Friday
4 October
Day 96
0 to go
Wildcats 68 v United 97
My 8am alarm buzzed me awake this morning. I turned it straight off and was happy to go back to sleep, but my mind was telling me I would sleep for too long and miss breakfast, so I stayed kind of awake, until Paul stirred.
We watched morning TV, nothing new and nothing good was reported. After showers, we wandered down for breakfast, before it closed at 10am. We filled our bellies, then returned to the room to collect our things.
We opted to use the MRT today, heading to Havelock Station and catching the line to Gardens by the Bay. It dropped us in the heart of the outdoor gardens. We began our wander in the humidity. We made our way passed the Kingfisher Lake. I was looking for the birds, but only came up with lazy turtles sunning themselves on rocks.
From here we followed the path to the bottom of the large metal trees and then into a rock sculpture area which housed an aquarium full of very large fish. We stood watching some swim about and others just laying dormant.
We popped back out along the water, spying a large monitor lizard in the amongst the plants. We stood back watching his movements for a bit, not wanting to get too close. We then continued along the path to the entrance of the Cloud Forest, a giant dome housing a mountain waterfall and the plants you might find in this environment.
We bought tickets to cloud forest and the flower dome and then entered the dome with the hoards of other, mostly Asian tourists. We admired the plants and the sculptures dotted amongst the flower beds.
The orchid garden was the next exhibit. There were so many beautiful flowers on show. The colours and patterns were just exquisite. I spent a lot of time stopping to admire them.
The orchid garden lead to stairs, that took us to an elevator, to reach the top level of the dome. This allowed us to see the top of the waterfall, from a viewing platform. We then followed the sloping path all the way to the bottom once again.
After completing this dome, we made our way into the Flower dome. It had different areas dedicated to flowers and plants from around the world. There was quite a significant amount of floor space dedicated to Australia and plenty of kangaroos too.
There was a Carnival of Colour exhibit on as well. This was indeed a very colourful display and was being enjoyed by the many visitors.
The flower dome didn’t take us as long to check out and we were released back outdoors for 1.15pm. It had been raining quite heavily, so we had managed to dodge a drenching.
We continued to walk through the manicured grounds, following the various paths that ran beside ponds and gave views back to the dome and the large artificial trees.We finished up in the Meadow, where there was a large (7 tonne) sculpture of a baby that appeared to be floating above the ground.
Needing lunch, we stopped in at a small restaurant and enjoyed a set menu; soup, main and drink. It was just what we both needed, before tackling the afternoon.
We left the restaurant, and headed for Marina Bay Sands. We were hoping to get to the viewing deck and have a drink, as we had done 12 years ago. Unfortunately how they operate has changed and we couldn’t go up, unless we wanted to pay a minimum of $30 each on drinks. We opted to return home instead.
We got in at 3pm. We had a rest in the room. I rang home to find mum chasing the lamb out of the house. I spoke to her and Dad for a short while and then we went out to the pool for a swim. The water was as warm as the air outside, I found it comfortable, Paul didn’t find it refreshing.
Back in the room for 5pm, we packed up our bags, ready for our early vacate in the morning and then we went out for the final time this holiday. We caught the MRT to Bugis, where I picked up some new covers for my watch and then we walked down to Almost Famous, a craft beer bar, so Paul could enjoy a couple of beers.
Time was ticking on and we needed to get back to the room. We found a Japanese restaurant to have our dinner and then it was back to the MRT and a walk in the rain, thank goodness we had the brolly, to get back to our hotel.
Once in for the night, we tuned in to the Wildcats V Melbourne game. We watched in between finishing up the pack. It was a diabolical mess and I am so glad we weren’t there to see it in person. They have a fair bit to sort out.
We were in bed for 10pm, keen to get some sleep, before needing to be up for 4am tomorrow.
