Singapore

Thursday 11 October

Smooth processing at Hanoi airport and head off to Singapore.  Today is spent in transit and with the loss of an hour in time change we don’t arrive until 5pm Singapore time.  Changi is an enormous airport with 4 terminals and a 5th planned (which reportedly will be as big as the other 4!) and we collect our luggage from Belt 41 (48 luggage belts in this terminal alone).  The system is very efficient however and our bags are at the belt before we are and we pretty much moved smoothly from plane to luggage collection without any delays.  The transfer to the hotel however takes much longer than expected (via a shuttle) and it is nearly 8 pm by the time we arrive!!!  Traffic is very heavy in the city centre and we spent approximately 10 minutes at one set of lights.  Everything seems much further apart than I remember (at least it seems to take a lot longer to reach places by taxi) but just as clean and orderly as 10 years ago.  

We want to get down to the Gardens by the Bay to see the light show at 8.45pm so jump in a taxi and are there with 15 minutes to spare!  The gardens are just amazing and plan to return the next day to see the Flower Dome and Cloud Dome as these have now closed.  These “Super Trees” not only have vertical planting but they also collect rainwater.