The first of many flights in the coming five weeks: London to Singapore on Qantas Airlines. Take off was delayed by an hour while we waited for the aeroplane to be de-iced but once on our way we enjoyed the in flight meal and on-board entertainment - I watched Transformers 2 which was at least an hour too long! Just before we landed in Singapore, the flight crew gave us a bottle of champagne as we had dropped the hint to them that this was our honeymoon.
We landed in Singapore and stepped out into the warm and humid city at around 8pm. A little disorientated due to the time difference we got a cab to the Hotel Royal and the driver asked us the usual questions about where we were from and what we were intending to do in Singapore. After explaining we were just on a stop-over and only had time for a short shopping trip to the electronics malls the following day, the driver gave us his mobile number and tried to sell us extra lenses and other parts to complement my newly bought camera.
Our room at the hotel (501) was very nice, it was actually two rooms - a lounge/dining area and bedroom as well as an en-suite. The decor was perhaps a little dated but we were only here for one night and a bed is all we really wanted. We tried to find a bar in the hotel but only managed to find the rooftop nightclub which sold very expensive beer and was comprised of around a dozen karaoke booths and lots of teenage girls wearing very little giggling and running from booth to booth. So we returned to our room and ordered some room service. I had a club sandwich and a Tiger beer. The beer was fine but I've definitely had better sandwiches.
We were due to leave Singapore in the evening which gave us some time to have a wander around the city during the day. After some brunch at a café in one of the shopping malls, we jumped in a cab to Sim Lim Square, an electronics only shopping mall. I had bought myself a new camera to take on this trip and wanted the telephoto lens and a spare battery to go with it. Having seen the prices in the UK we knew that if we waited until Singapore to buy them then there was quite a bit of money to be saved. We weren't dissappointed. I bought the telephoto lens, spare battery, UV filters for both lenses and a quality rucksack to hold it all in for just over SG$1000 (£470). Buying this little lot in the UK would easily have cost double!
We could have spent a lot of money in Sim Lim Square so we dragged ourselves away to an area of Singapore called Little India where we enjoyed a beer or two at a bar at the side of the street before making our way back to the hotel. We still had a few hours to spare but decided it was much more comfortable to spend the time in the air conditioned hotel rather than outside in the very humid air. We got a cab to the airport in good time and sat in the rooftop cactus garden while we waited to board flight number two which would take us overnight to Sydney. This flight was operated by British Airways and wasn't unpleasant even though it did take off 45 minutes late.
