Highlights of Vietnam and Cambodia
Day Seventeen – 31 January 2015
Weather – partly cloudy, 26 or so
For the first time, my alarm clock woke me this morning. Yup. Caught up on the jetlag now.
I munch on my snacks, have a tea and am down for my city tour. A van picks me up and takes me to a parking lot where there are several buses waiting. A woman looks at the documents I have, puts a sticker on my shirt and points me to the bus doing the city tour. I head for the back row.
The city tour is fairly basic but is more than enough to orient us. Our first stop is to the Merlion on the water – another Amazing Race moment.
Singapore means Lion City, so this guy is their symbol. The wharf gives a great view of the Marina Bay and the Singapore Flyer (ferris wheel).
We have 20 minutes to snap pics and get back to the bus. Our next stop is a Buddhist temple which is quite small compared to what we had seen in Vietnam. The temple used to be on the waterfront and is now quite some distance from the shore as Singapore builds up the land.
We’re given 25 minutes at the temple but only need 5 minutes and then move on to the obligatory factory stop. This one is a gem factory that produces artwork from the gems. The work is impressive and expensive.
Tens of thousands for the larger pieces. Several hundred for photo sized ones.
Our next stop is the botanical gardens and the guide said this is where he usually loses people, so he takes us to the Orchid gardens which is somewhat contained. We get 40 minutes to look around.
From here, we go to Little India where a lot of people are able to walk back to their hotels but the bus drops off the rest, including those of us that want to go to the Flyer. I asked how much a taxi would cost to come back and he said to take the train instead. I usually hate taking subways in foreign cities but since English is used on all the signage, I figure it can’t be too hard.
It’s $33 for the Flyer and it takes a half hour to do a spin. Just like the London Eye and a decent view of Marina Bay from the side and a great view of the waterfront. And a great view of the way across the harbor to where the subway is under the Marina Bay.
I get off and take that route to the high end shopping mall at the base of the Marina Bay and find the subway. It’s not too hard to figure it out, especially when you have people in a hurry behind you helping you buy your ticket.
I ask about which one to take and an employee tells me a better way to go than the guide had said. More direct and a shorter walk to the hotel. It was pretty straight forward and only cost $1.80. I’m guessing a taxi would have ran me $40 given the Saturday afternoon traffic.
I get out of the subway and on to the street and see that I’m on Orchard…but don’t know if I should turn left or right. A parking attendant tells me to go left. Good call. This whole area is malls – above ground and below ground. To cross the street at some spots, I have to go down. I decide to go right to scope the area and what do I see but a Krispy Kreme.
Finally, after searching the planet, I finally come across a Krispy Kreme in Singapore.
And it was delicious.
I get back up on the street and eventually find my hotel. I walked the malls along the way but most were high end stuff. I asked the front desk if there were any souvenir shops and she gives me a map and circles on of the malls.
Remember when the parking attendant had me turn left? If I had turn right, I would have taken about ten steps and seen them.
So, I walked all the way back, picked up my fridge magnet and my ‘cat’ figurine for Singapore (which happens to be a lion) and headed back to the hotel by 6. I repacked my luggage, uploaded the rest of my photos and was zonked by 11. Tomorrow is going to be a very very long day.
Go to Day Sixteen
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