels, on several occasions it has been made clear to us that we aren't as important as a local - being served last in a shop, pushed around in the metro, stared at as we walk the streets being sniggered at even pointed at - it's unreal.
So, we set off for Singapore to tour around. We head for Marina Bay Sands - an impressive structure whose roof is shaped like a ship - we head for a drink at the top near the infinity pool. Two doubles (they only pour 45 ml measures) Cost £22 and the views are spectacular, well worth seeing.
We head on from there to Raffles Matt's intrigued to see the bar with discarded monkey nut shells on the floor that people apparently just throw around. It's not far just a short walk from city hall station and we head to the courtyard which is very pretty and then onto the long bar. It's as he thought, shells all over the place, but not really as Jacq thought, She expected more glitz and glamour for its reputation we look at the menu and it's around £20 a cocktail, we walk out sheepishly - can't justify that money especially after Marina bay sands but we are glad we saw Raffles and Matt might have some monkey nuts stowed in his pocket.
Moving on we head for the famous "gardens by the bay" it's a stunning sight made up of super trees, large conservatories one of which is a mock up rain forest with a tree top walkway called cloud forest, and, beautiful decorated wooded carvings from Malaysia and Indonesia.
We get pics by the falls and an education from a short movie about the damage we are causing to the world and a possible future for 2100 - scary stuff, gardens by the bay fuel their electricity, climate control and plants with recycled air, water and dirt - it's fascinating. We pay $5 each to do the obc skywalk, a 50m high walkway across the supertrees with amazing views of Singapore.
Lots of walking so far but it's been fab - we decide to head to Lavender market for a spot of shopping gutted to discover it's closed in the evenings so we take the metro one stop further to Bugis - finding the night market. It's huge, packed, full of tack .... Matts in heaven!! Jacq hates it - but perseveres, we wander around for 30 mins and Matt picks up a belt for $5 before we have to make tracks to Clarke quay in order to catch the river cruise.
We make it just in time ... Thank god.... The boat is the most luxurious on the river and is the only one with a bar- convenient?
We get a drink free with our ticket so order the signature Singapore sling - it's amazing, a beautiful blend of fruit, fizz and gin. We discover they are $25 each normally - shocking! The cruise is great and takes us past the buildings we explored during the day and more. Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore Eye look beautiful all lit up - the boat stops to allow us time to watch the marina bay light show which is quite good but once you've seen Petronas fountains it's hard to compete - Marina Bay has fountains, music and strobe lighting - it's great to watch it from the river.
We head back and disembark off to find Wi-Fi for a quick call with Jacqs family, Matt runs for a quick subway fix at what he descibes as the best Subway he has ever had, yes it is his second today, before we catch the train and head back to the hotel shattered - great day though!
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